Okay I admit I am new playing here. However, that is not going to stop me from throwing in my two cents regarding the rating system. :grin:
I see a discussion back in March that I wholeheartedly agree with @trulpen (His post below). From my perspective the current rating system discourages play from the top tier with the bottom tier. That in my opinion is counterproductive. I would think we would want new players to have the opportunity to play anyone to feel welcome. Not that “I am sorry but until you get a high enough rating I do not want to play you.” In addition why punish Top Tier players for playing against new players or players that are not as good as them? The ONLY way average players are going to get better is by playing better players.
From my perspective I enjoy coaching players, teaching them to become better, so that eventually they can challenge me. It also helps grow the community; when people get better at the game they enjoy it more and bring in even more players. Under the current system that teaching is discouraged.
I want to play in the League Tourny this year. To do that I have to be in the top 8 Players. Which means everytime I play a Tier 2 or Tier 3 player I am decreasing my chances of playing in the League Tournament. Why would we do that? Nothing should discourage any Player from playing another Player if they want to. Now that I will soon be at Tier 1 I do not want to play anyone below me and that is just wrong.
Many years ago I played on the Days of Infamy website that was just Pacific. It had what I would have called a chess rating. Though based on trulpen’s post perhaps it was an ELO system. The higher ranked person received as few as one point for winning against lower tier players and the lower tier players could gain as much as 18-21 points if they won. Sure it was a risk for the higher tier players to play lower tiers, especially since dice are involved, however they didn’t automatically go down in ranking as long as they won.
I would wholeheartedly support a change in the rating system to reflect not an average per win point system but an overall ranking system.
@trulpen said in League General Discussion Thread:
I know change is hard, but I’ve noted some internal and external frustration with the ranking system. It doesn’t really allow for play were opponents have a big gap. Being, say, tier E and playing tier 3 means that the higher ranked player will lose ranking no matter what.
Even though it’s neat and functional, the present ranking system is actually flawed in this respect.
I think that implementing something like the chess Elo-rating system could solve this? I believe the algorithm could be incorporated as it is.
The point of difference is that with Elo a tier 3 could easily play against an E or M player, without the ranking being an issue. The higher player would most likely win, gaining a very small rating increase, but lose a lot if the game was lost. By the same measure the lower ranked player would gain a lot with a win, but lose a little with a loss.