Last minute losses in PvP

Unknown

In the last hour of PvP, alliances will leave several top rosters at zero points to snipe top scorers in the bracket. This will cause 50-60 point losses when a 1100 point team loses to a 0 point team. This is abusive in a couple of ways. However, it's also bad for morale of players who play the "right" way (consistently, don't engage in too much abusive gamesmanship, etc).

It is also relatively easy to fix - maximum losses can be capped at 30 (or some other number). Maximum gains can be capped at a slightly higher number (35?) in the same ratio as currently operates. First, this will force players to start playing earlier to get top scores. This will also make the brackets better aligned the MMR ratings - the longer the period that MMR develops, the better it works. As long as you are playing people within 200 points of you, there shouldn't be a noticable difference.

Yes, this will make it harder to catch up on the last day when someone is starting from zero. That's OK. The game works better with consistent players are matched up to people in similar ratings.

Unknown

Don't you think the more common scenario is that those 'top rosters', log into an event to check the reward structure (which causes the game to queue up a series of opponents), then they don't engage into the tournament until the final hours (when those queued opponents have already spent the past two days acquring 1000+ points)? Thus causing a 0 point opponent to hit a 1000+ point opponent.


Seems more likely this is what happened instead of some nefarious conspiracy.

Unknown

I am not sure the I would discount nefarious alliance angle.

The reward structure should benefit consistent play rather than excessive gamesmanship. I think that a sense of competitiveness is fostered when you have a couple of top people fighting back and forth for a single spot. Currently, the game is rigged so that optimal play is never to retaliate against someone with a lower score (since it will give them a second chance to attack you, and result in a net loss of points). That's a bad design - the game should encourage retaliation.

If you lose to someone, and then beat them, you should generally get back your points. You shouldn't lose 60 points on a loss and earn back 3 for a net loss of 57 points Retaliation should be fun and rewarding! There are lots of ways this could be accomplished. For example, it would also be possible to just earn back the lost points and get another 10 points on top of that.

Another idea might be to losing 10 points in the standings rather than 10 ISO on an excessive amount of skips.