Opinion Wanted, Here's Mine

I’m only going to give one main statement about this as my sincere opinion for the sake of everyone for and against what has happened recently to 4pc. Opinions have been asked for and I hope this one is taken seriously coming from a person who has loved and supported 4pc since I first learned of the game. I understand that change is often necessary and people aren’t going to like it, but some change isn’t necessary and in fact takes steps in the wrong direction. Anything I say must not be taken as toxic or disrespectful in any way; I want discussion and feedback instead of name calling and hasty words emotionally charged.

It is painfully clear that we have an update that has single-handedly killed any form of competent competition for decently ranked players faster than any change to 4pc to date. I finally had time for a solid 4pc stream and everything went great – while commentating on a match with the standard set up everyone loved and knew. I ended the stream probably 30 minutes after the match because there was literally no games in any queue or even to spectate that came close to decent competition. The best game I got all stream was one 2100+ bullet queue (it seems 2100+ with the occasional 2300+ is the highest queues one can get these days for any time control).  

The biggest shocker to me was that even the option to play with the standard set up (whatever “Old Standard” jargon it’s called now) is on a whole different main lobby which no one is going to know about or play. It’s completely absurd to put the variant omatamix and standard set up on different lobbies and expect that to be the solution. In testing the omatamix set up with the standard position still in play, all queues were on the same lobby. Are we trying to kill the standard set up as quickly as possible? Apparently so.  

The irony? While this update’s main objective was to promote a larger player base (I guess), it has eliminated the games that serve as the best examples for new players and will certainly massively stagnate the strength of the field. We may be getting new players (plenty of no set rating range queues) ... cool? We are losing at an alarming rate every single one of the strong players who have shaped the game to the caliber and understanding it has reached today. Can we all acknowledge the giant mistakes of this update (and not all the changes were mistakes obviously), drop the default variant so called omatamix set up, drop the majority of the variants offered on the menu most of which are dead jokes and only add to the confusion, and implement changes both necessary and expedient for the benefit of 4pc and all its players.  

Questions/Arguments/Points I’ve heard across the board: 

“What are you concerned about with the new update?” A few things: a variant setup is now default which no one asked for or wanted throwing all past theory accumulated for years as nothing, virtual inaccessibility to the standard set up we know and love and even put on an obscure separate lobby, and an egregious number of variants offered which certainly only serve to confuse the new player base rather than improve it.  

“If you don’t like the new updates, just leave.” That’s literally what we are trying to counteract so this seems like a very illogical and counterintuitive statement to say.  

“The update is for the greater good of 4pc for growing a larger player base.” Ok, if more 4pc games are being played now (don’t know if this is fact without admin powers) it’s by players who are just curious about the game while a major segment of the dedicated strong players who actually love and support the game are leaving. If we are losing the players who actually enjoyed and contributed significantly to the game for a larger base of new players with no experience, there is no way to call this a “win” or “improvement” for 4pc in general.  

“The people who are complaining are a small minority and are only speaking the loudest.” Simply look right now at the number of active high rated queues in “watch” or in the lobby (and I’m talking like 2500+ which were more than normal just last week), and you will see this is clearly not the case as there is virtually no activity on a high rated level in ffa or teams. We are losing at an alarming rate all the best players including the many who don’t publicly voice an opinion. 

“The reason there’s no high rated queues is because you’re not making them”. Excuse me? The reason we don’t make queues is because we are literally being forced to play under a setup and rating system no one ever agreed to and we obviously despise.  

“Then go play the standard position you so love.” Since the standard position is on an entirely different lobby (completely unmentioned), no one knows about it and no one joins the games (I’ve tried).

Believe it or not, there is actually a 2600+ game going on right now. The first rated 2600+ game in a long, long time. 

The simplest fix for the most gain is to just make the old standard more available for both teams and ffa.  The old setup should be the first option available in the custom rules page and the main lobbies should be joined.  This would drastically improve the situation and is not too hard of a fix.  Then people can easily choose to play the setup they want and 4pc will hopefully not lose too many players to the point that it becomes unrecoverable.

There were multiple 1|7 FFA 2500+ games with 2900s on Friday, not sure if you were online to see them...

There's a huge skill gap between 2500 and 2600

Multiple is incorrect, it was the same group of players hitting rematch. The 2900's you speak of are empty_k3, Sakthi (who played only 1 iirc) and PlayableCharacter of which the prior is a joke and the latter only briefly reappeared to see the new position. 

well written and argued, and will like most well written and argued points, be pointlessly ignored by those in charge.

I'm pretty sure the reason why high-rated players aren't playing anymore is the sheer fact that it's basically solo if you're trying to get rating points without farming those whose rating is around 1500 - 1700. I'm not entirely sure as to why they chose to change this. Also because of the omatamix  set-up.

Which is why I've stopped bothering with logically constructed criticisms and just resorted to a flame war with elgarbage ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Being past 2000 is just a chore now, just dealt with a match where two people targeted me early on. 😶

Hard agree with @grathieben .

You need 2500+ to get a good game of sorts and now 2500+ is pure solo.

Some if not many will disagree but I like how high level is Solo. But probably because I couldn't care less about losing a few points in a game (only about -5 for losing a game right now with this system)

Would like to add that it may be -5 for you but for some of us it is -20/-30 for not winning but +10 for winning in vast majority of queues and finding 2900+ lobbies (bare minimum) in order for it to be somewhat interesting is impossible.

Exactly. The change seems fun until you realize high rated players are getting ruined.

Just trying to stay past 2000 is painful enough. I'm getting thrown into games with 2300+ which makes my rating plummet if I lose.

Also another issue is that your rating plummets even if you are playing against people with 1500. 

Not sure I'm following, how does your rating get remotely affected if you just got 2000 and are in games with 2300+?

I don't like the update either, but they won't change it

I mean like if I get 4th place by chance it still goes down as much as if i was playing lower ranked players. 

What I'm saying is: they need to adjust the rating system.