Alright, I was in a bit of a hurry when writing the previous post, so I forgot to add the most important point, perhaps. You know it, of course (addressing the author here), but others may not: just play Mercenaries, which is obviously the best mode in the game, have loads of fun and forgo all the stress. 
Speaking of which: even in chess, which is not the roulette that HS is, at the very top level it’s still an inevitable problem (I could go on, but I dunno if I should digress like this, unless someone’s really interested) — and what do you want from a game like this?
And about ranks: let me tell you, they are rubbish. Yeah, there are some — rather laughable, I must say — characters on this forum who think they are someone and are trying to brag about it: oh, look at me, I had this win streak, I reached that number, I’m so good, admire me! Let me reiterate it: this is rubbish. Just in case someone tries to throw in some ad hominem nonsense, I could point out the approximate level at which I play, but, once again: those numbers are rubbish, and I’m mostly doing those pesky weekly quests in Classic, apart from some inertia — sometimes I dunno why I keep bothering with maintaining the star bonus, in the hypothetical case it’d come in handy or something… same thing with gold. But anyway, enough of these insignificant details and personal digressions — instead, let me give you a much more interesting example: they actually paid some money (and it must have been a substantial amount, I assume) and gave a full collection to Garry Kasparov (I wonder if this bunch of hyperactive big babies, which are so abundant on this forum, even know who he is), who, despite his somewhat venerable age, has still more of brain, skill and so on than most people here will have — ever, so that he would promote the game. Last time I read about it, he reached D5 — and didn’t bother climbing further. Rather dumb bots, however, are a different story… Thus, it’s not even a case where ‘the better man wins’ or something — so I wouldn’t even bother with all this rubbish about ranks. Oh, did I mention that they are rubbish?
One more thing: I don’t know what ‘negativity’ you speak of — I haven’t exactly been following your every move, but apart from occasional moments of frustration, the only somewhat strange thing I’ve noticed is your apologising excesively and profusely wherever necessary or not (most often the latter ), even to some bozos, who clearly don’t even deserve any attention, if you ask me — but that’s your right and your choice, actually, and I’m not the one to tell you how to live your life.
PS Maybe I’ll merge two posts later, but not now.
