Ranked has been ruined

General Discussion
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As KI has always been about multiplayer given that single player is way too easy, I feel that the release of Season 3 has in many ways ruined what was a great game.

Firat of all, the ranked reset kicked us all back to qualifier. While I get that the aim of this is to weed out those who got to Killer when it was easier this is a classic case of smashing a nut with a sledgehammer. It took me, and I’m sure many others, a year and a half to make Killer. It felt like a real achievement then was suddenly taken away from us.

While we can grind to that point, it just feels pointles trying right now as the low tiers are stocked with top Killers trying to make it back. If you actually manage to make it to it to the promotion round, you get knocked back an obscene 200 points for losing. That will happen often as the broken ranking system will put you against the top 32 without fail.

Of course, we can whine that things will balance out as the tiers sort themselves out. However, as a very long term player I’m seriously considering forget about ranked matches for good, I’m sure many newboes are already gone for the same reason.

lwt’s also not forget that smurfing/sandbagging is now an officially endorsed policy with the monthly reset. Believe it or not, some weirdos do seem to enjoy creating new accounts to come back and dominate the low tiers to annoy people, I even played someone called KI Sandbag…

As your ranked level determines how many people use Exhibition mode it’s hardly worth bothering if everyone is sitting in bronze or silver despite their ability.

For all the rhetoric about stop lagswitchers, I’m still fighting matches that conveniently freeze up if I start winning. We can’t even block people, that fix is conveniently working, so it’s like we’re left to rely on whatever ineffective probation rubbish has been brought in.

If we ever do make it back to Killer, we’ll be demoted if, god forbid, we take a holiday and can’t sign in for a month.

If Microsoft et al want to takevthe Apple route and make it clear all our data is their person plaything then fine but they’ll lost a lot of players in the meantime.

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Wow that title really means a lot to you.

Hope you can continue to enjoy season 3

1 Like
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Would you be happy if instead of Bronze it said “Killer” and then there was Silver, Gold and Ultra levels for higher ability?

Personally I just can’t wait to hit Gold so I get my salty run backs! :wink:

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if you’re having so much difficulty getting back to killer, i recommend you go and do exhibitions for at least a couple weeks to a month. it really helps when you fight good opponents not worrying about point loss or gain. if you worry too much about that, then less of your mind is going towards the fight at hand. you are essentially going up against 2 opponents. the other guy/gal…and yourself.

sit in exhibitions for a while, train yourself to get better, or just take a break from the game. all i can tell you, up to you to walk through that door and fix up your mind set. if you’re pissed off, you wont win matches nearly as much as going in with a clear mind and you’ll never see killer that way in a decent time frame.

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I don’t care so much about the title, it’s kore that progress now feels pointless and you’re arbitrarily denied it…

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I never got to Killer and I’ll certainly never make it now, so aside from a few achievements I can’t get I don’t give a damn about ranked anymore. Though after reading your story, that is pretty lame when you think of it that way.

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I’m not saying this to be a jerk, or start an argument or anything… I myself am new to KI, though not to fighting games in general (I’m no old school, I’m no old school, played for a decade guy either though)… So maybe I misunderstand bow the system works, but if you aren’t able to make Killer rank with the new system, wouldn’t that mean you aren’t ‘good’ enough?

I seriously am not saying that to run my.mouth or be insulting, but if you bull forward always assuming the problem lies elsewhere, you don’t grow. When I first started playing I just assumed because I knew the BnBs and basic tech and had read matchup articles that I was good enough… And I wasn’t advancing in the ranks because the system was stupid and holding me back. After a while it dawned on me that it wasn’t the system, it was me. I wasn’t good enough, the dudes who were gatekeeping me werent cheating, or playing the system or anything, they were just more skilled. Once I realized that, it opened me up to look at what I was doing a lot more objectively… and the end result was I closed the holes (some lol) in my game and got better and eventually , I was past the barrier and cruising.

All I’m saying is, if the system works for some people have achieved Killer, then it can be done, maybe the requirements have put it past your skill level, so you need to level up some and re-approach.

Again, I mean this respectfully and I’ve misunderstood something and put my foot in my mouth, my bad. That wasn’t my intention.

3 Likes
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No, I definitely get what you mean and eventually, huge emphasis there, things will resolve themself and it’ll be a little easier to regain position but I really don’t know if I can be bothered with the effort given how long it takes to get to the peak but how quickly you come down from it. As with other people, I have family/work commitments andvother hobbies to pursue (finally took up clay pigeon shooting :wink: ) and I’m more of an RPG player so it’s hardier to justify playing KI if it just frustrates me. As I’ve said, I don’t bother with Exhibition as no one plays it, from my experience, and the rank reset means it’s not clear who’s a worthy challenge and who’s a sandbag.

I made Killer on Easter Monday this year on my third try and my opponent got the full barrage of a strong Northern Irish accent in full jubilation, not sure if I’ll stick around to give someone else that joy.

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The way you see ranks in this game is more akin to how someone else would see a level in other games - something to grind for. That’s not how ranks work, they’re supposed to represent your level of expertise with the game.

The people that are really good enough to be in Killer are already there or they didn’t play yet (and will take them a few hours to get back there when they do). If you had to struggle to achieve Killer then it wasn’t supposed to be your rank, no shame on that. I’m sure I’ll have trouble leaving Gold myself when I reach it as I’m definitely not a good player.

I agree that right now the ranks aren’t representative of people’s actual skill level because everyone is reset, but this doesn’t make the game “ruined” as it’s just a temporary situation that will solve itself in a week or two.

If you are choosing to leave ranks completely that’s your choice and I don’t blame you, but I do suggest you first try to rethink how yo believe ranks in KI work. If you want them to represent a level of effort in grinding (as in, time spent) then I’m sorry for you, that’s not how it’s supposed to work and if you want something to represent a level instead of a rank then Ranked is really not for you. As I said earlier, ranks should represent level of expertise, not time spent. That’s why ranks got reset (the balance changes mean everyone’s expertise level is a mistery now) and that’s why you fall back to Gold after a month not playing (one month away from any skill based task leaves us rusty).

Well, you can freely create as many accounts you want on Xbox One and since they all share the Gold the main account has it’s a very efficient way to sandbag in this or any other Xbox One game (PS4 has that feature too by the way). It’s also way more efficient because since you use a different name, if you’re a recognized figure you become anonymous again, for example if @CrazyLCD tries to sandbag (not that he would do this, sorry to use you as an example Larry :wink: ) and do the reset, everybody will just see his gamertag and probably either rage quit or not take the match seriously. If he instead just create another Live account nobody will know it’s him.

So this problem isn’t new to S3 or even KI.

This is rank data about a competitive game we are talking about. Every competitive activity has this kind of data managed by an organization of some sort. Notice they didn’t erase your stars or other stats, just ranked level. This is yet again you considering ranks as levels, something that they truly aren’t.

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So I take it you’re salty about losing a lot? There’s really nothing else going on in your post. I think it’s time “don’t post while salty” gets added to the forum guidelines.

Also, some of your math doesn’t really make any sense. The new ranking system is only a bit more than a year old (end of Feb 2015). So you can’t have been playing for a year and a half trying to make killer. If you were and there was some mythical period when it was easy, you would have benefitted from this.

Trust me, I didn’t enjoy getting placed in bronze and then losing to a bronze player with a pro star either. And I agree that the -200 promotion loss penalty is a poor decision that makes little or no sense. But that’s just how it’s going to be for a while. I can tell you though with the way the system is set up you will climb out of bronze unless you are losing more than you are winning. In which case why would you want to advance?

This is about the third rage thread really motivated by the sentiment “I used to be a killer why do I have to be bronze now!!!” If you just calm down and focus on how to win more matches instead of the unfairness of it all, you will do better.

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This is a good point - @GavinNelson178 your unlocked colours and lvl 50 on characters you play represent your grind and reflect that achievement. Rank Tier is purely how much skill you currently have compared to other players.

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I’m not picking a fight with you, so I hope it doesn’t come across that way, but honestly, it doesn’t even represent that. It’s how much success you have had against other players, playing ranked matches online. This is the problem with almost any measurement. If you get A grades in school it doesn’t prove your smart, and it doesn’t prove you’re smarter than people who get B grades. It just proves you did what was required to get A grades. Getting to Killer proves that you did what was required to get to Killer. Does that correlate with your current skill at the game? Broadly, yes, it should. But it isn’t guaranteed to. If I go into an Exhibition match and a qualifier destroys me - then it shows how little Rank actually represents. My brother never bothered to play Ranked all last season. So he was a qualifier. He decided to try the night before the reset and he placed in Gold. Truthfully, he’s got decent fighting game skills but he’s not that great at KI. Neither Qualifier, nor Gold will tell you anything about his current skills at the game. So, being a Killer doesn’t mean you are highly skilled and being stuck in Bronze for the moment is not an indication that you are a scrub, or have no skill.

We all want to be good at the game. Truthfully, most of us probably think that we are just a little bit better than we actually are. But attaching significance to the title you get from playing ranked matches, or worrying about the fact that other people might think more or less of you based on those titles is just a recipe for frustration.

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I’m inclined to agree with you - the ranked was far too easy in season 2 and may even still be too easy once the ranks settle down.

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With that I agree, it’s really not guaranteed to, but it’s supposed to and for some people it really does. I believe the problems with the current ranked system could be fixed so it better represents your overall skill level relative to other KI players in ranked - it won’t ever be perfect but it can improve by so much!

First of all, why no rank downs? I believe back when this system was first introduced people where getting ■■■■■■ off because the old way rank worked made you lose A BUNCH of points for a lost match, meaning all your effort into getting a certain rank name could be lost by just a few matches. I believe people where highly misguided when they complained about losing their “rank names” because they at the time also though ranks should be akin to levels (with enough time you are eventually guaranteed to have them) when they definitely shouldn’t, but unfortunately IG listened and changed rank systems to what it was in the majority of S2. Huge point loses where kept (at least when you lose to a lower rank) but there are thresholds where you can’t get bellow so you’re never at risk of completely losing your “progress”.

Second, the qualifier rounds. The idea is kinda neat, it allows you to avoid the grinding by already placing you a little higher than Bronze with 0 points, but with no rank downs and only 10 matches to qualify there is a HUGE risk of you being placed higher than you deserve and now there is no way around it.

Comes the current changes in ranked and I think IG tried to fix these problems while not really fixing them. First they made it a little harder to rank UP so the problem of no rank downs would be mitigated, since it’s harder for people to go up there is less need to rank down. Then they added an optional rank down that you do on purpose, kinda of adding rank downs but not quite, and then they added a single rank down point in case you’re a Killer and away for a month.

All of that indicates to me that IG is unfortunately very worried to give players a real ranked system where your skill is being measured and you WILL go down a bunch of ranks if you’re having a lousy week and losing a lot. Instead they gave us this fake ranked system that tries at the same time to measure skill and give all players that feeling of accomplishment when you see numbers go up. I don’t blame them, many players are locked in that mind set that a rank is like a participation medal and everyone should get one because they love the game and play it so much.

My suggestions to IG to make a better ranked system while trying to satisfy players who just want to measure their dedication to the game (instead of their skill with it) would be:

1 - Allow full rank ups and downs. You could add a little “protection against bad luck” by requiring something like 3 losses with 0 points in a rank to go down, but overall allow players to lose their ranks if they can’t play well enough for that league.

2 - Normalize the points again. No -200 for a loss in a qualifier round. Winning against your rank or better should give a good amount of points and winning against a lower rank should give very few points while losing to them should cost you a bunch and that’s it. With rank downs there is no need to protect the rank up. The “only rank up after playing your rank or better” is a good idea thou, it should be kept.

3 - Remove the cap on Player Level (and maybe Character Level) and make it flashier. Let IT be the prize for dedicated players that spend a lot of time with the game. Give names to the levels like you do to the ranks and maybe in the future implement additional medals as Profile Icons and Profile Taunts they can show off. Let levels be levels and ranks be ranks.

4 - That one is already implemented but it’s good to remind, keep the player levels advancing for all game modes, even offline ones.

Looking at the list we can see KI is almost there, the tools to implement good rank and level systems are pretty much already implemented, they just need to change a few rules to make the system work as it should. I think with changes like that we could have a ranked system that represents skill better (it won’t ever be perfect) while giving all players a leveling system that keeps them motivated in keep playing even when they don’t play ranked. With Shadow Lords coming we would have even more incentive for those players who don’t like ranked and only play for that Killer status.