[QUOTE=fubar;529597]
On a side note: twidi, mikza, adeto and I all intentionally solo queued a lot of games today, to avoid getting stacked teams. Anti can confirm that as he’s been put into the same lobby with us on more than one occasion, but honestly… it really doesn’t differ that much.[/QUOTE]
Indeed, that was the only one of three games I played which wasn’t completely terrible (incidentally those were my first real 5on5s in this game, a bit of a harsh introduction :P). It doesn’t stop unfair teams (and I think the first stomp I was against was solos, just super bad luck), but it still increases the chance a lot that at least both of the teams get to leave their spawn occasionally.
I hope you’ll keep doing that for now and if most of the top teams (and PUG players) would agree not to stack matchmaking at least until next week’s open beta, it could help a lot already. That should also make it easier to rank up for you, since ELO distribution is going to be more balanced.
[quote=Anti;529613]
It would be interesting to get community feedback on that last point. Would you folks, both those who solo and those playing in parties, prefer to see ranked locked to teams of three or less in the short term, with us adding bigger team matching later? Or would you prefer to keep it as is for now, potentially ensuring more matches are available faster?[/quote]
I would simply prefer teams not to be matched with solos for now. Maybe two stacks, but not 3+. I understand that this would make it harder to find matches in the short term, but solos vs stack isn’t a real match to begin with. It’s a waste of time for everyone involved, and like others have said, it actively deters many from queueing up in the first place. So if anything your current leniency makes it harder to find a “real” game.
In the future, when the system is far more calibrated, you can try allowing solos vs stack again. Maybe at first only allow this with high level solo players, since those will generally know how to play as a team. Also stacks should probably always get a virtual ELO boost, so they are matched up against stronger individuals and have to attain better results to increase their ranking (and vice versa for the solo players). Echo will probably be able to tell you how to calibrate this once we get a lot more matches going, i.e. how much higher the average win expectation is for a stack of five against five solos of equal rank.
