I wrote up a long post about the problems I see with this system on the official beta forums, but the stupid character limit cut off like 2/3 of it so I posted it here instead. I voted yes, which should be clear to anyone who reads my little manifesto about leagues:

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=122886

Jandos

Czech Republic928 Posts

May 01 2010 20:58 GMT

#342

There will be pro-league which will be above platinum right ?
Anyone knows how will be possible to get there ?

cloudJR

United States266 Posts

May 01 2010 21:09 GMT

#343

On May 02 2010 04:47 Rabbet wrote:
I agree, I did my placement matches and went 2-3. I didn't realize the hotkeys would be so different and it took a few games to figure things out. I haven't played many games but I am going against platinum players right now that are really bad. One protoss tryed to sneak a probe into my base after my scv was already building my depot, then when I killed in his warping pylon he went outside my base to set up a cannon "contain". Only problem was my base had 2 entrances and my scouting scv built a factory in his base. His strategy is a grade 2 strat and there is no chance of success with this in broodwar or sc2. He was ranked ~40 in a platinum division.

Hahaha I think we have played the same guy before. I've played probably 5 guys that are in the plat division that just have a gimmick to win. I literally played a guy that tried to 6 pool me and when it failed he immediately quit.

scott desu

United States34 Posts

May 01 2010 21:09 GMT

#344

I have this sneaking suspicion that when the game is released and all the people that never got into beta get it, they will flood copper and bronze league and then gold and platinum will feel more like their supposed to.

cloudJR

United States266 Posts

May 01 2010 21:10 GMT

#345

On May 02 2010 06:09 scott desu wrote:
I have this sneaking suspicion that when the game is released and all the people that never got into beta get it, they will flood copper and bronze league and then gold and platinum will feel more like their supposed to.

That's exactly what I'm thinking

insectoceanx

United States331 Posts

May 01 2010 21:15 GMT

#346

It seems to me beta keys have been going out at a faster rate than ever before. I got placed in bronze my 2nd time placing(1st time i got silver) Took me like 18 wins to make it to silver, got placed immediately in the top 10 of my silver division which about 80% of is new players fresh from their placement matches. Even though i am ranked 10th I have the best win loss ratio for my number of wins. I actually have better record ( more wins and fewer losses) than the #1 in my div. He must just have more rested points than me.

What blizzard needs to work on is the favored system(my opponent is always favored) And I think when you are at a low level of points a win or loss streak should move you more quickly between leagues. Say once you've played 15-20 games your position will be more concrete.

icki.icki

106 Posts

May 01 2010 21:34 GMT

#347

Depends whether Platinum is percentage based or a fixed number of players. If it's like the top 1000 players then it'll get progressively more competitive post-launch, but if it's like the top 10% or something there should just be more and more platinum brackets -- and the top 10% of those won't even play each other that often.

Kinmaul

United States104 Posts

May 01 2010 21:41 GMT

#348

I think it's silly you can get placed directly in platinum. You should just start at the lowest and work your way up. Right now its like:

5-0 placement = plat
4-1 placement = gold
3-2 placement = silver
etc...

The problem is 4 out of your 5 placement matches are usually against people that have zero clue what they are doing. As long as you have a basic understanding of the game or a canned BO you are going to win 5/5 most of the time. The system then places you in plat when you really don't belong there.

If you go 5/5 in placement matches then the best you should get is silver and then you have to work your way up through silver/gold to plat. This would stop the platinum divisions from being bloated with all of these 5-0 inactive teams.

Sentient

United States437 Posts

May 01 2010 22:07 GMT

#349

I went 4-1 and was placed in platinum. I lost to a bronze player (ninja banshees everywhere !!) but defeated two gold players. But I agree that platinum shouldn't be placed directly.

uniquee

Latvia16 Posts

May 03 2010 02:44 GMT

#350

It might even out but there certainly has to have some limit in the platinum division to make it worthwhile.

I just got beta 1 week ago (Friday, when soon they had the reset), but I did play some offline SC II. Before reset I went 4-1 and got into Gold. After reset I only got into bronze. Today I went Platinum; lulz noobies.

Just to explain why I'm laughing: I played minimal SC I (and that was a while ago too + I mostly did 20 min no rush if ya kno what i meann). Now I figured to make SC II my new game and in a week I was able to become platinum with minimal experience. Now mind you, I have extensive background in games (not RTS though), but there is no reason I should be platinum within a week and I will have NO problem maintaining it. Overall counting all the games this week + any game in any division, I've played about 70+ games (including non-ranked). Took about 50 to grind into platinum from bronze.

As you can see its my first post and I am just now leeching into the SC communities ( hi! ). And I am good at games, but shizzle, it shouldn't be this easy. In addition, people shouldn't be crying too much about placement matches, but rather worry about how saturated Platinum will get.

pyr0ma5ta

United States458 Posts

May 03 2010 04:01 GMT

#351

I'm terrible, but I'm in platinum. Worse, I'm not even the worst guy in Platinum. I just got 10pool-mass ling'd as Terran. When I repaired the wall and killed literally 20 zerglings with marauders behind the wall, and then moved out with 6 marauders, he instaquit. Really?

Wintermute

United States427 Posts

May 03 2010 04:15 GMT

#352

As long as you have 100 different divisions (more like thousands once it goes live) it's not going to matter what league you are in, or even what your rank is in your division.

The only thing that DOES matter is your hidden rating, which is of course funny to think about (the only thing that really tells you how good you are is the one that's hidden).

Whether or not they allow only 5% of the population into platinum or 20%, there's still going to be wide gap in skill. Just be satisfied that when the game is live, there will be a much larger pool of players to pull from, so you won't spend as much time playing platinum baddies like me. Sure, we'll still exist and we'll still be in platinum, but we'll just be playing other less excellent players like ourselves.

The only thing that they absolutely need to fix is to make placement take 10-20 matches. Winning 4-5 games in a row isn't that difficult, especially when the ladder first gets reset and every one is considered to be a silver player by default.

JreL209

United States78 Posts

May 03 2010 04:29 GMT

#353

Does it matter what you place in? Won't most people be playing in online ladders anyways like Iccup? ....

Wintermute

United States427 Posts

May 03 2010 04:35 GMT

#354

On May 03 2010 13:29 JreL209 wrote:
Does it matter what you place in? Won't most people be playing in online ladders anyways like Iccup? ....

Not unless Blizzard allows non Bnet servers, which they don't seem particularly inclined to do.

gameguard

Korea (South)2132 Posts

May 03 2010 05:09 GMT

#355

you mean they will flood copper and bronze then all the noobs who are currently in copper and bronze will flood platinum.

bodysnatcher21

Australia147 Posts

May 03 2010 05:10 GMT

#356

Platinum is going to be even less skilled once the game is released.

There will be an influx of terribad players filling up the copper and bronze leagues, and everyone who has played beta will essentially be "bumped up" in rank to make room for the newbies.

My friend is terrible at SC2. Hes never played BW and he has 20 APM, and hes only played SC2 for 2 weeks. Hes in platinum.

Personally I think the proleague is not enough to solve this problem. I'd like to see a system more like ICCUP, where the higher ranks have less overall players. That way, getting to Platinum or Gold would actually mean something.

Siffer

United States467 Posts

May 03 2010 05:31 GMT

#357

Once people start mass gaming 1v1 ladder(retail), you will see skill separate much like iccup.

The pool(which is still extremely small) is skewed quite a bit due to all the WoW newbs who have never played a RTS game before.

bjwithbraces

United States549 Posts

May 03 2010 05:40 GMT

#358

would it be a terrible idea to not be able to place in platinum? I.E. highest you can get placed(after your 5 games) is gold. Then from there depending on your next (arbitrary number let's say 25) you're re-evaluated and then get placed into platinum?

Amuze

Australia12 Posts

May 03 2010 05:41 GMT

#359

Here is my little story.

I played my placement matches, won 5/5 and got placed in plat. This is basically because i have watched so much sc2 online before i got my key that i knew what to do and what to build. Anyway, in one day i managed to go from plat to rank 2 copper league.

I have only been playing for about 4 days and have 35 wins 38 loss, AND i am playing people in silver league.

Maybe i do belong in copper league but blizzard just can't make their mind up. I constantly vs people in silver league. Unfair?

VarsityUser

United States84 Posts

May 03 2010 06:14 GMT

#360

On May 03 2010 14:41 Amuze wrote:
Here is my little story.

I played my placement matches, won 5/5 and got placed in plat. This is basically because i have watched so much sc2 online before i got my key that i knew what to do and what to build. Anyway, in one day i managed to go from plat to rank 2 copper league.

I have only been playing for about 4 days and have 35 wins 38 loss, AND i am playing people in silver league.

Maybe i do belong in copper league but blizzard just can't make their mind up. I constantly vs people in silver league. Unfair?

Sounds like ur the zerg who 4 pooled me into being placed in gold league... I'm 1.5k rating which would put me top 10 platinum in division except i stick at #1 gold for eternity