It is no longer possible to be demoted during a season, only when you play your placement matches for a new season can you be demoted!

http://www.blizzposts.com/blogentry/95918/starcraft-ii-ladder-league-and-season-faq.

I think this change is excellent. If you manage to get promoted you could sometimes get on a bad losing streak and fall back from where you came which was very demoralizing. Now you will get to keep your league status at least until the next season.

Please observe this has nothing to with ladder lock, it is for the whole season.

DavoS

United States1909 Posts

June 03 2013 21:58 GMT

Eh, not too thrilled. When I first started playing, I was put in Gold. I was not gold league caliber. I lost every game that season and that was against low level silvers after the first few golds roflstomped me. I literally celebrated when I got demoted to silver. Would like to see a way to make placement matches more accurate before they worry about things like demotion

phuzi0n

United States308 Posts

June 03 2013 21:59 GMT

Does that mean GM players can't be demoted either? If so then the first people to make GM would stay GM all season.

BlueLanterna

291 Posts

June 03 2013 22:00 GMT

On June 04 2013 06:59 phuzi0n wrote:
Does that mean GM players can't be demoted either? If so then the first people to make GM would stay GM all season.

Logic would dictate that GM would be the exception to the rule, but who knows...

R1CH

Netherlands10032 Posts

June 03 2013 22:00 GMT

I'm sure the regular GM dropdown conditions still apply (inactivity etc).

Poffel

471 Posts

June 03 2013 22:00 GMT

On June 04 2013 06:58 DavoS wrote:
Eh, not too thrilled. When I first started playing, I was put in Gold. I was not gold league caliber. I lost every game that season and that was against low level silvers after the first few golds roflstomped me. I literally celebrated when I got demoted to silver. Would like to see a way to make placement matches more accurate before they worry about things like demotion

Well, by now you could just "leave league" in such an event and do your placement matches again, so that shouldn't be much of a problem, or am I mistaken?

Draconicfire

Canada2561 Posts

June 03 2013 22:00 GMT

On June 04 2013 06:59 phuzi0n wrote:
Does that mean GM players can't be demoted either? If so then the first people to make GM would stay GM all season.

Pretty sure that's how it works now anyways.

This new change is eh I guess. If the seasons are short enough it's not a big deal. Removes some ladder anxiety I guess.

o29

United States220 Posts

June 03 2013 22:03 GMT

With the "leave league" button it should still be possible though, right? Seems like another change to help protect people's precious egos, but it ultimately shouldn't actually change anything about the difficulty of matched opponents.

Morfildur

Germany4243 Posts

June 03 2013 22:04 GMT

Uhm, what?

Yeah, getting demoted is unpleasant for those it happens to, but it's just how ladders work. You go up when you are better than your opponents, you go down when you are worse. Feels like Blizzard tries to remove that part but that kind of makes the whole ladder pointless unless they make seasons really short, e.g. a month or so. Otherwise there will be lots of people with lucky placement matches and such showing up far above where they should be.

skylarr

Canada209 Posts

June 03 2013 22:04 GMT

#10

That's kinda unnecessary haha

GuitarBizarre

United Kingdom331 Posts

June 03 2013 22:05 GMT

#11

On June 04 2013 06:59 phuzi0n wrote:
Does that mean GM players can't be demoted either? If so then the first people to make GM would stay GM all season.

If you think of it, GM is actually just another part of masters league, its not actually a league of its own, so you could flip down to masters, just not to diamond.

Savage88

Germany132 Posts

June 03 2013 22:05 GMT

#12

Thats just a terrible idea. Since HotS it feels leagues are getting worse and worse. I was Plat all of WoL and I'm Masters now even I haven't improved at all. It feels like people in Masters are more Plat WoL Level now and if you cannot get demoted it makes it even worse.

MichaelDonovan

United States1448 Posts

June 03 2013 22:06 GMT

#13

Well now people are gonna be scared shitless to play their placement matches cause they don't know how they did lol.

Frankenberry

Denmark301 Posts

June 03 2013 22:06 GMT

#14

What a horrible idea

Koromon

United States164 Posts

June 03 2013 22:08 GMT

#15

On June 04 2013 07:05 Savage88 wrote:
Thats just a terrible idea. Since HotS it feels leagues are getting worse and worse. I was Plat all of WoL and I'm Masters now even I haven't improved at all. It feels like people in Masters are more Plat WoL Level now and if you cannot get demoted it makes it even worse.

I mean, even if you're "in" Masters, if you keep losing and losing throughout the season, your MMR would be placing you against people of relatively the same skill level (let's say Plat WoL level) and so it'd be fine? I mean, I'm assuming the system just wouldn't put you in your place until the end of the season.

aksfjh

United States4851 Posts

June 03 2013 22:08 GMT

#16

On June 04 2013 07:06 MichaelDonovan wrote:
Well now people are gonna be scared shitless to play their placement matches cause they don't know how they did lol.

Better than what's happening now, where people get to some goal league and just stop playing out of fear of demotion.

Blargh

United States1906 Posts

June 03 2013 22:08 GMT

#17

That doesn't really make sense to me. So, let's assume the top 2% (isn't that what Master league consists of?) make it into Master league at the beginning of the season. Then, as the season progresses, people who WOULD get promotions cannot because the top 2% is already filled. Normally, players would be demoted out of Master league and players would be promoted into Master league. Or is it that the players who -WOULD HAVE- gotten demoted from Masters will stay in it and be ignored for the "top 2%" while players still get promoted from Diamond, thus making master league technically larger than 2%?

While I don't like to get demoted because master league so kewl man, I disagree with the idea. If you aren't playing master league level, then you probably shouldn't be in Master league. But this might be better for a majority of people. It just doesn't follow the "competitive" style of a ladder.

Mortal

2941 Posts

June 03 2013 22:09 GMT

#18

Hahahaha, oh Blizzard you jest.

Heyoka

Temple of EE-Sama22510 Posts

June 03 2013 22:11 GMT

#19

Not entirely sure why everyone is so mad at this. I'd guess it doesn't effect basically anything, and that the 2% (or whatever it is) of masters will be made up of MMR calculations and not what is displayed, so those who have dropped below will still free up slots. It just won't show on their account.

Targe

United Kingdom5978 Posts

June 03 2013 22:11 GMT

#20

On June 04 2013 07:08 Blargh wrote:
That doesn't really make sense to me. So, let's assume the top 2% (isn't that what Master league consists of?) make it into Master league at the beginning of the season. Then, as the season progresses, people who WOULD get promotions cannot because the top 2% is already filled. Normally, players would be demoted out of Master league and players would be promoted into Master league. Does this mean that the players who -WOULD HAVE- gotten demoted from Masters will stay in it and be ignored for the "top 2%" while players still get promoted from Diamond, thus making master league technically larger than 2%?

While I don't like to get demoted because master league so kewl man, I disagree with the idea. If you aren't playing master league level, then you probably shouldn't be in Master league. But this might be better for a majority of people. It just doesn't follow the "competitive" style of a ladder.

You're overthinking, it wouldn't be that much more.