TWC Update 16.20 - Competitive Matchmaking

[Rotem]

Hello TWC!
Version 16.20 adds competitive matchmaking. For those of you familiar with competitive games such as Counterstrike or League of Legends or even chess, this is very similar.

The first floor dueling arena will now give you the option to join a matchmaking queue (by clicking the button above PM button), you will be paired against a random opponent, best out've 3 wins. As you continue to duel in a brand new arena you will be assigned a skill group and climb up the ranks all the way to becoming the champion.

You need to win 10 matches in order to achieve a rank and from there your rank will depend purely on your skill rating. Skill rating is determined by the result of your matches. It does take into account your opponent's rating so spam beating newbies won't help you much.

Here's the 10 Ranks (in order from lowest to highest):

• Novice
• Apprentice
• Journeyman
• Sorcerer
• Wizard
• Battlewizard
• Archwizard
• Master
• Grandmaster
• Champion

For 3 months, a period which we will call dueling season, you will be fighting and climbing up the ranks, at the end of each season, prizes will be given to the champions, we're talking sweet prizes. But of course, besides ranks and bragging rights and top tier prizes I've sweeten the pots and threw in some random chance to get an item when you win a match.

On Friday, March 6th at 4:00 PM EST competitive matchmaking will kick off! (click here to see when that is in your timezone or use this handy countdown timer) There will be a scoreboard for you to track where you are on the ladder, plus a spectate mode for you to keep an eye on your opponents.

For years players have debated which dueler on TWC is the best. Well, now it's time to find out. Be on Friday, March 6th at 4:00 PM EST and join the competition!

As a reminder, you will need level 650 to participate in competitive matchmaking as it's end game content.

[Lucifer]

[Rotem]

A little explaination about how skill rating is gained/lost.

When you fight someone, based on skill rating, a probability of win is determined, based on that you gain or lose points. What this means is, if you spam fight someone who is much weaker than you, they'll not lose much points and you won't gain much, the amount will be low, however if you die to them, they gain a lot and you lose a lot.

On the other hand, if you fight someone who is stronger, you have hopes to gain a lot if you lose, it's not the worst thing in the world.

Generally ranks divide you to skill groups, a Novice by far lower than Apprentice, when they fight, the Novice has the upper hand because they have nothing to lose and everything to gain while the Apprentice risks rank for very little.

I have witnessed people avoid fighting stronger people but for what purpose? This is how you learn how to fight, by experience! You really have nothing to lose.

[Rotem]

This week we've actually got past the month mark for competitive matchmaking season 1, we're a third season in, I'm going to start a thing where top tier players will receive additional bonus prize each month, we'll receive first prizes this weekend, if you aren't at the top you should very well start fighting and work your way there, there's still time.

[Skystone]

This week we've actually got past the month mark for competitive matchmaking season 1, we're a third season in, I'm going to start a thing where top tier players will receive additional bonus prize each month, we'll receive first prizes this weekend, if you aren't at the top you should very well start fighting and work your way there, there's still time.

Swwweeeeeeeeeeet.

[Rotem]

First dueling season will end soon after which I'll move all the information into a scoreboard and wipe it clean.

For next duel season I'll do a few fixes for Elo calculations to correct a few issues that will simply make it the system a little more tuned for a smaller population

I am also considering adding an "unranked" queue but I sort of don't want to add a secondary /useless/ queue. The way it seems to be, the people who do like fighting are scared of deranking and the rest of the population just generally don't care. To be quite honest I don't understand what TWCers want nowadays, from all the features I added (quests, content, competitive matchmaking, enchanting) it seems the most attractive feature in twc is still book reading.

[Rotem]

Season 2 will begin at July 1st.

[Rotem]

Season 2 has been cancelled due to lack of interest, the concept of seasons require me to provide upkeep that I will not do, if the community manages to rekindle interest in it we will resume, until then I will not wipe recording due to a key role they play with guilds and allow players to continue try and rank up and achieve higher ranks that were not obtained before.

At time of writing Severus was highest ranked with a few inactives below him (I can see people who haven't dueled for over 2 weeks). Severus will be the only one rewarded at this time for his continued devotion and determination, hopefully more people will join him.