wittyscorpion
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Post by wittyscorpion on Nov 29, 2012 16:43:55 GMT -5
The following info are copy-pasted from Elite Web Site. Hopefully this answers most of the questions people may have. Overview Link: elite.callofduty.com/news/xbox/251League Play is a new feature introduced by Call of Duty®: Black Ops II that allows you to compete against similarly skilled opponents as a solo competitor or as a league team. Leagues are broken up into individual Series with different rulesets. Placement matches at the start of each Series determine your skill level by matching you against a spectrum of skilled teams. Your performance in the placement matches grants a hidden skill level that determines your Division placement. You are placed within a Subdivision of that Division, and compete for Ladder Rank in the Subdivision Ladders. Winning a match earns you Ladder Points that help you climb the ladder, while losing a match results in lost Ladder Points. Your goal is to finish with the best rank by the end of the league season. Let’s take a closer look at some League Play concepts: SeriesLeagues are played in Series, each with its own rulesets and game types. Initially, there will be two Series. Your rank is specific to each one, so if you play in both, you will establish a separate rank for each Series. Champions Series A mix of objective game modes that use competitive rules. Format: 4v4 Ranks: Team and Solo Special Rules: No Care Package. No Tactical Insertions. Moshpit Series A mix of Team Deathmatch and objective game modes that use standard rules. Format: 6v6 Ranks: Solo DivisionsThere are six divisions that reflect the approximate skill distribution of the active population in a Series. Masters: top 2% of the active population. Platinum: next 18%. Gold: next 20%. Silver: next 20%. Bronze: next 20%. Iron (note: the page says "Bronze", I think they mean Iron): bottom 20%. You will start in a Division based on your hidden skill rating determined by placement matches. As you play, if you win enough you may be promoted to a higher Division. Bonus PoolA weekly Bonus Pool is awarded to you for the first few wins of every week. This is in addition to the Ladder Points earned for those wins. The weekly bonus is reset on Sundays at 12AM PST. Earning the Bonus Pool every week adds a big boost to your ranking in the ladder. Seasons and PreseasonLeague Play is broken up into Seasons, each lasting approximately thirty calendar days. At the end of a Season, there will be a brief window of time before the next Season starts. This period of time is known as Preseason. During Preseason, we are finalizing results of the previous Season as well as adjusting the game rules and map rotations as necessary. You can play and practice during Preseason, but these games won’t count for League Ladders. The current Season and how much time remains in it will be displayed to you in-game. StandingsAt the end of the Season you may visit the team or solo homepage in game to view the final standings for your ladders. Your highest career Division rank will be displayed in your team or solo homepage and your all-time career best Division rank will be shown in your global playercard. When the next season starts you will complete placement matches again to re-establish a division rank. Stay tuned to the Leagues page for more information and coverage as we approach the first Season, starting December 1st, 2012.
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Nov 29, 2012 16:44:15 GMT -5
Moshpit Series Link: elite.callofduty.com/news/xbox/248The Moshpit Series features a mix of Team Deathmatch and objective game modes that use standard rules. Standard rules feature the same ruleset experienced in multiplayer Public Matches. Solo Rank PlayMoshpit features Solo Rank play. Any time you are not playing as a League Team, you will play and be ranked as a solo competitor. This is true even if you form a party with a few friends and play together. If you're playing in a Series that does support League Teams and you play with less than the full team size in your party, you and every player in your party will be ranked as a solo competitor. Trial SeasonLeague Play is currently undergoing a Trial Season. The Trial Season is a test season that allows the developers to evaluate the League Play systems with a full player base. During Trial Season the full features are available for League Play. You can earn a Ladder Rank, create teams, and your stats will count in the Combat Record. However, the Season will be shorter than a regular Season and your career bests will not be recorded. After Trial Season there will be a short Preseason, and Season 1 will begin on December 1st, 2012. Moshpit Series Game Modes and RulesetTeam Deathmatch Win: First to 75 points or highest points at end time. Time Limit: 10 minutes. Kill Confirmed Win: First to 75 points or highest points at end of time. Time Limit: 10 minutes. Capture the Flag Win: Win 2 rounds. Capture Limit to win a round: 3 Rounds: 2 Round Time Limit: 5 minutes Enemy Flag Carrier on Radar: Delayed Respawn Delay: 7.5 seconds Switch Sides: After every round Overtime Rules: The first capture in overtime sets a capture time. The team that is down by a capture must then capture the flag faster than the first capture time in order to win. If the team that captured the first flag in overtime then captures another flag, they win. Hardpoint Win: First to 250 points or highest score at end of time. Time Limit: 10 minutes. Hardpoint Lifetime: 1 minute. Hardpoint Rotation: Start random, then linear rotation. Moshpit Map RotationAll maps are in rotation for all game types (not including Nuketown 2025).
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wittyscorpion
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All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Nov 29, 2012 16:44:36 GMT -5
Champions Series The Champions Series features a mix of objective game modes that use competitive rules. Competitive rules differ from the rulesets you experience in multiplayer Public Matches. These rulesets reflect the standards used by the professional circuit. Team RankA League Team is created by gathering a party in the League Play lobby that has enough players to fill a full team. The Champions Series will support League Teams. In order to create a team, visit the League Play lobby and invite enough players to meet the team size of 4 players. Select Find Match and you will be asked to create a new League Team. You will then choose a team name and a team emblem. Team emblems can be selected from any team member’s saved emblems. This will also create a Team Homepage in the Barracks, where you or any player on your team can change your emblem later if desired. Once created, the team will compete as a League Team and will be placed in Team Ladders. The team will have its own skill rating that's based entirely on the team’s wins or losses. When playing as a team, your wins and losses only count towards the team’s skill rating and team ladder ranks and do not affect solo skill rating or solo ladder ranks. Because teams have their own skill rating, each team is unique to the 4 players on that team. You cannot swap a player in for a different one, as it would affect the skill rating for the team. Any time you gather a different group of players to play as a League Team, you will create a unique team that is specific to the players on the team. Trial SeasonLeague Play is currently undergoing a Trial Season. The Trial Season is a test season that allows the developers to evaluate the League Play systems with a full player base. During Trial Season the full features are available for League Play. You can earn a Ladder Rank, create teams, and your stats will count in the Combat Record. However, the Season will be shorter than a regular Season and your career bests will not be recorded. After Trial Season there will be a short Preseason, and Season 1 will begin on December 1st, 2012. Champions Series Game Modes and RulesetCapture the Flag Win: Most captures at end of time. Score: Carry across rounds. Rounds: 2 Round Time: 5 minutes Enemy Carrier on Radar: Delayed Respawn Delay: 7.5 seconds Switch Sides: After every round Overtime Rules: The first capture in overtime sets a capture time. The team that is down by a capture must then capture the flag faster than the first capture time in order to win. If the team that captured the first flag in overtime then captures another flag, they win. Domination Win: Most points at end of time Score: Carry across rounds Rounds: 2 Round Time: 5 minutes Respawn Delay: 7.5 seconds Search and Destroy Win: First to win 4 Rounds Switch Sides: After every round Round Time: 1.5 minutes Bomb Timer: 45 seconds Plant Time: 7.5 seconds Defuse Time: 7.5 seconds. Hardpoint Win: First to 250 points or highest score at end of time. Time Limit: 10 minutes. Hardpoint Lifetime: 1 minute Hardpoint Rotation: Linear rotation. Champions Map RotationAll maps are in rotation for all game types (not including Nuketown 2025).
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Nov 29, 2012 17:04:43 GMT -5
Regarding Solo vs. Partying and how they affect ranking, below is my understanding:
In Moshpit Series:
You'll only have a solo rank Play with a party will contribute to your solo rank. It is unclear to me whether the matchmaking ensures that your entire party are on the same team.
In Champions Series:
You'll have both solo and team rank If you play solo or with a party < 4 players, the game will only contribute to your solo rank; If you play with a party of 4, you are asked to form a league team first, and from then on every time you play with this party the games will only contribute to this team's rank.
Rank reset
Rank will be reset at the beginning of season.
Rank in you Playercard
Your career best solo or team division rank will be featured in your playercard.
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Post by aidsaidsaids on Nov 29, 2012 17:19:30 GMT -5
Your party is always on your team in moshpit. There would be obvious boosting problems otherwise.
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wittyscorpion
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All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Nov 29, 2012 17:27:55 GMT -5
Your party is always on your team in moshpit. There would be obvious boosting problems otherwise. That would make the most sense. Follow up question: how would a party of huge skill gaps (say 1 Master + 1 Silver + 1 Iron) get matched?
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Post by aidsaidsaids on Nov 29, 2012 17:40:50 GMT -5
I've never actually seen anyone in Iron. The moshpit group I play in the most consists of 4 Master and 2 Platinum. We've only played against one Silver guy, and he was in a mixed party. Based on that miniscule sample though, I'm inclined to say the algorithm favors getting low ranks murdered over giving high ranks free lobbies. In general the matchmaking does a pretty good job of matching ranks though, considering there are only a few thousand playing.
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wittyscorpion
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All warfare is based on deception.
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Post by wittyscorpion on Nov 29, 2012 17:48:19 GMT -5
I've never actually seen anyone in Iron. The moshpit group I play in the most consists of 4 Master and 2 Platinum. We've only played against one Silver guy, and he was in a mixed party. Based on that miniscule sample though, I'm inclined to say the algorithm favors getting low ranks murdered over giving high ranks free lobbies. In general the matchmaking does a pretty good job of matching ranks though, considering there are only a few thousand playing. Again that would make the most sense. Otherwise a Master can boost an Iron by partying together and win a streak of games without worrying too much about his rank being negatively affected. I can see that this system heavily discourages partying of players with diverse skills. If a player want to play with a party, he has to find friends who have similar skills.
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Post by aidsaidsaids on Nov 29, 2012 17:52:02 GMT -5
We actually dragged one of our female friends to Platinum as a joke already <.< it's definitely still possible, and I would say an average player with his eyes on the prize would be better off buying his more talented friends a case of beer or something than trying his luck with his own kind.
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wittyscorpion
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All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Nov 29, 2012 17:56:37 GMT -5
We actually dragged one of our female friends to Platinum as a joke already <.< it's definitely still possible, and I would say an average player with his eyes on the prize would be better off buying his more talented friends a case of beer or something than trying his luck with his own kind. Interesting. So boosting is doable, as long as the "boostee" stays out of the harms way and let his/her more skilled friends do all the work :-) In that case I would hope the playercard only shows the best "active" rank, i.e. the best rank in the current season (and nothing if he is not playing leagues in the current season) . Otherwise it would not mean much (as a player can boost to a high rank in one season and have it featured in his playercard for eternity)
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eLantern
True Bro
"Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned! Ask not for whom the bone bones, it bones for thee!" - Bender
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Post by eLantern on Nov 29, 2012 18:04:08 GMT -5
I played the 5 qualifying games last night w/ my uncle (Witt you've played with him too) and we both got placed in Silver with him getting a rank of 89 and me getting a rank of 157. This didn't make any sense to me though, because I constantly placed higher then him in nearly every one of those games. In fact, I was the highest scorer on my team 4 of the 5 games. The only game I didn't place 1st on my team I was 2nd to my uncle just because he score 3 flags and killed the flag carrier 4 times to my 1 flag cap and 5 carrier kills. Anyways, our ranking placement within the Silver division didn't make sense to me considering he place last on our team in 4 out of the 5 games minus the one game in which he took first place. Just thought it was strange.
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Post by aidsaidsaids on Nov 29, 2012 18:06:07 GMT -5
I was under the impression that it was lifetime, but it might be subject to change. It's still the trial period after all. I don't even consider it boosting, really. She at least follows instructions like "do go past point x, you'll flip the spawn," which is more helpful than some of the kids than inexplicably played ranked matches with no mic.
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Nov 29, 2012 18:13:07 GMT -5
I played the 5 qualifying games last night w/ my uncle (Witt you've played with him too) and we both got placed in Silver with him getting a rank of 89 and me getting a rank of 157. This didn't make any sense to me though, because I constantly placed higher then him in nearly every one of those games. In fact, I was the highest scorer on my team 4 of the 5 games. The only game I didn't place 1st on my team I was 2nd to my uncle just because he score 3 flags and killed the flag carrier 4 times to my 1 flag cap and 5 carrier kills. Anyways, our ranking placement within the Silver division didn't make sense to me considering he place last on our team in 4 out of the 5 games minus the one game in which he took first place. Just thought it was strange. If the placement is W/L based only and you two played together through all the placement matches, I imagine that him being 89 and you being 157 are just random assignments. Keep in mind that these placements are highly inaccurate anyway, as 5 matches of pitting players of unknown skill against each other can't really produce accurate results. Also keep in mind: the "89" and "157" are not rankings in the division, but places in the ladder of a subdivision (which I think are randomly created and each have 200 players). The goal is to give you some incentive to keep playing leagues: to move up the ladder. You and your uncle are most likely not even in the same subdivision (if subdivisions are ranked against each other, it is entirely possible that you are in a much higher "subdivision" than him) You should go solo and play a bunch of matches and see how things go post-placement. I believe that you'll be able to get into gold division pretty quickly (no disrespect, but it is likely that he dragged your down during placement :-) ).
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Post by Megaqwerty on Nov 29, 2012 18:18:07 GMT -5
Bonus PoolA weekly Bonus Pool is awarded to you for the first few wins of every week. This is in addition to the Ladder Points earned for those wins. The weekly bonus is reset on Sundays at 12AM PST. Earning the Bonus Pool every week adds a big boost to your ranking in the ladder. Good idea but terrible implementation as it still favors people who play all the time. In SC2, your bonus pool accrues bonus points over time of inactivity and has no cap, save the slow rate at which it is generated. Ergo, you could capitalize on your bonus pool at any time during a season (which last several months) without penalty if you were inactive for a relatively long period of time. Here, missing a few weeks could possibly be very detrimental to your overall ranking since bonus pool points not used are lost forever. Not that this matters on PC: between the two of them, the league playlists are lucky to have a hundred players.
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Post by aidsaidsaids on Nov 29, 2012 18:21:16 GMT -5
Population levels are not equal across subdivisions. My Master subdivision as of last night had only 30 players. My brother is in my subdivision too, so we can't both get number one :/
And Lantern, near as I've been able to tell in game performance has nothing to do with ranking. Winning is all that appears to matter, as it should be. How many of your five placement games did you win, out of curiosity?
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Nov 29, 2012 18:23:56 GMT -5
Bonus PoolA weekly Bonus Pool is awarded to you for the first few wins of every week. This is in addition to the Ladder Points earned for those wins. The weekly bonus is reset on Sundays at 12AM PST. Earning the Bonus Pool every week adds a big boost to your ranking in the ladder. Good idea but terrible implementation as it still favors people who play all the time. In SC2, your bonus pool accrues bonus points over time of inactivity and has no cap, save the slow rate at which it is generated. Ergo, you could capitalize on your bonus pool at any time during a season (which last several months) without penalty if you were inactive for a relatively long period of time. Here, missing a few weeks could possibly be very detrimental to your overall ranking since bonus pool points not used are lost forever. Not that this matters on PC: between the two of them, the league playlists are lucky to have a hundred players. That might be OK since the season is short. If a player can't meet the per week requirement of playing, he can bypass this season and wait for the next one. Another question for players who have played leagues: how are things going on the XP front vs. public matches? Similar, much less? For a player who plays League most of the time, will he be prestiging at a much slower speed? Just trying to decide whether to wait until I reach Prestige Master before considering League Play.
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Post by aidsaidsaids on Nov 29, 2012 18:24:41 GMT -5
Much slower speed.
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Nov 29, 2012 18:40:10 GMT -5
@aids, more questions for you:
Does League Play allow Join-in-Progress?
Do players quit or dashboard really get published by putting on probation?
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Post by thegentleman on Nov 29, 2012 18:42:24 GMT -5
I'm about 3/4ths of the way up whatever Platinum subdivision I'm in, and the players there really do seem matched to my skill level. I always feel my share of responsibility in both the wins and the losses.
Every round I've been in for the League Play has been close, close, close. For all of my other issues with Blops II, I do have to hand it to Treyarch for constructing an extremely competitive environment available at my beck and call.
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Nov 29, 2012 19:01:16 GMT -5
I'm about 3/4ths of the way up whatever Platinum subdivision I'm in, and the players there really do seem matched to my skill level. I always feel my share of responsibility in both the wins and the losses. Every round I've been in for the League Play has been close, close, close. For all of my other issues with Blops II, I do have to hand it to Treyarch for constructing an extremely competitive environment available at my beck and call. How fast is the matchmaking? I noticed that only a tiny percentage of the entire population are currently playing leagues (like 1%).
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Post by Megaqwerty on Nov 29, 2012 19:32:34 GMT -5
Wait, wait, you gain XP by playing league games? How about weapon XP and challenges?
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Post by aidsaidsaids on Nov 30, 2012 0:07:11 GMT -5
You gain small flat rate XP per game (more for a win I'm pretty sure). You don't progress challenges or weapons.
No join in progress is allowed. If your opponents quit, they aren't replaced. I've never quit a League match so I don't know what the protocol is for being put on probation, but I've been unable to play it because friends of friends in the party were on probation so I know it exists. I sort of wish it didn't, to be honest. Occasionally the whole other team sans one will quit halfway through the game (the beginning of the second round of Dom is a popular time) and the last guy refuses to leave for fear of probation, so we sit and wait for five minutes and try to get funny killcams.
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Post by thegentleman on Nov 30, 2012 2:30:39 GMT -5
How fast is the matchmaking? I noticed that only a tiny percentage of the entire population are currently playing leagues (like 1%). For me, it's pretty d amn fast. Then again, I'm in Los Angeles, so there's a pretty high proportion of people playing on the major areas of the West Coast I can get matched with. That said, the lag / lag comp / whatever in 4 out of every 5 games is horrible for me just as much as it is for everyone else. (Not to beat a dead horse.)
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eLantern
True Bro
"Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned! Ask not for whom the bone bones, it bones for thee!" - Bender
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Post by eLantern on Nov 30, 2012 11:33:52 GMT -5
Population levels are not equal across subdivisions. My Master subdivision as of last night had only 30 players. My brother is in my subdivision too, so we can't both get number one :/ And Lantern, near as I've been able to tell in game performance has nothing to do with ranking. Winning is all that appears to matter, as it should be. How many of your five placement games did you win, out of curiosity? 2 of the 5. 1 blowout win, 1 close win, 2 close losses, and 1 blowout loss.
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Nov 30, 2012 13:53:57 GMT -5
I can see what the placement was trying to do here. It started with some easy opponents (probably Bronze) which you blow through. Then tougher opponents (probably Gold) which you prevail as well (blow out or not does not matter, a win is a win). You then had 3 matches against opponents from probably Gold and Silver, the losses pushed you down to Silver. League Play is paying good XP bonuses. 2500 for a win. 1500 for a loss. That's pretty good.
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Post by hellzonegrenade on Nov 30, 2012 19:32:52 GMT -5
Huh, last week I played the placement matches and I was getting 1000xp per win and 500 per loss, perhaps they changed it. Also I'll add that I won 4/5 and was placed gold 112 in some sub-division. As for match making I live in the UK and I find it take a long that it takes a lot longer to find games in league play, about 1-2 minutes on average. Hopefully this picks up when(if?) more people join in.
On another note, I'm considering abandoning public and playing league only, seeing as everything is perma-unlocked there.
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Post by aidsaidsaids on Nov 30, 2012 19:37:01 GMT -5
Not really. Between challenges, score etc. I level up over twice as fast in public games. I can see why they implemented it this way (to encourage people to play to win, rather than play to level up by killwhoring etc) but it's still a less efficient leveling environment for productive players.
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Post by palladium on Nov 30, 2012 21:49:04 GMT -5
Not really. Between challenges, score etc. I level up over twice as fast in public games. I can see why they implemented it this way (to encourage people to play to win, rather than play to level up by killwhoring etc) but it's still a less efficient leveling environment for productive players. Yea if you are an at all competent player in an objective mode you will easily level up much faster just from your score in the game. Nevermind the challenges you'll get even more xp from. If I can't unlock anything and pubs are already skill based then why would I ever play league unless a full party wants to try it out? Sorry but 2500 xp isn't even close to enough.
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Post by aidsaidsaids on Dec 1, 2012 1:40:55 GMT -5
Not really. Between challenges, score etc. I level up over twice as fast in public games. I can see why they implemented it this way (to encourage people to play to win, rather than play to level up by killwhoring etc) but it's still a less efficient leveling environment for productive players. Yea if you are an at all competent player in an objective mode you will easily level up much faster just from your score in the game. Nevermind the challenges you'll get even more xp from. If I can't unlock anything and pubs are already skill based then why would I ever play league unless a full party wants to try it out? Sorry but 2500 xp isn't even close to enough. You play League because it's ranked and matchmade by wins, not whatever garbage mystery algorithm public match may or may not use. Public match is 20% SBMM at the very most. League is probably 80%
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Post by palladium on Dec 1, 2012 2:45:00 GMT -5
League is supposedly all wins and losses. Host dashboarding to give everyone a loss matters a lot less and is a lot less prevalent in public. I liked the idea of League, but I'll just wait until I'm 10th 55 before I even try it at this point.
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