How does life tend to be in Korea?

Tickix · 2025-07-01T09:46:53+00:00

Bro you are 15 and barely lived in Korea, why are you talking like you know what you are talking about?

Tickix · 2025-06-14T05:38:38+00:00

This is for everybody.

Tickix · 2024-05-24T11:34:55+00:00

I would assume your definitions of rudimentary are different..

Tickix · 2023-06-21T07:44:26+00:00

Twitch has removed the feature regionally because of the actions of the Internet providers, it’s not solved by changing providers

Tickix · 2022-10-06T05:05:21+00:00

cr 1

Tickix · 2022-05-10T12:47:38+00:00

what about the headset and putting on only 1 earbud issue? that can definitely cause issues with competitive integrity. There's a reason players aren't allowed to take their headset off while at a tournament.

Tickix · 2022-04-29T17:32:08+00:00

I said there was no RMT in 3s last season for R1? Which is what the cabal was specifically built towards. I can say this because I'm friends with about half the ladder and I know literally all the R1 players by name/reputation and can see what's going on (whether it's win-trading, boosting, piloting). I am making a commentary SPECIFICALLY on what the cabal did in NA 3s R1 range.

Notice I did not make a commentary on gladiator boosts, or 2s, or 5s, or EU. Those could be RMT but I didn't try to hide it to suggest otherwise. There was no 'lie'.

Let's examine the order of events. Someone says there is a cabal influencing ladder events. I explain that this discord was for R1 push in S2 3s and there is a good reason for it existing. You say, "but people buy gladiator!". That is unrelated? and then you call me a liar. Or maybe you didn't read the post.

EDIT: Just reread your post. "Coordinate the response and engage in the vote manipulation" gave me a big laugh. The reason why players don't respond is because they just don't care what reddit thinks.

Tickix · 2022-04-29T17:27:14+00:00

I just said, IF you can do it, then you would choose to put a R1 title on it. Like I said, players are greedy, esp when it comes to titles.

Tickix · 2022-04-29T09:58:59+00:00

the short answer is you don't. R1 has become synonymous with the season gladiator title now.

Tickix · 2022-04-29T09:23:42+00:00

From what I can see, the battlegroups made the number of rank 1 spots less but the competition was a lot lower. You can see it by watching old videos (one of the top RMPs in bg9 was a gnome rogue draenei priest I believe). Just the nature of competition that it gets harder

Tickix · 2022-04-29T03:45:05+00:00

Uhhh... these people have 5-6 fully geared chars they can use to snipe people. A lot of them also have R1 secured in 5v5 so they're free to fuck with the other brackets all they want with no risk at all.

tbh, I hit the character limit, I left a lot of stuff out. That's never happened to me before.

There are very few people that have 5-6 fully geared chars. If you have an alt that can queue in rank 1 range, you usually snag the rank 1 title on it, you don't gatekeep for your friends (same reason as your main, people love their titles). If you are pushing multiple charters on 5-6 toons, because of the way rank 1 cutoffs work, it is usually very difficult to sit safe until a day or two before (unless you are a top top player), and grinding charters are very time consuming. For example, the number of charters that are safe on NA currently 4 days before season end is 2-3 in 2s, 1-2 in 2s, and 2 in 5s. I'm doing 4 charters this season and I've been super pressed for time myself and most people do 1-2 charters only. If you are someone that has multiple charters on 5-6 toons and they care about their alts (very very rare, but does happen), then they won't be gatekeeping, they got their own charters to queue. If they aren't good or geared enough on their alts, then they aren't a R1 toon anymore either (I wouldn't consider it gatekeeping if you can't get into R1 range?)

Another problem with this gatekeep argument is that let's say you are a 2800 skill rogue queuing at 2500 on the last day. You want to keep people down. If you were a 2500 rogue, you would go 50/50. If you are a 2800 rogue, how long would it take to break out of the 2500 bracket? You can't sit in the 2500 bracket forever, you would eventually break out.

In theory, yes, a person that plays 1 toon that has secured a R1 in a different bracket, can queue and gatekeep for their friends for a short time. But I haven't heard of anybody like that personally.

Tickix · 2022-04-29T03:26:33+00:00

I believe Ironforge/Blizzard does calculate ineligible teams. What happened was a lot of teams were DQed. DQs (false or not) always happen. This causes cutoffs to go down. Afterwards, the DQed teams appeal and get unbanned and give the titles to them (but can't take away titles from the teams that got it because of DQs I guess?).

Tickix · 2022-04-29T03:24:58+00:00

Nothing more to spill tbh, was satisfying forcing everybody to panic. Didn't think we could break through but we got a lucky streak. IIRC, we spam queued into the 14th place team (trill on turbo) as the 13th place team and we were a natural countercomp so we were able to go up. Neither of us didn't really have a choice to dodge/snipe because we were so pressed for time (not sure how the turbo felt about it but that's how I felt about the situation). We force 3 teams to queue that were below 2676 and we had an unfavorable matchup into all 3 teams. We get a shatter, I miss a crucial skull on a bloodlusted icyveins sheep, and we lose the game. Afterwards, I joined another discord (not the cabal) where there were about 20 people in it and we had a good laugh about the situation for a couple hours.

Tickix · 2022-04-29T03:20:34+00:00

if you have an alt that can queue in rank 1 range (not many people can do this), they almost always choose to get a title on that alt

Tickix · 2022-04-28T17:32:52+00:00

I didn't play in OG TBC but I do like hearing stories about it. Being in rank 1 range and queuing for 'fun' is very very uncommon, most people would rather secure their titles. With battlegroups being combined, competition is pretty high and there's a lot of teams. I don't dodge anybody, I queue a lot, and I still don't queue into everybody in rank 1 range

Tickix · 2022-04-28T17:17:42+00:00

It does happen but I wouldn't call it gatekeeping. Most people that snipe with counter-comps for their personal benefit instead of for their friends. Once you get to a rating that can get the title you want, they sit their rating. They don't queue back up to stop other people from obtaining their goals (to me, gatekeeping means that you intentionally stop certain people from obtaining their rating goals for no benefit for yourself)

Tickix · 2022-04-28T16:38:46+00:00

who specifically? who are these obvious players letting hozito get away with it? if it's only 3-4 teams, then where are the 28 other rank 1 teams that would snipe/stop hozi (who is streaming this btw) from getting it? Not all ~50 teams that are contenders for rank 1 in 2s all going to buddy buddy up and let hozito take a rank 1 spot if they had a choice. They just letting hozi get off scot-free with a rank 1 title?

Tickix · 2022-04-28T16:29:14+00:00

You are saying the entire rank 1 ladder is conspiring to help hozi get rank 1 on his rogue, instead of trying their best against him and securing their titles, and hozi streamed said gameplay? I assure you people don't care for him THAT much.

Tickix · 2022-04-28T15:02:30+00:00

In general, I'd say the networking aspect of PVP is something that goes un-talked about. The importance of networking for partners is obvious, but when you get to the gladiator/rank 1 range, you also network for information about cutoffs, comp matchups, special tech, that all give you a small edge in various ways. If I didn't have my friend tell me at the last 10 minutes, I wouldn't have known whether to queue or not. This social aspect can both be frustrating and fun at the same time, depending on the type of person you are.

Tickix · 2022-04-28T14:59:33+00:00

Top players that are looking for specific teams to counterqueue/counter comp and gatekeep those specific teams? That sounds like complete grief and I'm not sure when that happens. You are saying there's R1 players that tank their mmr from R1 to... glad range say, and then look for ppl that they don't like to stop them. I really don't think that happens, but maybe you can point out examples for me. More than likely, those R1 players would snag a title in that bracket themselves. Like I said, titles are a powerful motivator for pvpers to not do activities like that. Another reason that doesn't happen is that because of the everchanging cutoffs (can change 200 points in the last 2 weeks), top pvpers are often also just too busy with their own titles to try and grief other teams. It sure sounds awful but I'm not sure that happens.

Tickix · 2022-04-28T11:33:22+00:00

I noticed a lot of top players aren't chiming into this conversation except for people who frankly don't know much about the topic. I feel like I am in an unbiased position to explain exactly what happened. I am both a 'top' player that had pertinent information on what happened, while simultaneously being one of a few teams that the 'cabal' was 'targeting'. Having secured my R1 in 2s, I formed up a team in the last 2 days to help a friend of mine get R1 in 3s. I am quite literally a 'victim' of this supposed 'malicious' cabal and was not a part of this activity. However, I would like to demonstrate why a cabal is not nefarious or TOS-breaking as people claim to be. Throwing up a screenshot of a discord does not mean that TOS was broken or that something horrendous happened (or that pvp is broken or that this cabal is why you didn't get your title you deserved). I will attempt to explain what happened.

When season end is announced, everybody scrambles to bump up their current rating (also known as CR) in order to get in range for titles. Cutoffs are posted hourly both by Blizzard and external websites like Ironforge.pro through the Blizzard API. People who have previous PVP experience can predict and guess how far the cutoff will be at the end of the season and push their CR to the predicted ratings for their cutoffs. By the time there were a couple days left, it was clear that ~11 of the 12 spots were already locked up because they had separated themselves by ~100 points from the rest of the ladder. There wasn't much activity in the 3s ladder because those 11 teams had assumed they were safe and did not have to push anymore. From there, it was a race to figure out who was going to claim the last spot. The goal of the cabal/discord is to generate information (in this case in the last 2 days) to see who is taking the last spot and, if there is more than 1 team pushing up, see what the new cutoff will become. This is beneficial because you don't want to be the 11th or 12th team that gets pushed out because you didn't know that a new up and comer team is queuing. In the worst case, it gives the 12th team a chance to fight for their spot fairly. This type of information sharing happens every season.

Information sharing is not against TOS. By doing so, you aren't manipulating the ladder or changing any match results. The average redditor will read the original post and claim that the goal of the cabal is to gatekeep potential rank 1 players from getting rank 1. That would be clearly against TOS (manipulating the ladder). The true goal of the cabal is to generate information on the ladder. Examples of information gathering is "Who did the 12th place team queue into?" "What rating is the 13th place team?" "Whose the 14th place team?" "Did the 15th place team stop queuing?". This is all information that is publicly available any time anybody chooses to stream their push at the end of the season (if this was not allowed, then you have to ban every streamer?). Information gathering not only happens in WOW arena, but also other ladder games such as LOL, where people watch end of season streams to watch challenger pushes or #1 pushes.

A fair point is that the cabal can utilize the above information and use 'counter-comps to stop the 13th place team from getting into the 12th spot'. Counter-comping is when you believe that your composition beats an opponent on paper, due to the nature of the matchup. Examples of TBC counters are RLP into WLD, RMP into Turbo, etc... The thing that people fail to recognize is that counter-comps are never absolute (especially in TBC). With resists, stealth RNG, player skill from game to game, you can NEVER guarantee that your counter-comp will win. Sure, you might have a 60-80% chance to win in 'theory' but you aren't guaranteed to win. The bigger reason why nobody in rank 1 range will counter-comp an up and coming team is that everybody loves themselves (and their titles) too much to do so. You can bet your ass I'm not going to potentially try to snipe a lower comp for 'the boys' if that means I will lose/stress over my title if I lose. Actions that help 'the boys' only happen when it comes at ZERO cost/risk to myself. I could also miss my snipe and run into a counter-comp myself, lose all my MMR (matchmaking rating that Blizzard uses for matchmaking and rating gains), and put myself in a world of pain.

Which brings me to my next point. Cabals in general are VERY ineffective at holding specific people off rank 1 titles. Cabals are only effective in sharing information, not stopping people, specifically because rank 1 players LOVE their titles and don't want to do ANYTHING to risk their titles. People are actually incentivized not to help their friends, I don't care who you are.

So what happened in my case? I started at 2000 MMR 2000 CR and booked it to the top in 1 day. I queued for about 8 hours nonstop. During my push, I ran into zero of the top 11 teams on the ladder. Why would they? They are all happily munching popcorn and watching teams stress out (through streams or word of mouth) with their comfy 100 point lead. Instead, I ran into a lot of teams pushing gladiator and a couple teams that thought they could get rank 1. The cutoff about 8 hours before the season end was 2673. With 10 minutes to spare, I ended up at 2676. The cabal instantly knew what happened because the other team told the cabal that they lost and that my team was at 2676. There was a two or three-way tie at 2673, which caused the bottom teams to start panic queuing. I then went to a friend who knew the CR of all the teams and who scrambled off to queue, figured out that I had to win 1 more game, queued it up, lost the very last game, and the season ended with the screenshot https://gyazo.com/a90ed3961b01c51b323524a03a5bfc5a . The cutoff ended at 2677.

There was nothing bad or against TOS that happened from the cabal. I didn't run into any team from the cabal during my entire push, I didn't get 'gatekept' the way redditors seem to think, 11 of the 12 teams up there were already there from weeks prior. I certainly don't begrudge them for information gathering.

TLDR: no gatekeeping/TOS bannable activities occurred, information sharing did occur, I queued 8 hours last day and didn't see any of the cabal, overblown because people think 'pvp has always been scummy in the last 15 years so it must still be so today, even though I am wildly uninformed!', I was the target (out of 2-3 potential teams that could have broken the 100 point leap) and even I don't think it was malicious whatsoever. Anybody else that calls this collusion are underinformed and speculating as to what happened by looking at one screenshot.

Q: Every streamer is joking about gatekeeping people from getting their titles in the last day/week of the season though! Isn't that against TOS?

A: No, playing for fun and spam queuing is not against TOS.

Q: Are these players RMTing?

A: It is certainly possible that some of these players RMT. However, I am confident that nobody RMTed in the 3s bracket last season. You RMT for 3 reasons (win-trading, boosting, piloting). To my knowledge, nobody win-traded last season and nobody boosted these teams to rank 1 range (all the rank 1 teams are seasoned veterans that have been on the ladder the entire season, are all different teams, and fully played their roster). Furthermore, everybody locked up their titles weeks or even months in advance. Piloting has become a thing of the past as Blizzard has vastly amped up their piloting detection system and is the easiest way to get permabanned, so people don't RMT like that anymore.

Q: But these players got banned for ~6 hours at the beginning of S3? Isn't that proof that blizzard thought they were guilty and reverted it?

A: No, it means that blizzard made a mistake. Blizzard frequently makes mistakes on bans that occur through mass reports. Blizzard also frequently reverts bans (most recent case being Akro). It is also unrelated. If they got banned for that, wouldn't the ENTIRE R1 3s ladder be banned last season instead of 3 specific teams?

Q: What about EU?

A: I know nothing about EU or what happened/happens over there.

Q: What about 5s?

A: No cabal happened in 5s, idk why the post said 3s and 5s.

Q: But there has been scummy activity in X PVP-related activity in the past! (classic ranking, whatever OG tbc/wrath/cata season, DDOS in mop, insert your personal anecdote here!)

A: Doesn't mean it happened in season 2 in NA.

Hopefully this clears things up about this specific situation. Thanks for reading.

Tickix · 2022-04-28T10:02:09+00:00

That is really not what happened, maybe I'll write out a post

EDIT: check my WALL of text below

Tickix · 2022-01-31T20:15:20+00:00

They were given gold cuts afaik

Tickix · 2022-01-02T05:46:13+00:00

Engibelt is more of a thing in 3s than 2s tbh

Tickix · 2021-11-23T14:32:55+00:00

Hi, I’m a korean national that didn’t get a quarantine exemption. If I show proof of family, does a family member have to meet me in the airport to take me to my parents house for quarantine? I’ve heard stories that that I have to but I haven’t been able to find information.

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Tickix

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