Profile of Inverse

It's only 2016, don't get too carried away.

In all seriousness, I think it's okay to maybe mess up once or twice with adding new units in, but the amount of times it has happened now is ridiculous. It's like the balance team at Relic doesn't even bother to test these new units out before release. I would be all for helping test these units (although that's not my job)if I could stream this content. Still have no idea why Relic wants to keep new commanders and stuff under NDA, people know its a work in progress, so what's there to hide?

Maybe it's changed since Stefan Haines and Peter left Relic, but back at the beginning of the game's life it was pretty clear based on discussions with certain people that the balance team wasn't given the opportunity to touch commanders before their release.

Regardless, it's unfortunate that downloadable content continues to be the means by which Relic chooses to address the game's design shortcomings.

Honestly, it would be a waste of time, because a ladder like this isn't good for the type of player you want to target. It isn't good for mid-level players who want to experience more competitive play, it's good for high-level players who get very little out of the integrated automatch ladder because of the lack of suitable competition.

For an average player, a ladder like this is inferior to automatch in pretty much every single way.

It was designed as a way to bridge the gap between "just playing" and playing in a competitive ladder.

So is built-in automatch.

Making sure everyone is able to compete with players of their own caliber, when they want it and more times that just that one game a week you are Roflstomped by a much higher ranked player.

Literally the definition of automatch, expect automatch has more players, more data with which to make accurate matches, and less time wasted by the player attempting to find a game. You won't find better matches on an unofficial ladder that has a fraction of the players and a fraction of the data required to make sensible matches.

It also would automate away most of the hassle of being part of a ladder. Such as trying to find your opponents for that week, trying to get a timeslot that works etc. Just jump on and have a look for some dank games!

Open CoH2, click "search", and tada! You're part of a ladder.

Now how about those pesky annoying leavers, won't they still be an issue?
Well sure they will still leave/be AFK. However you can mark these people as leavers and if the remaining players in the match mark that person a "leaver" after the match, the shorthanded team will not have a decrease in points due to loosing.

That's all nice and all until you realize you need to hope 5 other players of similar skill in this very small community are online and looking for games on this even smaller unofficial ladder at exactly the same time you are. You won't have to worry about leavers because you'll never play a game.

There have been unofficial CoH ladders before. They've never worked because the community is too small and they're less convenient and functional than the official offerings. If you're a high-level player who stomps ladder games, you might be willing to accept some of the downsides in order to have more consistent matches. But an average player will find better matches faster in automatch than they ever will on a tiny little third party ladder.

ESEA and Face.it work because they have more players on their ladders than CoH2 has players period. A CoH2 equivalent would be a colossal waste of time.

Good read, pretty much agree with everything. ESL is a major disappointment. The optimism of some that this is just a taste of things to come is admirable, but seems rooted in emotion rather than reason. When you compare Relic's level of engagement with that of pretty much any other developer that attempts to support competition, it's pretty clear how little effort is being spent on working to make this venture a success.

It's possible, it's just probably really hard to shoehorn into their 10-year-old replay system. It's likely not worth the time and inevitable bugs for them to implement it in the current engine.