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Ladder anxiety continued.

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5 years ago
Yo I was thinking about this ladder anxiety crap mentioned in Godde's post and how it puts people off playing MM because they anticipate a better player beating them down. If it genuinely, really is a problem here, there is a cure (although, getting more players would be the real solution). Here's what I think:

Ladder anxiety is like a pandemic sickness. One person decides not to queue up anymore, less players for everyone. Eventually, if enough people get this anxiety, players who would reasonably match up with eachother don't because they are still worried. The cure to ladder anxiety is not to stop playing, but to ALL play more, with eachother. Captain Scary is going to be in the queue whether you're worried about it or not, but if enough people who are worried just play, they will drown the harder players out with their numbers.

As an aside, fixing the volatility of the ladder will help too - though that's a discussion that's been had already.
+7 / -0


5 years ago
Just FYI: I think I also get ladder anxiety.
If I join the queue there'll be a NLrankWesley or a NOrankAdminKingstad or a PLrankZenfur or something just waiting to tear my base to shreds.
The only good news is that I can no longer get matched with @Sparkles. :D
+2 / -0
5 years ago
Another solution would be exiling godde and sparkler :)
+0 / -0
It might actually be interesting to hide the opponent's names in the MM games. At least that'd stop me from resigning right away against Godde. The downside is that there are some players I really like to try hard against, like Anarchid and GoogleFrog.
+3 / -0
5 years ago
Just try hard every game dein :0
+0 / -0

5 years ago
it's hard but you soon learn the benefits of punching upwards.
I throw plenty of L's into the ladder so this post isn't for me
+0 / -0

5 years ago
Why is sparkles not purple.
+0 / -1

5 years ago
its not complicated, winning is fun and losing is not fun so why queue when the MM is full of total tryhards

partly why I stopped queuing I feel bad beating up plebs, not super fun for either party
+1 / -0
5 years ago
I just want more people in the MM queue. Heh.

Does help to know who you're fighting if they've been cast by Sahdowfury. Not that I'm studying up play-styles for the tourney coming up or anything! ;)

I did lose a string of battles the other week and went from 69 to 100+ rank. That kinda hurt, but I got back on the lobster and will keep trying!

+0 / -0

5 years ago
nah, losing only hurts if you are losing to someone you shouldn´t...
+0 / -0


5 years ago
Now I feel self-conscious. I've gone on the record saying that MM games are fair game to me for casting (though I bias strongly for Neutron Star and Singularity matches), I doubt I'm scaring anyone off...at least, I sure hope I'm not.
+4 / -0
5 years ago
You have permission to cast any of my games, even the many I lose. I've learned a lot watching your casts. Thanks for doing them.
+1 / -0
What is ladder,
SErankGodde dont hurt me,
dont hurt me,
no more!

+3 / -0


5 years ago
Put Rust back on the ladder 24/7
+0 / -0


5 years ago
Shadowfury, all and any videos/streams only enrich the community - they educate growing players and reward everyone for playing. I can't see any glaring downside.

katastrophe and bellow's adjacent posts intersect on a point to do with rating. If you lose against someone you "shouldn't", it can be an extreme blow to your rating. I would hope something like that would be smoothed out in the upcoming changes to rating? Don't know, ask Dein. A more stable ladder = steadier participation.

I stand by what I said to katastrophe in private chat, there's no such thing as someone you "shouldn't lose to". Every player fluctuates in skill, most with an upward trajectory. There will always come a day when lil' Timothy grey-rank suddenly has more hair on his chest than you do, and feeds you a generous spoonful of your own medicine. Case in point, MethodPrimeval, the glaive noob who eventually beat Anir, then me, and another purple. Fantastic narrative.

So if you up and coming players ever think you have it too hard because you get matched up with difficult people (who will actually educate you), just remember the players above who have the reverse problem. There is an insane amount of (imaginary) pressure not to lose.

That said, it's all fiction. As much as people obsess over the numbers, they're a false idol. The only truth is play - win and lose.
+3 / -0

5 years ago
there is a certain point where losing or winning should be near impossible. i can hardly imagine losing to someone 600 whr/elo below me, as well as winning against someone that amount above me...
+0 / -0
FIrankFFC
5 years ago
Why play if you can lose
+3 / -0


5 years ago
Because no one is special and no one is above loss. That's like saying why live if you can die.
+0 / -0
5 years ago
Losing can be avoided. Death is certain.
+0 / -0

5 years ago
Is it really the case that ladder anxiety is a distinct phenomenon and not just a symptom of lack of players full stop?

Personally, I don't play much 1v1. This is partly because I prefer teams (though there isn't all that much between a large lobster pot and 1v1) and yes partly because I don't want to get stomped again and again by people much better than me - but that's the operative phrase: again and again. I don't mind being cooked by someone out of my league from time to time, or even losing a hard fought fight against someone similar in ability to me provided I get my share of hard fought wins (and yes, issuing the odd curb stomping myself).

Last night, I played 7 games in the lobsterpot. I was on the losing side of 5 of them. That was deeply frustrating even taking into account that chance plays a much bigger role in them than small teams or 1v1. As supposedly one of the better players on my team, I look at those losses and think I must have played a bigger role in the failures than the rest of them whether through miscalculation or miscommunication. As an experienced player, I've always considered it my responsibility not just to play the game, but to try to guide less experienced players - so a loss means I've failed both as a player and as a leader. That's not a nice feeling to have.

It's plain fear of losing as Dein says, nothing special. I'm not bothered about the numbers. I just don't like losing again and again and nor does anyone else with a competitive bone in their body (and anyone playing matchmaker or team games has at least one).

More importantly, I'm not going to learn a great deal more that will improve my game from 10 consecutive losses to @Sparkles rather than 1. It's fine losing to better players if you can take something you can apply to future games from the experience but there comes a time when the gulf is simply too big. Since no one forces me to play competitive 1v1, and it's likely to lead to an unpleasant experience, I'll simply avoid the situation.

While it is true that more people playing will mean more even matchups instead of a queue to be dispatched by the apex predators, there are also positive reasons limiting the size of the competitive matchmaker pool- namely that many people simply prefer other game styles. If I've got a choice between small teams and 1v1, I'll always go small teams.

I love the recent change to the team rooms that asks if anyone present would prefer to play a small team game, but it has hardly resulted in any small team games for me. Regardless of whatever polling there was that suggests small teams are the preferred style for the playerbase, the day-in-day-out fact is that most of people who actually want to play against each other are doing it in lobster pots and doing so by choice.
+1 / -0
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