Vainglory Forums

For players who claim "skill tier will move you up if you deserve to be moved up" I strongly disagree. I'm basing the argument below strictly for RANKED SoloQ, not team play BTW.

I currently have three accounts, one is at POA Bronze, one SA Silver and one at Hotness Gold. I'm trying to move the Hotness Gold account to SA gold and it's nearly damn impossible these day.

Why you ask? One major drawback is the matchmaking system - I am strongly against being matched with players at higher tiers in RANKED games. Let's say your current skill tier is at Hotness Gold. You could be matched with two Hotness Bronze on your team who just recently leveled up from Pretty Good, while the entire enemy team is at Simply Amazing. Their coordination, overall map awareness, etc etc are much better while the rest of your team isn't even close. See the difference? You'll most likely lose the match. And yes, I've been in this situation many times where I've friended the opposing team to back up my observation.

Another drawback are trolls, AFKS. We've all encountered them plenty but they're not as common. However, the worst in my opinion are toxic players who choose to remain in the game in order to avoid Karma loss, but simply give up trying because they always die and start pinging everyone. Toxic behavior is IMO the biggest factor to a loss. Your entire team could be a notch above the enemy but if your team doesn't coordinate, i.e. everyone doing their own thing while avoiding each other - only to reluctantly get together for a possible gank - no matter how hard you try, if a member of your team refuses to help out in a fight, you're still screwed.

SEMC has made improvements, sure enough. However I believe players should be matched strictly within their own skill tier and not a rank above or below in RANKED games for the benefit of everyone. Casual is another story. At the most in RANKED games, a Hotness Bronze may be matched with a Hotness Gold, but NOT a Simply Amazing - there's just way too much of a skill difference and it's incredibly unpredictable. This is why nowadays, most players who try to advance through SoloQ drops back and forth between tiers because of unbalanced competition and all the reason above.

The only way you can level up through soloQ is if you get lucky and get matched with similar skilled players who aren't toxic consistently for several rounds. BUT, you may encounter a losing streak immediately after where you get matched with toxic players or low tier players. Then all of the sudden you're back to where you started. Ever since the update, the most I've brought my Hotness account up is SA Silver. Then I'll lose several games in a row, literally toxic players who won't stop pinging for 7+ matches straight and all of the sudden I'm back in Hotness again :(

Now I will say something about team play. Let's say you SoloQ and your team dominate a match. Your teammates friend you and you guys GG each other, congratulate each other on a stellar performance, so on and so on. Then you invite that player to a game, or vice versa, and you guys work out who uses who and start playing. Then the next thing you know, you guys don't perform nearly as well as the last match and the game is eventually lost. Now if your new friend or yourself is patient, you might go for another round. But eventually, you'll lose again and then blames gets thrown back and forth in chat, and all of the sudden you never want to play with that person again. Sounds familiar right?

I don't see a solution for toxic activity because such is human nature...there is also a huge age gap between players and, well, many players are very immature, or playing while stoned, high, drunk (no joke) and could simply care less. Hell, I play sometimes after I've had a few shots...it won't benefit my teammates surely :) However, I do believe these frustrations could be reduced by matching players strictly within their own skill tiers. It won't eliminate the problem... but it will improve things a great deal for all.

The long read was not intended... however I hope the points I made makes sense. It's very frustrating that this game has become somewhat of a negative experience lately...and as some say, SoloQ is the source of all our VG problems.

I 100% agree with you and just posted about how hard it is to rank up within the skill tiers due to being matched with people in SoloQ who cannot play the game!

Completely agree. Before ranked matches I was Hotness and doing well and moving up. Now - I cannot even believe who I get matched with. It is really toxic and frustrating. I played with someone just before who trolled and sat in spawn throwing a temper tantrum so we lose. 2v3 got steamrolled. Then next match - I'm paired with him again.

Just a quick example but I am not spending another penny on this game until they fix matchmaking. I wanted to get some ICE boxes but the hack with that. Solo q'ing in PG is pure hell.

Devs! Please Help!

Well first off, you're right; the matching is often atrocious. I'm in SA & I was recently teamed with a player in Getting There in a RANKED game. I commonly have to deal with instalock saws & all sorts of interesting stuff. However, please note...

1. The other team is just as likely to suck as yours. The system isn't statistically bent against you.
2. If you have a low ranked team & you're against a high ranked team, you lose less ranking if you lose than you would gain if you won. The system is designed to reward you for those hard matches against hard teams.
3. Stricter matching means longer wait times... & ranked wait times are already sometimes pretty long.
4. If you've reached pinnacle, I feel like you should be able to do well even with the trashy players that you're paired with. Your playing level is so far above theirs... In the short run you might be suffering a dry spell on wins & matchmaking, but in the long run, I'm confident you'll move up :)

But overall, I agree; the system could use a nice rework!

There have been times when I see the matchmaking complaints and think if you are a quality player you will be okay. But I just played four straight games that after four minutes or so players continually pinged each other and my team had no chance from the beginning. Of course I continued to play so I would not get a thumbs down, but I think there needs to be a way toxic players can be penalized. If your teammates don't play the way you want, you need to adapt and adjust accordingly. All I want to do when I get pinged is sit at the base and AFK but at least I continue to try.

All I ask from you Aholes, is to at least try.

Thanks

Casual is balanced. Ranked is f*cked up.

I finally reached Simply Amazing bronze and was so exited and out of no where I kept loosing matches out of no where. I never AFK and now I find myself at Hotness bronze.
Its so hard to win matches and I keep getting players who always ping or don't know how to play.
So frustrating!

I busted on your comment. Thank you. (Not in a inappropriate way, I hope it is consensual)

Lol... NO. Casual is NOT balanced.
Skill tiers really don't measure your actual skill, especially if you're familiar with MOBAs, but time and time again I have been matched with The Hotness Gold to Simply Amazing Silver or, at the other end of the spectrum, Getting There Bronze to Not Bad Bronze. I'm at Pretty Good Bronze.
I remember PlayoffBeard said somehing in a livestream about how the matchmaking system used to say "F*CK IT, JUST MATCH THE DECENTISH PEOPLE WITH THE SIMPLY AMAZING PEOPLE." if the wait time was long. It might have been removed, it might not have been. Is that what's happening? Because I really don't think an extra minute or so is an insane amount of time to wait.

This^
I was recently matched in casual against a crystal saw... In not bad bronze... While I'm in SA silver. I was a tad bit confused. In casual, I've been seeing everything from guest instalock saws to sick pinnacle gold players that wipe me clean...

Also, what you say about the relation between timing & matching is something I've noticed. On the longer waits, or the times when there's clearly not as many players on, I notice A LOT of matches with players that aren't anywhere near my tier. When the waits are short & everybody is on, I get normal matches.

They'll probably fix the system when the next update comes out!