by JR Cook - 8 years ago     show comments

Last week, we proposed an entirely new Legends Mode, so the aspiring professional players could have a more rewarding competition system. The system we came up with seems like an upgrade over the current Legend mode, but it still has some very important flaws. This week, we will try to correct most of them.

Avoiding League Stagnation

In our proposed system, Blizzcon points would be awarded depending on which league you would be starting next season. The problem with this, is that newer players would have to wait many months before they could reach the Grandmasters League and start racking up the big points. Also, just having the top 20% moving up and down in leagues each month means that once you get to a higher league, it will be very hard for you to fall off, and you will be racking up points based on your past performance for a while. So we need to make these league divisions more fluid, here’s a few options:

Increase the amount of people moving after each month:

Instead of just having the top and bottom 20% of players climb and drop the division, maybe we should raise the stakes. What about having the top 10% climb 2 divisions at the time? Then those ranked between the top 10% and 40% climb a single division?

Instant Promotions:

But maybe we shouldn’t always wait until the end of the month to let people switch divisions. Maybe if your winrate is high enough across enough games, you could see an immediate jump in divisions. This would allow newer prospects to more swiftly rise through the ranks and reach the level of competition they deserve. There’s a few issues with this though. I believe this option should only be available during the first third of the season, as otherwise a instantly promoted player might not have enough time to properly rank up on his new division. Also there’s the issue of how points would be awarded for people who are getting these instant promotions.

Fixing Scoring

One of the biggest problems with a league based system is how to handle scoring, as your placement will reflect not just your current performance but also your recent history. We need to find a way to adjust things, so the people who are having exceptional months are the ones being rewarded with points.

Restrict scoring to people trending upwards:

If you are in free-fall through the rankings, you shouldn’t really be getting points. Even if you had worked hard to climb to the highest league in the past. It is only fair that we make it that only the people who are rising through the ranks earn points. The problem then it becomes that once you reach your ceiling, it might be more profitable to drop and re-climb a division, than it would be to remain stagnant. To combat this, maybe people who are just staying the course should get half the points it would’ve gotten had they climbed to the division originally, to dissuade them from dropping and then climbing back.

Implement a Tournament System:

Maybe instead of just giving points to people who are playing random ladder games, maybe use the ladder standings to seed tournaments and award points there. Maybe these tournaments can also help as a way of more quickly promoting the players who are breaking in and show very promising results in the lower divisions.

Putting it all Together

We’ve looked at the basic problems with the current ladder system, we’ve proposed an entire new structure, and we have now reviewed some concerns with our first draft of our scoring system. Now that we have all of our ingredients, its time to throw them all into the hotpot and see what comes out.

Next week, we’ll finally have a completely finished product! I hope you are looking forward to it.