This is addressed to Moop, but also a general audience (Love you like you Moop buddy)

It's my belief that if players were forced out of their comfort zone, and faced competitive Toribash head on in the variety of balanced, fun, and deep mods that we use to judge who is the best (Whether that be Clan League, Clan Siege, Toribash World Championship, dueling, you name it.) you end up with a culture of well-balanced excellent Toribash players. But that belief is held only for people interested in the grand scheme of competition. We have a whole world of Toribash out there, and not everyone is looking to have this game be anything like an E-Sport. I respect that, and I love those players equally!

The problem is, we are trying to make too many people happy. The ranking system, inherently, should be the competition. The E-Sport. The best of the best playing the game in it's most well balanced form with their primary intent being to WIN. Casual players shouldn't expect the ranking system to cater to their audience. If you love to just log on whenever, play a few games in your favorite mod, chill with friends, etc. that's fantastic. I encourage you to do that. Just don't also hope in doing so you'll be recognized as a high ranked Toribash player. That's not fair for anyone.

If you love lenshu3ng, you play Toribash just to play lenshu3ng with it's community, and you want to keep enjoying it- fine. Play lenshu3ng. Join a public hosted room to earn TC playing lenshu3ng among others, or make a private room with friends and play it in a smaller queue. You just can't have your cake and eat it too, playing only lenshu3ng then trying to get the glory that you're "the best lenshu3ng player, and deserve to be mod rank 1" isn't going to fly.

If we have a matchmaking mode, that pairs you against someone of equivalent ELO (or close to) in any random mod of the competitive list, we would still have incentive for players to play in rooms: to practice. If I want to climb the ladder, and I know if I get matched in ABD I'm pretty weak and likely to lose, then I know to practice my ABD in the public, unranked, ABD room.

Not to mention: who actually likes waiting in line only to lose one game and lose ELO over it? Doesn't that make each game that much more frustrating? You lost once, now you're in queue for the next 5-10 minutes reading your Facebook again. Meanwhile the guy who beat you just one time is still playing? Forget it! Having matchmaking take place in a series, like say best of 5, means you get anywhere from 3 to 5 matches guaranteed, straight, against a decent opponent. Your one misclick doesn't ruin your day! We can REALLY see who was the better that time around.


And I'm not buying the "this takes up time" excuse. Whether it's Chess, League of Legends, or Counter Strike, people interested in climbing the rank take on average 30 minutes to change their rank if even a little. Toribash is an extremely quick game, if each match takes 3 to 5 minutes (which is a big if), at quickest your rank changes in 9 minutes, and at longest? 25 minutes. Not a big deal. And that'd be 25 minutes of evenly matched back and forth matches with someone who gives you a tough and fun time.


It's obvious to me that doing a matchmaking mode, among multiple mods, with series does the following:

1) Prevents people who are good at one mod from being extremely high ranked
2) Prevents any type of "Noob Farming", which is what this system and the last system is entirely about.
3) Actively encourages players to play longer sessions and in more competitive atmospheres, which promotes learning.
4) Creates a clear course from new players to go from bad to good, which is pretty important in a game which primary complaint is insanely high learning curve.
5) Stops the disappointment and rage of "just losing one game" and remedies insane queue times.


That's my feelings, and I'm really passionate about it because I really do think it would make Toribash so much better. And I love Toribash :x