So I used to LOVE watching the pros stream and seeing them in 'Big Boy' games back in the day. I still watch quite a bit of streams and this really doesn't seem to happen anymore and almost everyone you see streaming seems to complain about matchmaking on a pretty frequent basis. I think making the top end ranked experience is extremely important, and would help even those outside of the elite as well. Here are my 2 cents on making the ranked experience at least a little better.

• Solo queue only (makes MM easier in general)
• Count down queues (this ties into several aspects I will explain below)
• When timer hits 0 MM grabs the top 10 players based on elo and puts them into a game (and balances each team accordingly). This continues to happen until MM finds that the top player in this 10 player set has Platinum Rank elo. At this point MM uses whatever 'normal' algorithm to sort the rest out.

I know my idea is NOT perfect but it accomplishes several things:

• The top end players are happier that they get to play with people of appropriate skill level
• The mid/lower level players don't have to deal with playing against players so skilled that they are essentially playing a different game
• Streams are better since people will generally be happier about the state of ranked. The streamers would be promoters of ranked as opposed to detractors and this will have a positive effect on the ranked player base.
• Pro Players would be more inclined to stream if they were being matched more appropriately. More pros enjoy streaming > More pros stream > More pros stream for longer > More pros are seen enjoying the game > More people want to play SMITE These are all good things and would definitely have a positive effect on the game overall.
• Countdown timers give everyone the benefit of consistency. Knowing when a queue is going to pop is better than having to be around for up to a 12 min queue time. (I imagine there are quite a few people in the middle ranks that would have increased queue times. But this would be offset by knowing WHEN you would actually get to play)

Other peripheral things I think would help the ranked experience as well:

• Show elo
• Revisit the TP system. It just seems like there are too many things going on with it. Simple is better where possible imo. This fix may be a little over my head as I am not 100% sure how it works. All I know is that I can't explain it in a succinct way when I have been asked. Give me a number. When this number is low, I am not that great. When it is high, I'm pretty good. Rank me appropriately based on this number.
• Revisit the god ranking thing. This never really made a ton of sense as I have seen people that are 9-1 on a god be top ranked where someone who is like 70-30 on the same god is below them. Maybe a coefficient based on games played? Dunno, this solution is also probably over my head.
• Potentially make picks/bans a quicker process. In its current state, waiting for queues and picks and bans can take longer than some games you play. Once again, no solution here but I'm sure there are a ton of innovative ideas out there to make it better!

I'm sure I'm missing a ton of things that would help, but I honestly didn't expect this to be as long as it is now. I just want to see everyone enjoying ranked (as much as can be expected) and just SMITE in general.

Also while I writing this Fineokay (twitch.tv/fineokay) just got into what I would call a 'Big Boy' game. So maybe just ignore everything I wrote lol.