I called it - Ranked bot-lobbies & scoring-flaws are ruining the quality of League Play
When League Play was announced a month ago, I called it there-and-then that it would just be as bad as Legendary. Now, it is unfolding exactly that way.
A glance at many League Play scoreboards shows players completely out of their depth. Worse, many are running half-baked loadouts (missing crucial perks, equipment, or scorestreaks that decide Hardpoint and Control matches). I always advocate that someone has to bottom-frag, but some of these performances and approaches are beyond shocking.
Though we shouldn't blame the players here - the ranked system is coddling them to Legendary. Between daily bot invites and excessive rank protection, it is nearly impossible to demote. To top it off, the XP system still rewards players intent on being carried, allowing them to collect unearned win bonuses. It is a system that fast-tracks everyone to Legendary without requiring any fundamental game sense or skill, and makes a certain fraction of the player base feel so accomplished they might spend money on mythics. While this might ultimately be the commercial target for Activision, it is destroying match quality as well as the novelty and accomplishment of reaching Legendary and League Play.
The end results of this fast-tracking are total shit-shows that ruin Legendary matches like these examples (and these aren't even League Play matches): Exhibit 1 | Exhibit 2
If reaching Legendary is ever going to mean something again and League Play is going to avoid a fall-from-grace, this shit needs to stop in the ranked game mode;
- Bot invites for ranked need to stop entirely,
- Eliminate rank XP protection or at least severely reduce it to allow for actual demotions and sustain player promotion until they earn it,
- Only the top 3 players on the winning podium should get a share of win bonuses, and
- To promote actual contribution, the losing team's MVP should also get a compensation bonus.
A mandatory warning should also pop-up in all matches if a player selects an incomplete loadout before a match, plus a reminder after the game.