The latest patch Update 58259 introduces custom ranked lobbies for deathmatch, which could be a subtle experiment to test ranked lobbies.
It is a mistake, and will ruin the game.
I live in the oceanic region, and my ELO is top 10%-20% of players. What does this mean? It means matchmaking is harder for the system to find people to play with.
When I queue ranked, the system needs to find a player with similar ELO range within the same region, in an appropriate time (5-10 minutes). Matchmaking needs to balance all of these factors. ELO, latency, and wait time. Which is also the reason Infinite Bans is a bad idea, because it adds an additional factor to balance.
Sometimes it’s too hard for matchmaking to do that. Sometimes I am against players in America (200+ ping), or Europe (300+ ping). Sometimes I get players 500 ELO above, or below me. Sometimes I am waiting 20+ minutes.
Now add in custom ranked lobbies.
Players from less populated regions will be forced to play on America or Europe servers (we almost are at the moment anyway).
Custom ranked lobbies allow the host to choose the settings
Now on Voobly this was an issue, because the hosts would always ensure they got the advantage with the settings, and could kick any player they didn’t want to go against. Basically rigging the odds.
The most popular map is Arabia, and on Voobly this was always the map played on. For those who argue “well if they want to play the map, they can wait longer” - on voobly players were reportedly waiting for 2+ hours to play anything not Arabia. It will kill map diversity either way including Arena and Nomad.
So, to summarize:
- Custom Ranked Lobbies for deathmatch could later be used as an experiment to test ranked lobbies
- Ranked lobbies are rigged in favor of the host who chooses the server, settings and players
- Ranked lobbies will kill map diversity, as the most popular map is Arabia so it will become Arabia only
- The unfairness will destroy competitiveness, especially for less populated regions such as Oceania
Do not implement ranked random map lobbies. It is a mistake. Most of the people who want this are the same type of people who would rig Voobly lobbies in their favor to ensure a win.
Thank you for listening,
I will now enjoy any comments, especially from people who never bothered to read anything so I can bring up the same points again in a reply.