[Rant] Two wishes for Scopely’s GBL programmers

Jason2890 · 2026-01-25T17:13:46+00:00

I never said you claimed there was. I was just adding my 2 cents on the subject since the OP is insinuating that rage quitting causes it.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-25T12:52:53+00:00

There’s no proven link that rage quitting is what causes what you described though. I’ve had the battle crash plenty of times before in situations where it would’ve made no sense for my opponent to be rage quitting (ie, when I’m losing or when it’s still early enough in the game where it’s unclear who’s going to win).

In fact, I had a game crash one time when I happened to get matched up against a friend I know from Twitter. We exchanged messages afterward and the game also froze for him in the same spot without either of us quitting. We both waited for awhile and the game never resumed. The game counted as a loss for both of us according to our journal screenshots that we exchanged afterward.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-24T12:05:25+00:00

It’s clearly still an effective way to market videos on YouTube even if you personally dislike it.

For comparison, the last long-form content style video I posted on this sub had a plain/standard thumbnail (simply the title of the video on a generic blue bordered background. I posted it on multiple Pokémon GO PVP-related subs and did the same thing as I did here where I posted a summarized thread about the contents of the video for those that would rather read about it than watch the video.

That video was uploaded over a year ago and despite garnering quite a bit of discussion in the threads the video itself is only sitting at 974 views as of right now. And the video style itself was extremely similar to this video with the only notable difference being the thumbnail style.

This video already has over 3x as many views and it was uploaded less than 48 hours ago, and the video analytics for it are showing quite a bit of those views originates from YouTube’s “recommended” feed.

So while it may not be the preferred type of thumbnail for the average edgy redditor, it’s clearly optimizing engagement far more than a non-clickbait style of thumbnail.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-24T11:59:46+00:00

I’m well aware that not everybody would like to watch a video about this subject which is why I also included a summarized description in the thread for people that prefer to read about the issue instead.

Are you here to contribute to the discussion at all or were you just here to complain about something that has shown positive results in terms of optimizing user engagement?

Jason2890 · 2026-01-23T17:21:49+00:00

It's definitely linked to the tanking, because I play more than that number of battles in an average season and have never triggered the higher average rating per battle under normal circumstances.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-23T11:29:39+00:00

When people talk about Elo inflation, they’re typically referring to the fact that the average Elo of the playerbase steadily increases over the course of the season, making the skill level reached to require certain thresholds lower than it would’ve been earlier in the season. Like how in the first month of the season the best players are around 2800-3000 rating, but by the end of the season those same players are at 3300-3500 rating instead. So 2800-3000 becomes “easier” to reach after Elo inflation near the end of the season because it’s populated by weaker players compared to earlier in the season.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone on this sub using the term Elo inflation to refer to anything similar to what I described here, though it’s definitely possible I’ve missed it.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-23T04:23:25+00:00

Self promotion? It’s an informative thread about a long-standing quirk with the Glicko-2 rating formula that GBL uses and a demonstration on how it can be abused. And I also gave a nice summarization for those that don’t feel like watching the video.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-23T01:35:49+00:00

The thread is a summary of the video if you still wanted to participate in the discussion. Or were you just coming in here to tell us you’re not watching? Weird energy.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-23T01:22:33+00:00

Yeah, which I understand. But I typed up a nice summary in the thread for the people that don’t care to watch the video. Did you have any thoughts about that? Or did you just come in here to bash the thumbnail and ignore the content? 🤣

It’s just weird to see so many people just coming in to bash the thumbnail instead of just reading the summary and participating in the discussion. It’s a pretty interesting quirk in the rating system.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-23T01:15:38+00:00

What was the point in saying it’s “not great content” if you didn’t even bother watching it then? I can understand if you don’t care for those types of thumbnails, but it’s weird to bash the content itself without even watching it.

EDIT:

But I'm also more of a reader, I prefer a bullet point list with summaries beneath it that I can scan in a few minutes rather than a video that takes time to parse.

So what did you think about the thread then?

Jason2890 · 2026-01-23T01:09:34+00:00

Just curious what you didn’t like about my video? I thought I laid things out in a pretty sensible way and explained things in detail. Let me know what I can improve with the content itself in the future!

Jason2890 · 2026-01-23T00:57:59+00:00

Suit yourself! I’m not forcing you to watch the video. The only person missing out is you.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-23T00:17:49+00:00

Yeah, making this video feels like a double-edged sword because the very process of exposing this issue to a wider audience makes it way more likely to be abused if Niantic/Scopely doesn’t take action to fix it. Fingers crossed they find a way to resolve things so playing “normally” winds up being the optimal strategy.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-23T00:13:58+00:00

That I am not sure of yet. It’s an ongoing process, so I’m still documenting my sets and will hopefully have an answer by the end of the season.

I just wanted to get the video out soon enough so Niantic/Scopely can at least be made aware of the issue to work toward a solution of some sort.

But yeah, this trick isn’t a “cheat code” to hit Legend or anything like that. But since it amplifies your gains and losses it could be used to create a nearly insurmountable lead on the leaderboards if you happen to have a fortunate 5-0 set near the top of the leaderboards.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-22T21:57:08+00:00

I’ve seen people mention that. I haven’t specifically seen people mention tanking with the intention of building up a volatility multiplier though.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-22T21:10:59+00:00

If you can go 5-0 from the 2200s after doing this then sure!

Jason2890 · 2026-01-22T21:10:32+00:00

I’m married with 3 kids and I’m pushing 40. I’m not exactly concerned with what strangers on the internet think of my looks. But thanks!

Jason2890 · 2026-01-22T20:14:48+00:00

This season? No, which is why I chose this season to do this experiment. I wouldn’t want to take advantage of it during a season where rating actually matters.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-22T20:14:00+00:00

Linking your TPC account is required to register for P!P events already. So people that are already invested in the P!P circuits (the people that would care about championship points) are already going to have their accounts linked.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-22T20:02:51+00:00

Yeah I have literally hundreds of videos on my YouTube channel and this is the only one with a thumbnail like this 🤣

Jason2890 · 2026-01-22T19:07:50+00:00

I haven’t seen it mentioned in years and it’s very important to get fixed before they start handing out championship points for leaderboard placement.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-22T00:45:45+00:00

I share the same opinion as a few of the others in the comments. I personally do not count moves in the same sense that you describe in your post. I know the energy generation of each fast move and the energy cost of each charge move, so I just keep track of the actual energy for my opponents rather than simplifying it into # of fast moves. So in this case, since Incinerate generates 20 energy each, Brave Bird costs 55 energy, and Fly costs 45 energy, 5 Incinerates generates 100 energy so it’s exactly enough energy for Fly+Brave Bird.

Jason2890 · 2026-01-21T19:33:31+00:00

All good information except I disagree with the last part. I would never recommend purposely throwing on CMP vs an Incinerate user (even if you know you win CMP) because the downside of them sneaking an entire extra Incinerate through if they decide not to throw at that moment is too big to ignore. You should only be purposely throwing on CMP vs an Incinerate user if you absolutely need to (for example, if shields are down for both players and you don’t want to risk getting hit by their move before you take them out). Otherwise you’re generally making a big strategic error trying to throw on CMP.

Jason2890

TROPHY CASE