I think a 1v1 mode would be awesome for new and experienced players and solve several current issues in the game at the moment. There’s so much going on in other modes that it can be difficult to differentiate between abilities even for advanced players. There’s really no current mode at the moment that lets a player get better on their own.
Some of the entry points to PvP back in the day used to be in the world and dueling, which were most of the time small isolated skirmishes. Having a 1v1 mode would allow players to learn what other classes do, at their own pace, against people of similar mmr. From this point they’d be able to work their way into arena/bgs.
It would also be something to do by yourself as a PvPer, with short Q times. Kind of an answer to delves and what that’s bringing to the game on the PvE side of things.
Overall, I think it would be a great mode to get better at the game and try new things without being overwhelmed, while really emphasizing individual ability and a nice change of pace from most of the current modes requiring teamwork.
Some notes:
Rewards could be titles like Crimson Dueler, etc
Have an option to rematch an opponent like Street Fighter! ( I think this would be important to include, and is one of the things I love most about fighting games, Bo3)
Standing/Leaderboards/Match History
Filter classes/specs you dont want to play against
Would need more aggressive stealth detection / Time limit
People love dueling (Recent success of the tournament on twitch)
I remember when I was a 1500 backpedaling warrior in s12 mop and this gigachad warrior in goldshire in the full blue elite gear gave me a master class on how to play the game
The worst MUs to ever exist in the history of SF were never fundamentally impossible to win.
You could get the absolute best players for each and every spec in this game and there would be a number of mathematically impossible MUs to win let alone stalemate.
1v1s are cool to learn how to defend or deal with a given spec vs another, but trying to engineer a rated match making mode around it is an absolute waste of time.
I’m not sure if a mode shouldn’t be made just because of a class or two (Look at M+ and Augs). Part of the fun would be trying to beat them by trying new things. In classic people duel a ton and class balance in certain match ups isn’t great there but people still enjoy it.
It doesn’t have to be a super competitive mode, and I think it would be great to see what other players are doing and how they’re matching up against certain classes.
I think this would probably be best implemented as a brawl at first to see how it plays out!
You will not beat a decent rogue that just gets cds and resets. There is no trying out new things the game is pretty solved. You bursting at the start or bubbling the opener womt make much different when the amount of stops you have as a soec is known to anyone ie dbts, fear, disarm etc.
