Wow, you put a lot of thought into that and I read almost every word. I appreciate that effort.
I understand that as avid A&A players, you all are big time thinkers and don’t mind putting a lot of time into your endeavors. Always looking to improve things. That’s fine, just putting that out there.
A huge plus of the current system is that you can easily take any individual’s score and recalculate it to make sure it’s correct. It’s also already fairly complex, and adding little exceptions like this make it more complex.
I get it, some of you are fantasizing about the newcomer playing a tier M. Or even a tier 2 playing a tier M. I have a rebuttal to this, and I think it’s very, very strong, honestly.
As it stands now, a tier M gets 6 points for beating a tier 1, which is worth his time. A tier E gets 5 points for beating a tier 2, which also scores him 5 points which makes him a more solid tier E and works toward counting toward the 8 to be in the main playoff ( note that you do not need 8 games to play in the 2nd or 3rd playoff and only 8 players actually need the 8 games to play in the league championship playoff in January)
Now, apologies to my current opponent, Aequitas et veritas for the following, but is necessary for my rebuttal. He’s a very cool guy so I’m sure no offense will be taken.
Aequitas is a veteran of the site and has played a WHOPPING 86 games in the past 2 1/2 years. He’s a known quantity. Very known. He has averaged roughly 3.5, or a low tier 1 these 2 1/2 years. I have been off for over 2 years having played zero A&A. I accepted a challenge from AeV to have a fun game and knock a bunch of the rust off.
Now some of you will probably think I’m an insensitive jerk for this, but whatever. It’s just my honest opinion, and I guarantee you other top players of the site could look at our game and would 100% agree with me. Unfortunately, AeV has nearly 0 chance of winning our game, and this is only through J1. Again, no disrespect meant, AeV is a respected, well liked veteran of our league. But from my years of experience, I can assure you he has less than 1% chance of winning this game after J1. All I’ve done is make a scramble decision with the UK and moved a non-com R1. And don’t even talk about the dice - they would have to be uber extreme to matter.
I disagree with the 95% hypothetical of the chance a player has of winning against a player 2 tiers below him. I think it’s closer to 99%. A game between a Master and a tier 2 (which is a 3 tier difference, of course) isn’t just non-competitive. It’s pretty much a waste of time, league or no. It’s a bug against the windshield. I totally understand the sentiment of learning from better players. Trust me, a tier 3 could learn a lot from a game with a tier 2, and a tier 1 will learn a lot from a game with a tier 1 or a tier E. No need to play the Masters. Just look at their games if you want to learn from them.
You already can rapidly get a pretty decently accurate ranking if you play 3 games, unless you’re playing other unknown quantities. If I was new to this league, and I was pretty good at A&A, and I really wanted an accurate ranking because the PPG and ranking really mattered to me, then I’d challenge some tier E’s, 1’s, or 2’s, whoever will play me. You won’t have any trouble at all getting those games here. Guys like AeV play dozens per year. If you beat all 3, you’ll be a master. A 6.00 PPG. I think you guys are nitpicking, and your perceived problems aren’t even problems. There’s an answer to every one of them without changing the system, honestly.
