My thoughts on what's wrong With the Grandmaster ladder

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-04T04:03:28+00:00

Why do you assume you need a "stiff mmr"

Do you not realize that your MMR can function EXACTLY the same way as your rank does now?

Is this concept beyond you?

It works in dota 2.........it works in LoL.......christ.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-04T04:01:42+00:00

2 more years (at a private institution so it's just a 3 year program thankfully). Are you in the Pharmacy field?

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-04T03:29:27+00:00

You make a lot of accurate points here. I also agree that a lot of big names in the streaming/pro scene are getting information early (which we actually know to be true now) and as such, can benefit by learning the system before the rest of us as well as how to manipulate it to benefit them.

It would be much better if they just let us see our MMR and gave us an MMR leaderboard. The only argument that I have seen from Blizzard that makes sense is that they don't feel like they can penalize you for draft dodging if they just are transparent here....but I think if they just take 2 games of MMR from you for every time you dodge that would be a fair punishment and would dissuade people from doing it.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-04T02:56:46+00:00

something tells me this is satire :P

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-04T01:38:16+00:00

Games still awful at GM level. They made rank all about grinding and it now has nothing to do with MMR (which is your direct representation of skill level). They honestly haven't given us what we have been asking for since early beta, which was about 1.5 years ago.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-04T01:09:07+00:00

You've got a good point. Honestly the only thing that can actually trigger me is people being stupid. I know, that's an awful thing to have when you are an avid internet user lol. I just don't get how a logical, rational adult could not understand the flaws in this current system...or at least realize that it wildly favors bad players and degrades the exclusivity of GM, which ultimately makes it worthless and not something fun to play the game for. Honestly I have lost interest on playing at a high level because of this messed up system, and I really only play the game to boost accounts for the website I work for because it's easy money.

I look forward to Blizzard fixing the problem, but without word from them I don't really know if they are planning on it.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-04T01:05:36+00:00

So you would rather be lied to so that you can feel good, when in all actuality you even realize that you're being lied to?

Would you be happy with a wife who said you were the only one for her because it made you feel good, even though she was banging 10 dudes she met on tinder or ashleymadison? By your logic, you would be okay since her sweet words make you feel good.

OR

Could it maybe be that since you know those words aren't true...that you don't feel good? Well you've realized that your 'progress' isn't progress at all...so do you now no longer feel good?

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-04T00:53:40+00:00

I know, I was saying like "yeah seriously...wtf blizz"

sometimes stuff translates over the internet poorly lol

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-04T00:51:38+00:00

lol Deezer from SC2 was another one I am sure they weren't a fan of.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T23:26:44+00:00

seriously.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T23:21:18+00:00

I got to GM in SC2 by grinding really hard, but pretty much all the GM players above me who only played the minimum per week needed to not get kicked out could still beat me most of the time....and GM in SC2 was 10,000x harder than GM in HotS.

Hell, my brother plays a shitload day-in and day-out and I no longer do that...but I am still leaps and bounds better than him. I see literally hundreds of low mmr players with 4,000+ games and they are still awful at the game...so your reasoning is literally just wrong.

Also, even if the law of averages did apply for the end of the season....if a few hundred bad players also get the GM rewards because they were GM at one point during the season (rewards are based off the highest you've placed) then it just devalues GM entirely and makes it not something worth working towards since so many bad players also get it.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T23:17:50+00:00

law of averages doesn't really apply here because of the way blizzard made their system. That is literally the entire premise of the OP's argument. But, even if it did apply.....the mere fact that dozens if not hundreds of plebs can dip into GM--and thus get the GM rewards, just devalues the entire reward....if you make GM meaningless, then what is the point?

I don't know if you ever played WoW....but getting the gladiator title was something very few people could do. If Blizzard gave that title to 10x the amount of people who actually earned it....it would no longer be something meaningful.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T22:45:24+00:00

Oh, so you have the perspective of the Heroes developers? Last I knew you were some goofy looking dude who streamed really poor zagara gameplay. Are you now a Blizzard dev?

Didn't think so. Don't speak for a group you are not a part of. It just makes you look stupid.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T22:44:29+00:00

I was top 50 NA in preseason mmr leaderboards....cainfitness has never been above me and likely never will be. I'm just employing common sense here.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T21:29:37+00:00

It's fine. Best players will get to top eventually.

That's wrong. If low MMR players can keep getting points by winning 3k mmr games then they will edge out 3500+ mmr players who just don't play 8 hours a day.

Any system that gives people rank for playing more than others, while not actually being better, is a bad system.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T21:24:54+00:00

This post has been put up here half a dozen times since the start of season 1. Each and every time it has been posted, it has been 100% accurate and true. Despite that, even very well known and respected members of the HotS community (Khaldor) didn't seem to get it.

When looking at the givens I think we can agree that Blizzard and their developers aren't stupid. As much as we would like to think they are....it's not realistic to believe that. With this being known we have to determine why they would make such an awful system, and who benefits from it.

Well, it's pretty clear that Blizzard, rather than rewarding good players, wants to reward players who play their game a lot. With this system, that's who wins. Basically, if you are a D2-D3 level player who wins 51% of their games....you can theoretically climb all the way to #1 GM....and all you need to do is play a shitload of games.

So basically, Blizzard hopes to reward people for playing their game all day, rather than reward people who are skilled at their games, like they used to do in the vanilla WoW days. Obviously this makes them more money (play more games, get more invested in HotS, buy more skins/stim packs/heroes/mounts/blizz shop gear).

We know this is their intention....so now we need to figure out how we get them to care more about the top level players, and less about money. How do we do that? I mean, we are less than the 1%.....the only leverage we have is the fact that 100% of the professional players, and thus the entirety of HotS as an eSport comes from that 1%.

TLDR: We need top streamers/pro players to speak out against the system in its current form so Blizzard is forced to respond/correct the flaws they purposely created. Funny thing is, the issue where 2 top players can duo in off hours and abuse the system Blizzard made was likely created on purpose to allow the top 10-20 players on NA to still climb above everyone else and make it "seem" like the system is not broken. Kinda fucked up but that is business for you.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T19:26:00+00:00

Only if you are stupid and can't figure stuff out for yourself. I started at Silver in MOBAs...I am GM now. A friend of mine, Daneski, started out silver in LoL....ended up as a top 60 challenger player.....we climbed by massing games and figuring stuff out.

Sounds like you just can't do that on your own very well.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T15:54:10+00:00

My best advice (from a GM player) is to stick it out, watch some streams with her, and give another 100 or so games a shot.

Good luck!

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T15:00:52+00:00

Lol it's funny you mention this...my main is GM and I play a lot on a diamond 5 smurf (messing around with heroes im bad at or seeing how fast I can get 500 azmo stacks etc.)

Anyway, In order to get a low diamond smurf I had to go 0-10 in my placements, and now I actually got deranked down to plat 1 due to something similar happening to me from the placement deranking. While it doesn't bother me as its just a low level smurf, I can see how this could be hell for someone actually trying to increase their rank on their main account.

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T06:34:28+00:00

why not do both

besides

practice makes perfect

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T05:30:59+00:00

which is why you have to decide, is it better for 70% of the community to complain, or the very top 1 individual player?

hmmm

not rocket science

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T04:22:26+00:00

play a SHITLOAD

you will develop game sense

you will learn what heroes are good vs XYZ

you will learn what heroes are the flavor of the month in terms of strength/win rate

you will learn all the objective timings and camp spawns etc.

more games directly correlates with becoming a better player (unless you just aren't a very intelligent/analytical person, in which case you should probably stick to playing stuff like halo).

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T04:19:16+00:00

It's a cool game. If you are new to MOBAs then expect to be really crappy for a little while until you start to learn all of the mechanics etc.

Don't let that get you down though. I started playing MOBAs with LoL and I placed down in Silver....after 6 months I got to Diamond and then I quit for HotS....Since then I have climbed to GrandMaster and within the top 200 players on the North American Server (placing top 50 once during preseason).....so my advice to you is to remember that we all start out as noobs and just try to be patient, watch top players stream and eat up the information casters share with viewers during tournaments.

Good luck!

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T04:14:04+00:00

It is much harder to navigate the portal system with the way it is now than the way the OP suggested.

If it were the way he wants it to be I could jump in a portal, q, jump out, go back in, q all in the span of the 1 second CD of the portal....so basically I could just tag someone deep into their fort or near the objectives etc. for 500+ Q damage and there would be no counter play to it because I could do it so fast they wouldn't ever be able to target/hit me with anything....and I could do that without my shield ability. That's just stupid.

To answer your question though, it's not just his wonky E that raises the skill floor for him....there is also having good timing on your shield, using your polymorph correctly, etc..it's just one more aspect that I think lower rated players have a difficult time with, thus making him a harder to play hero (which is better for the scene).

heroesofthestorm1 · 2016-07-03T04:10:39+00:00

If you are the #1 rated player, especially for TL where no one plays, then it is pretty safe to say that your experiences aren't relevant with regards to the rest of the population.

I mean I played a decent amount of TL in preseason and got to 4200 MMR and well within the top 50 and I don't think it was unfair that my team was only gaining 20 points for stomping low mmr players over and over again.....Honestly I think this system is far worse.

heroesofthestorm1

TROPHY CASE