preventing arena leaders from camping the leaderboard

[Waspq]

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[Meeplelowda]

Hello! Has there been any discussion about a system that would prevent arena leaders from camping the leaderboard?

Yes

[ufm]

Actually there were plenty of discussions, but they met a huge opposition and many counterarguments.

[Waspq]

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[ufm]

They actually tried introducing Elo decay. Almost all users involved in the discussion rejected the idea.

[BananaHarambe]

Arena is great for an unorganized competition system, doesn’t truly feel like difficult competition due to the lack of matchmaking. You simply get paired with who’s available due to player base limitations for nearby every game on BGA. There’s no way to guarantee playing against the top players unless you queue at a similar time as them. There are some options for premium players to restrict rating and reputation, but that’s it.

There’s also the “issue” of having real-time and turn based arena under the same leaderboard with few players doing overlap. Often it’s the turn based players that win with no real time games ever played. There’s effectively 1 leaderboard for 2 player groups, although for the same game.

I don’t see arena making any changes to its matchmaking or pairing policy any time soon. What’s the solution? Tournaments!

For a true competitive community I highly recommend joining and creating tournaments and gather strong players together to compete. Tournaments naturally tend to pair stronger players together as they progress due to eliminating weaker players or due to Swiss pairing method matching score. If you are a strong player and want to play against the best players, join tournaments.

Arena can often be more about beating weaker players >90% of the time and grinding lots of wins against weaker players than it is about defeating other strong players. Without adjusting your matchmaking settings you will be paired against a random player, whoever’s available, which will skew towards a median rated player, which is typically a large skill gap if you’re a top rated player.

As an estimated example, arena might give only 20% strong players, but by joining a Swiss tournament and doing well you should play >50% strong players.

[ImpactAce]

End of Season Ranking based on the peak you achieved would solve alot of problems. I was #1 in Jump Drive for about six weeks and thought that it would be stupid to play on, which is why i created new tournaments to play more often. Someone beat me for the top spot so i could play on arena (yeeey) but he faced the same problem.

A seasonal ranking system where you're incentivized to stop playing after a lucky streak feels wrong.

[Mykola]

Playing arena daily and not once matching with the leader for over a month is lame. On the other hand as a leader it's obviously nice to be recognized for performing well but I don't want to be encouraged to just not play arena with other good players anymore. In my opinion having some kind of arena decay would make for a much better competitive environment and make it 10 times more fun for everyone.

Have the people in charge categorically said this is never changing then?

Had recently the same problem and came here with an idea.

They actually tried introducing Elo decay. Almost all users involved in the discussion rejected the idea.

Where should I post my pitch for other decision makers to be visible?

In general, the idea is to introduce a switch with tree positions:
1. "I feel like the most bad* match NOW, bring me the first opponent possible".
2. "I want an opponent from the same level or one step above, I agree to wait a bit".
3. "I want to wait longer for matching, but bring me someone from the same level as me".

My arguements for this suggestion:
Facing strong opponents is discouraging and not fun in any way. It is realy difficult to grow and develop in skillbased games when initiative is out of your hands and you are already outmoneuvered and game is already finished. My point of view is that for games with smaller players base (eventualy new games on BGA that otherwise would benefit from growing) facing dominant leaders is stalling. Adding this switch would give a possibility to grow ELO/League points for minor players thus pumping midrange. Some time passes by and from midrange players there would grow more strong players.

*Moderator edit: please refrain from swearing on BGA, this is a family-friendly platform.

[Encripta]

Elo decay is a must at competitive level, which is what arena stands for. Whoever disagrees is because of fear to lose the position. Obviously they will vote against. Most competitive online games have Elo decay to boost lower players moral while keep top leaders active even if is just one game a week. Most of us here master few games, I don't think someone is a Top1 in 50 games that would require to play 50 games a week to remain top, if so, I am sure they will find the time of they want to continue instead of quick farming low elo players and not playing for the next 2 months additionally blocking high elo players who may overtake them.

Arena must be for people who wants to be under constant pressure by the opponents.

[Ceaseless]

Elo decay is a must at competitive level, which is what arena stands for. Whoever disagrees is because of fear to lose the position. Obviously they will vote against. Most competitive online games have Elo decay to boost lower players moral while keep top leaders active even if is just one game a week. Most of us here master few games, I don't think someone is a Top1 in 50 games that would require to play 50 games a week to remain top, if so, I am sure they will find the time of they want to continue instead of quick farming low elo players and not playing for the next 2 months additionally blocking high elo players who may overtake them.

Arena must be for people who wants to be under constant pressure by the opponents.

There's no need for elo decay. Just pass the people at the top, if they're not playing then they can't pass you back. Boosting lower rated player's moral? Arena already naturally has a rotation each season anyways.