32 replies to this topic

[Mcchuggernaut]

Ok, so I consider myself a pretty competent player. However, I have never played with a unit or done community warfare because I don't have a group of friends who play, nor have I bothered to buy a headset, which I feel I would need to effectively communicate. Despite all this I have managed a good K/D and have clawed my way up to upper tier 2 playing pure pug matches, and consistently put up damage numbers in the top 3 on my team. I had assumed that at this skill level I would be matched with players who had at least stopped outright stupid behavior, but that is not the case.

I am still constantly seeing teams split up, chase squirrels, Kodiaks not breaking 15 damage (not kidding, I saw it this morning, and the other one on our team barely broke 50), people not torso twisting, keep peeking out into the same bad trade, not forming firing lines, running from pushes, you name it I'm still seeing it all the time.

I'm creeping up on tier 1 and will probably hit that mark soon the way that bar is filling in, so my question is, does it get better? Because I have found that tier 2 doesn't seem to matter at all when it comes to team competence. Do you finally break through some magical wall and quit getting teams that just make you say "Wow. Wtf!?!?", or should I just break down and buy a headset and join a unit if I ever want to have a hope of not having to deal with this constant foolishness? I'm not there yet, so I have come to ask those who have achieved tier 1 what the gameplay is like.

Edit: I mean in the pug cue, because I can watch good players on YouTube playing with their units, but this rarely shows anything but wins, no the reality of tier 1 solo play in said pug cue.

Edited by Mcchuggernaut, 27 May 2016 - 03:36 AM.

[Scandinavian Jawbreaker]

No, it's not.

[Antares102]

The tier system does not really fulfill its purpose because newcomers can get into tier 3 within no time and then face off with tier 1. The tier system is also biased towards playtime, i.e. the more you play the higher your tier. This means you can play absolute garbage in terms of mechs/loadout/playstyle and still rise in tier, which mor eor less defeats the idea of a tier system.

[Helsbane]

It's nothing but an XP bar.

Buy the headset.

[Anunknownlurker]

The thing to remember with the current match making is that it is perfectly possible for you to be the best player on either side; therefore in pug games you should not expect a particularly high standard of play even once you reach tier 1 as every other player could be tier 3 and only just completed their Cadet games! (unlikely I know, but possible)

[DarthHias]

Just had a game on Crimson where 5 Assaults and a Heavy turned round to chase a squirrel over the whole map, to the pass and the plattform. During that the enemy team pushed through the tunnel and into the other 6 guys including me. We killed two before they ripped us apart. The other guys didn´t manage one more kill.
So bad things can happen in Tier1

Sidenote: I did 400 dmg in my poor old Mr Sparks in the short span before we were overrun, yet MY PSR dropped. ggclothes

[Navid A1]

No noticeable change.
There is a good chance that most of your current matches are actually T1 queues.

The only thing that (slightly) changes is that you have to carry even harder, because PGI system likes to catapult new players into T3 the moment they have a series of good wins/games.

Edited by Navid A1, 27 May 2016 - 03:57 AM.

[Mcchuggernaut]

Well I suppose that settles it. I'm going away for the weekend to be a groomsman at my buddy's wedding, but after that I guess I'm going to have to get a headset and find a unit or keep on being frustrated every other match. Thanks for the input and advice!

Edited by Mcchuggernaut, 27 May 2016 - 03:59 AM.

[STEF_]

Mcchuggernaut, on 27 May 2016 - 03:29 AM, said:

Edit: I mean in the pug cue, because I can watch good players on YouTube playing with their units, but this rarely shows anything but wins, no the reality of tier 1 solo play in said pug cue.

Nope.
For 2 reasons:
1 ) tier 1 can be matched up with tier 3
2 ) tier system is meaningless, since tier goes up only and everybody can be at least tier 3, by playing enough matches.

So, yes, the only solution to have good matches, competent teamates/enemies is to join a team.

[meteorol]

I noticed 0, literally zero difference when filling the xp bar far enough to reach T1. I didn't see any difference in skill or teamwork/movement/tactics between T1 and T2. It didn't get harder for me, i didn't get matched with less potatoes, neither my k/d or w/l fluctuate outside of the usual margin.
Quite frankly, i don't think people would even notice a difference if PGI would secretly put their account into T2 while still displaying T1. The occasional T4 guys wouldn't make much of a difference with all the terribadness present in T1-3.

I guess that's what you get when your rating system is a XP bar.

[MechWarrior319348]

It gets better, come join OLD if you want, we are about as casual as you can get. No expectation, you dont have to have a headset, you dont have to do community warfare, you can pug all you want; and when we do group up for the standard queue, you can join us if you want, it will help you get the experience bar higher.

[KodiakGW]

As a number have already said, PSR is more of an XP bar than reflection of skill.

Also the reason why I'm probably never going to buy any more mechs. Can't deal with the frustration of trying to level mechs in solo PUG queue, and won't laden my team with a non-Elite level mech when doing team play (except when running a 2 man Kodiak team).

[Bishop Steiner]

Nope.

Consistent Competent Play is pretty much solely in the realm of Team Play. And even then, only if you bring at least 2/3 of the team yourself (sometimes you can get paired with a competent team if you have less, but too often I drop in Team play and get a Team comprised of multiple 2-3 man groups facing a 10-12 man.)

Tiers are mostly XP badges, the only real epeen being how fast one progresses. They probably are somewhat accurate at the lower tiers, as if one is stuck in tier 4-5 hell, there is likely a reason. But in general, if competent, you should see your tier improve, bit by bit. Like you I've been pugging exclusively since PSR (my unit is on my alt acct) and am now mid tier 2, and still slowly grinding my way up... despite PUGing, ignoring meta, playing on a potato and being of only slightly above average skill, tbh.

So If I can be closing in on Tier 1, it pretty much says that it ain't really for Uber13375 only, yeah?

[DarthHias]

Yeah that too. I pugged myself to Tier1, so embrace the Pug life.

[MerryIguana]

The matchmaker feels worse then usual right now, what with all the valves being open for the huggy bears.

[S13gtastic]

I noticed eventually that I had got to a point where I couldn't kill my PSR to actively drop back down to go smurf it up in lower brackets. Made me sad I couldn't flip flop on a whim ;_;

[GrimRiver]

No, not really.

People's skill gets better(not by much) but teamwork leave alot to be desired.

In one match you could get a good team that stomps the enemy into the ground with no mercy and then other matches you'd think they just got home from pre-school and hopped on MWO.

For PUG matches that is.

[Orbit Rain]

When Tier came out I was Tier 1 full bar, so I can't tell you how it changes. I can tell you that the matches do get filled with T1-T3 players. Often if you notice the names on each side, you'll know who is more likely to win. Some T1 stand out, some don't, and they might as well be T3 because they play like it. Whether you're leveling or playing around or experimenting will impact your W/L. How well you call, how well you shoot, how well you react determines how well you do. How good a team you get is still up to the MM Gods. Some T1 are T3 in reality, some T1 are really Tier Zero. I imagine it's better in that you don't have any T4 players on your team, but it certainly is not some Nirvana where everybody knows what they're doing.

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[Alistair Winter]

I'm going to be a contrarian and say yes. And here's why.

As human beings and as competitive (and I use that in the broad sense of the word) video gamers, we are not really good at picking up slight improvements in match results. We are, however, brilliant at remembering every match we lost. We are also really good at identifying patterns that may or may not exist. Like...

• You win 10 matches in a row without noticing it, but then when you suddenly lose 5 matches in a row, the game is broken and you come to the forum to vent.
  
• You suspect people of using aimbot, because you got killed by gauss headshot three times! (... over 1000 matches)

In 2013 or 2014, I wanted to keep track of my statistics to prove that I was consistently getting top 1-3 scores on my team in the pug queue, despite losing most of my matches. I wanted to start a thread about how broken the MM. There was just one problem: I wasn't actually losing most of my matches, when I looked over the statistics (compiled via post match screenshots). I was winning.

The thing is, I remembered all my losses far better than I remembered my victories, unless those victories involved me doing exceptionally well (e.g. getting 4+ kills and 800+ dmg). Maybe I had a 1.5 win/lose ratio, but it still felt like I was losing.

With this bias in mind, I think people will go from tier 2 to tier 1 and not really notice that the number of matches lost by collective stupidity and overwhelming derpy-ness is dropping ever so slightly. Because there is no question what so ever that there is a huuuuge difference from tier 4 to tier 1. And there's a big difference from tier 4 to tier 3, even.

So yeah, I think tier 1 is better. But people are biased and they don't notice, because they're not actually keeping track of data and gathering statistics, like scientists. Understandably.

[Bishop Steiner]

Orbit Rain, on 27 May 2016 - 08:37 AM, said:

When Tier came out I was Tier 1 full bar, so I can't tell you how it changes. I can tell you that the matches do get filled with T1-T3 players. Often if you notice the names on each side, you'll know who is more likely to win. Some T1 stand out, some don't, and they might as well be T3 because they play like it. Whether you're leveling or playing around or experimenting will impact your W/L. How well you call, how well you shoot, how well you react determines how well you do. How good a team you get is still up to the MM Gods. Some T1 are T3 in reality, some T1 are really Tier Zero. I imagine it's better in that you don't have any T4 players on your team, but it certainly is not some Nirvana where everybody knows what they're doing.

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