I think that placement matches, as they are currently, shouldn’t exist. There is no reason for me to have to do 10 placement matches when you just saw me playing 2 days ago. I didn’t get much better or worse in those 2 days to warrant 10 placement games.
Especially when those “placements” realistically only place you within +/- 200 SR from your previous season.
No, I think your SR should just carry over or you only have 1 or 2 placement games.
This said, I think there is a place for 10 placement matches. When someone comes back to the game after a 1 year break they are not as good as they were. Perhaps they are playing different characters too. Point is, this is the person who needs placements; actual placements. The 10 placement matches this person would have would actually place them based on their skill instead of where they finished last season.
Placements usually don’t move me even outside of 20 SR of my previous season. I’ve gone 8-2 and 2-8 and SR still barely moved, no idea what they are for.
I’ve had a similar thought. While I know that a system-wide reset would create a clustereff of apocalyptic proportions, I’ve long thought that allowing someone to petition a reset of their individual account once a calendar year might be a nice way to allow someone to make a jump, or prove that they are still at their ELO once and for all.
I know there’s flaws in this method, but I like for the transparency’s sake. “Oh, you don’t think you’re silver anymore? Ok. Prove it.”
I just wish that, for returning players, they were just a formality instead of an actual system. Like, I want the to SR carry over exactly from the previous system, and placement games calculates SR exactly like normal games, they just don’t show you your actual rank until you’ve played 10 games.
That’d be a lot less frustrating than playing 10 matches only to be shown that, hey, literally all of that time was pointless.
I agree season to season shouldnt have placements, but if you miss a season, you should go through them. I haven’t played comp in a long time and even though i was diamond before, I’d probably be lucky to get plat.
I honestly think the only reason they do them every season is to make farming points not just a free gimmie.
Placements help to prevent boosting. If you got boosted to a higher rank you are truly trash. you get reset back to your trash rank at the beginning of each season.
To me, placements should be a soft SR reset. Basically, have your SR swing more heavily in placements and maybe add a heavier performance-based component.
Right now placements are literally 10 normal matches with hidden SR and serve absolutely no purpose.
By soft reset you mean that the SR changes are more drastic? That could be good, but I don’t think it is necessary for every season if you have been continuously playing
This is basically how placements work in the current system, you just don’t see it because the system has determined you’re performing at your elo. I’ve gone 4-6 in placements and had my SR swing 300 points upwards anyway because I didn’t finish climbing by the end of the last season.
Anyone can demonstrate to the matchmaker every time they play that they deserve better or worse by winning more. Someone who is climbing should have a disproportionate amount of wins v losses. There’s no need for a reset because everyone can already climb or drop as is.
That’s why I say that placements are useless if you’ve been regularly playing.
It’s also why I say they should have placements if they have taken a long break as their skill has likely changed such that the matchmaker cannot account for it.
Many of us, though, play QP with players much higher ranked than ourselves. If I spend a month or two playing at that level, learn to contribute, and fix a multitude of mistakes should I have to go back to grinding at the level I was? And yes, I know this is what many people use alt accounts for, but it wouldn’t have to be. I’d much rather have a chance to start clean and place all over again than go get an alt. I’d rather have my actual play times, cosmetics, achievements all in one place.
Shoot, I’d even pay for that opportunity over buying an alt.
That said, I’m okay with where I’m at; I just think the system could use a bit of that kind of transparency. As I’ve written at length elsewhere, I like SR as a measure of growth–but if I could have other ways to track my progress (especially given that many of the current stats don’t help me with understanding my impact) I’d take those over a ladder.