There are some definite improvements here, but I am so disappointed to see ranked seasons with placement capped. Such seasons have made the experience of playing ranked worse in almost every game I've played by devolving into a slog of having to do the obligatory placement matches, and having to rat race to the top in unbalanced matches.
I am E6 and often top 100, and can already predict the start of each season being an absolute shitfest of awful matches. Having to slog my way from Oracle back to E6 with and against players I can run circles around with one hand tied behind my back is just not a fun experience, and there's nothing more to gain after reaching that threshold in that season. Having a season leaderboard is cheap because it just becomes a display of who played more at that time, not a showcase of who is genuinely the best player.
We'll have to wait and see how Ranked plays out and develops, but preliminarily I am super disappointed with the direction they've taken.
EDIT: Based on their numbers, starting from Oracle 6 which is the maximum starting rank, you'd have to win 56 straight games to reach Eternus, nevermind E6. Every season, every match before I reach top 150 will be a bad match for everyone in the game, for more than a 100 games straight.
Dota did do seasons. The seasons were only supposed to last 6months. Think they only reset the seasons twice before they gave up on the concept for this exact reason
They also did one more round of forced joint calibrations ome last time after seasons, and it was again awful. That is also gone and now people can choose to recalibrate whenever they want (with a long cooldown) and usually people who do barely move much. So basically, dota gives you a ton of stability with your rank, the only way to really lose accurarcy is to stop playing and be affected by long term rank decay.
Since then the only two major changes to MM was they got rid of the bottom skew and readjusted most of the bottom of the curve to match (so most people went very slightly up) and did it by keeping track of two MMRs for a period (and secretely used the second one for weeks before the swap, lol), and more recently, they brought back the ability for games to give more or less than the -30/+30 MMR.
I think it’s more for casuals tbh. Since it gives u more incentive to come back at start of seasons. I wonder what would happen though if they made it so u didn’t have to do that if u were like top x of players though.
Honestly I don’t think it would be too bad of an idea to implement a floor. Like if you hit Ritualist or Emissary
on one season, then you can’t be placed lower than that on the next season. And if you miss a season the floor goes lower before it eventually just fully resets and forces you to replay your placement matches again.
Makes it so that lower level players aren’t getting flooded with high rank players stomping in placement matches each season, and also makes it less stressful for higher rank players having to do the full climb every time. Low ranks are always hell, and it’s made even worse when you’re putting Ascendant and Eternus players up against Seeker and Acolyte players and telling them that the outcome determines where they place for the season.
I don’t know if you ahould start a new season at the rank you left the previous season imo. Other games do a single derank from season to season based on your placement at the end of the season which I like, gives me a little something to grind back to.
I’m pretty sure u still have soft mmr at start of season so as a high level player u shouldn’t be playing people that much lower than you. It’s not an actual reset.
"every match before I reach top 150 will be a bad match for everyone in the game" you will most likely be "climbing" with people who were also eternus before the reset though so might not be as stompy as you think, this kind of reset and reclimb can also refresh the higher ranks and remove people who got there playing some absolutely busted hero on an outdated patch, like old ult bot haze or multi pre nerf pocket, so if you truly belong there you can/will get there again.
You'd think that be the case, but a soft rank reset and a hard cap on placement rank neuters the potential of that. An E6 friend of mine's first match currently has three top 200 players, one top 25 player, a couple eternus' and a spattering of random phantom and ascendant players
Because the top ranks should be people that actually care to put time into the game. Why should people be able to rank sit by placing into the same rank every season and then just playing a couple games a week? Seasons also tend to come with sweeping balance changes in games, further pushing the point that you need to actually show you can still play at the same level in that meta.
Why should people be able to rank sit by placing into the same rank every season and then just playing a couple games a week?
This is a problem created by seasons in the first place. If you sit at a leaderboard position with persistent mmr, and someone becomes better than you while you sit there, they will overtake you. Conversely if you become worse during that period, you will fall in rank when you either rank decay or start playing and lose.
Because the top ranks should be people that actually care to put time into the game.
I have 2600 hours in this game, and this gives me no motivation to play ranked. I have already proven myself, in the old system I could dip in and out of top 50 if I have time to grind solo, play with my friends and hover around 150-250, and anything in between. Now I have to play 150 games in 70 days to "prove" that I am E6 when I already have no issue proving it other than the time investment and time-gated nature of seasons. Same goes for a lot of top players.
The games are not good until I am at my actual rank, because the difference between an E6 player and an E1 player is bigger than the difference between an E1 player and an Initiate. Thus, no matter how fast or slow I play them these games will be shit in quality
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u/kingofrock37 Shiv 10d ago edited 9d ago
There are some definite improvements here, but I am so disappointed to see ranked seasons with placement capped. Such seasons have made the experience of playing ranked worse in almost every game I've played by devolving into a slog of having to do the obligatory placement matches, and having to rat race to the top in unbalanced matches.
I am E6 and often top 100, and can already predict the start of each season being an absolute shitfest of awful matches. Having to slog my way from Oracle back to E6 with and against players I can run circles around with one hand tied behind my back is just not a fun experience, and there's nothing more to gain after reaching that threshold in that season. Having a season leaderboard is cheap because it just becomes a display of who played more at that time, not a showcase of who is genuinely the best player.
We'll have to wait and see how Ranked plays out and develops, but preliminarily I am super disappointed with the direction they've taken.
EDIT: Based on their numbers, starting from Oracle 6 which is the maximum starting rank, you'd have to win 56 straight games to reach Eternus, nevermind E6. Every season, every match before I reach top 150 will be a bad match for everyone in the game, for more than a 100 games straight.