Gobbledygook.

Sry, english isnt my native language, no idea what this means.

My sage was 4th last season (was 3rd until the last 2 hours of the season). My sorc and sage are both in top 3 position now, we'll see if that lasts.

Hmm, nice, I am impressed! Bad luck though, dont be surprised when something similar happens this season

I'll repeat again, at least on SF, basically the whole "ranked mafia" got permabanned already. So who do you think is doing **** on SF now?

Well, you know that one good quote from the movie "the best thing the devil ever did was make people believe he doesnt exist"

Hmm, nice, I am impressed! Bad luck though, dont be surprised when something similar happens this season

The person that passed me did it legit as far as I'm aware. But they were on DM which was popping, I had no opportunity (or time anyway) to respond because it wasn't popping on SF. Just one of those unfortunate things, I don't blame anyone for it.

Well, you know that one good quote from the movie "the best thing the devil ever did was make people believe he doesnt exist"

So what, there was an even more secret mafia pulling the strings all along? Or they're all back on alt accounts wintrading again out of spite? I honestly don't know what the implication here is.

The person that passed me did it legit as far as I'm aware. But they were on DM which was popping, I had no opportunity (or time anyway) to respond because it wasn't popping on SF. Just one of those unfortunate things, I don't blame anyone for it.

 

So what, there was an even more secret mafia pulling the strings all along? Or they're all back on alt accounts wintrading again out of spite? I honestly don't know what the implication here is.

The mafia is not really secret, but yes, the fact that they are all on DM makes it kinda easy to pass people in the end. They play their specific toons to get in a top spot and then they play other toons for fun or to help their friends to climb. In the end they just do a final touch to make sure they are first and vuola! Top3s.....

This is not even wintrading, I mean it is, but its so well pulled off its not even noticeable. Thats why people claim its legit. But keep in mind, I am not saying these people suck at the game and still get top spots. No, they are very good at the game, but they also want to get the highest spots because they think they deserve them.

 

Well, you know that one good quote from the movie "the best thing the devil ever did was make people believe he doesnt exist"

You mean like hacks for the first 5 years of this game? The amount of people who used to come here and say it was impossible to hack in this game and then deride people who called them on it was amazing. And some are still here and are very fast to attack someone who brings it up. Just watch, the replies to this post. Guaranteed to generate the same derision from the same people

it wasn't popping on SF

Your fellow mate Kana'ba doesnt seem to have pop issues and he playes on SF.

Your fellow mate Kana'ba doesnt seem to have pop issues and he playes on SF.

I've seen that player play for a long time now and there's been persistent rumors of win-trading, even on Ebon Hawk. I will give them credit for being one of the first players to exploit skank tanking juggs as the best Jugg and tank to Q solos as.

Your fellow mate Kana'ba doesnt seem to have pop issues and he playes on SF.

I said it wasn't popping in the last hours of the season. It never popped in the morning on SF except when Sylar was wintrading.

I've seen that player play for a long time now and there's been persistent rumors of win-trading, even on Ebon Hawk. I will give them credit for being one of the first players to exploit skank tanking juggs as the best Jugg and tank to Q solos as.

I played quite a few matches with him, back when I played on SF. I would say he is 100% legit (one of the very few, right next to Szopen).

Just watching some videos won't make you ready, there's a lot to learn about the game. (SNIP)

Things they could do instead raise the requirements to queue for Solo Ranked.

What I still don't understand about this whole thing of "ranked is for good players only" is that it's RANKED, you're meant to play with people around your skill level most of the time so that new players would also be pitted against each other... So supposedly matchmaking algorithm (or the lack thereof) is to blame, then?

I mean, most regs at max level are 8v8, and even arenas have that clear divide of "actually pvp people" vs "random noobs" in both groups, and more often than not it comes to how many are there on which side (which I imagine to be the ranked issue as well with 7 PvP-experienced people and 1 new person). Probably a PvP guild at this point with some mentors would help learning, because nothing else in the game really does until you eat your share of kicks and whatnot. You don't really learn how to counterplay experienced people by mostly seeing tanks not swapping guard or even not using it (if there's a tank at all, in the first place), healers not kiting and just trying to outheal everything... You name it. Personally, it's fun to try different strategies and seeing if they're viable, but with the amount of feedback I have in regs it's not of much help. General lack of PvP guides on how teamwork works (things like who I should be CCing and how, how helpful is trying to split tank and healer, how you should analyze group comps and your goals when it comes to LoS/kiting, bursting down ASAP vs preparing for a prolonged stand, things like that) isn't helping, either - I just don't really see a way to know if I had the right idea without lots of relevant practice, and for new players that is hard to come by.

Just my two cents.

What I still don't understand about this whole thing of "ranked is for good players only" is that it's RANKED, you're meant to play with people around your skill level most of the time so that new players would also be pitted against each other... So supposedly matchmaking algorithm (or the lack thereof) is to blame, then?

It's not about ranked being for "good players only." It's about ranked being for people with bare minimum competence and gear. That means 306, full set bonus and tactical, and at least some care for your stats (like not having accuracy for sorc). It also means understanding how to use your dcds and a basic damage rotation.

To some people that sounds like a lot. But it's not. Solo ranked is the endgame pvp in this game. You should ocme at least a bit prepared. You shouldn't be getting globaled every round. The things I mentioned above will not make you a good player. The only way to get good is to play a lot of ranked and practice. But they are the starting point.

The most troubling thing of all is this: why would anyone want to queue ranked with no gear and no clue what they're doing? What do they hope to get out of it? It's a competitive activity, not a place to go in and **** around.

No one that's reasonable objects to new players that come into ranked prepared and are clearly doing their best to win and improve. People object to those that show through their gear and play that they aren't respecting the game mode or their fellow players.

But none of what I've said excuses the vote kicking issues that happened a lot on SF last season and are now happening a lot on DM.

Most of these people that get kicked are literally either trolls or throwers or bots or people who queue without gear ( i mean totally wrong gear like 270greens and no tactical or snipers with defense gear (got screenshot for this one , this one is gold btw lmao) . I get that new players want to get into ranked but plz learn the game in regs first instead of queuing ranked on ur first day and then getting globalled every game being an autoloss to ur team (wich ends up in votekicks).

So... tell me this, 3 round game, 1st round win, second round lose, 3rd round at the end gets vote kicked after I died, and then the player still alive then stealthed and hid until I was removed...

I don't play ranked enough, but it is 100% because of this. I will have a couple of really fun matches, more losses then wins but that makes sense as I mainly heal operations/regs and ranked plays VERY different. I know I am not the best player, but that should be okay for ranked... but the que is SO dead that a ranking system doesn't even apply to the matchmaking anymore, it is now just trying to balance the 8 players that happen to be qued at the time.

but the que is SO dead that a ranking system doesn't even apply to the matchmaking anymore, it is now just trying to balance the 8 players that happen to be qued at the time.

That’s the underlying problem right there. Not enough players in the queue, so you get 1600 ELO players trying to carry 800 ELO players. And they rightly get pissed off when the people on their team let them down. But it’s not the low ELO team members fault that’s the real issue, it’s the lack of players for the system to match equally skilled players together.

If there were enough people, the ELO match making could work and even things out. Then the 800 ELO guys should all be put together and the 1600’s together.

Sadly, the lower guys get blamed cause the higher guys are frustrated and take it out on them. Which makes less people want to play and new players leave and never learn to get better. It’s a self perpetuating model for the destruction of ranked.

At this point, I don’t know if there is anything Bioware or even the players can do anymore to fix the constantly depleting population.

That’s the underlying problem right there. Not enough players in the queue, so you get 1600 ELO players trying to carry 800 ELO players. And they rightly get pissed off when the people on their team let them down. But it’s not the low ELO team members fault that’s the real issue, it’s the lack of players for the system to match equally skilled players together.

If there were enough people, the ELO match making could work and even things out. Then the 800 ELO guys should all be put together and the 1600’s together.

Sadly, the lower guys get blamed cause the higher guys are frustrated and take it out on them. Which makes less people want to play and new players leave and never learn to get better. It’s a self perpetuating model for the destruction of ranked.

At this point, I don’t know if there is anything Bioware or even the players can do anymore to fix the constantly depleting population.

There is some truth to this, but it's overstated. Even when everyone is roughly the same skill level in a match, angry people still get angry and blame others. And when there are differences in skill level, people should just suck it up and move on. It's a fact of life in ranked, and has been for years. Bioware just needs to remove vote kick so that when babies throw tantrums, they can't actually do any harm.

And the population is not "depleting." The ranked queues on SF are healthier this season than last season.

There is some truth to this, but it's overstated. Even when everyone is roughly the same skill level in a match, angry people still get angry and blame others. And when there are differences in skill level, people should just suck it up and move on. It's a fact of life in ranked, and has been for years. Bioware just needs to remove vote kick so that when babies throw tantrums, they can't actually do any harm.

 

And the population is not "depleting." The ranked queues on SF are healthier this season than last season.

I meant the whole game’s population. The game is getting old so less people play

I meant the whole game’s population. The game is getting old so less people play

Not really, steam launch brought a whole bunch of new people.

its really just that the ranked experience is so unpleasant for anyone still getting the hang of it that they either do the minimum amount for whatever outside goals they need (lt pierce, conquest whatever) and then don't bother again. Its a function of how enjoyable ranked is to the community, not one of population, flashpoint queues pop just fine.

The ranked queues on SF are healthier this season than last season.

I just found this funny...

In a comparison it TOTALLY is correct in saying that the ques are better... but a ranked system needs probably 20x this player count to actually work.

I just found this funny...

In a comparison it TOTALLY is correct in saying that the ques are better... but a ranked system needs probably 20x this player count to actually work.

Okay, but then even season 1 didn't have a large enough population to "actually work."

Solo ranked is fun to play most of the time for many of us. The better players almost always end up with higher elo than the worse players. It certainly "works" even though it's obviously far from perfect.

Complaining about something out of Bioware or anyone else's control doesn't really get you anywhere anyway. Better to complain about things that Bioware can actually change to improve it, such as removing vote kick, adding a minimum gear requirement, removing/reworking force bound, nerfing powerlode, removing cross role backfills, improving matchmaking to prevent class stacking, removing/reworking offguard, etc.

Not really, steam launch brought a whole bunch of new people..

Ok, keep telling yourself that,

Ok, keep telling yourself that,

To be fair, it did bring in a lot of players... though based on what I have seen in game the steam launch brought in returning players. Usually 3.X returning.

To be fair, it did bring in a lot of players... though based on what I have seen in game the steam launch brought in returning players. Usually 3.X returning.

The more players, the better. I love this game, even with its flaws.

Do you guys think there will be a chance the devs will remove vote kick? Because honestly, I’ve been doing a lot of pvp in regs but I’m so damn afraid to queue ranked for that very simple reason. I don’t want to fight and end up being vote kicked by people and not getting any reward just because it was decided «*oh we don’t like you, we kick you out*» that’s what I was told this vote kick is abused for.

Honestly, I would like to see it abolished as well, but there is not enough of a call for it. There are a couple of things to consider:

1. I am pretty awful, and I have not been voted out...yet, though I have witnessed it occasionally on streams I watch.
   
2. Such things are pretty rare, despite what the rumors have you believe. You're far more likely to be verbally abused than removed from the team -- at least from what I have seen.
   
3. Ranked PvPers are far more patient with newer players as long as they recognize that you're trying.
   
4. Don't go in without full 306 gear and a good tactical.

Someone told me once that the only way to get good at ranked is to do ranked. Another person told me that, you're going to be voted off the team eventually...it's just part of the nature of ranked (I don't like that either), you're going to be globaled, and you're probably going to have a very rough time of it your first season, maybe even your first couple of seasons. If you can handle that, you're going to do fine.

To be fair, it did bring in a lot of players... though based on what I have seen in game the steam launch brought in returning players. Usually 3.X returning.

Who have all started to leave again

Honestly, I would like to see it abolished as well, but there is not enough of a call for it. There are a couple of things to consider:

 

 

1. I am pretty awful, and I have not been voted out...yet, though I have witnessed it occasionally on streams I watch.
   
2. Such things are pretty rare, despite what the rumors have you believe. You're far more likely to be verbally abused than removed from the team -- at least from what I have seen.
   
3. Ranked PvPers are far more patient with newer players as long as they recognize that you're trying.
   
4. Don't go in without full 306 gear and a good tactical.

 

Someone told me once that the only way to get good at ranked is to do ranked. Another person told me that, you're going to be voted off the team eventually...it's just part of the nature of ranked (I don't like that either), you're going to be globaled, and you're probably going to have a very rough time of it your first season, maybe even your first couple of seasons. If you can handle that, you're going to do fine.

I agree with your assessment. This season I have only experienced a kick on one occasion. For the most part, ranked players are pretty good peps, as well as players. They are just interested in winning, like everyone else who takes pvp seriously.

As far as the vote kick, I really think it needs to stay. I realize it could be used in a negative, harassing way but I would take that any day over having to deal with all the cheats again. I am not sure how many remember players hiding off maps or camping in start zones, during matches, to get a win. Yes, ranked has some issues but it nothing like it used to be.