Battleground bracket matching suggestion
Dear Warmane team:
I noticed there was a recent changes related to battleground bracket system. And now I no longer be able to join the gear matching brackets that are for less geared players. Instead, I have been being put in bis bracket all the time.
Could you spend some more time and consider other possibilities (My suggestions at the end)
To give you a comparisons:
1) Ice Crown player: dkfurious, geared at average item lvl less than 210. with max item level 232. And he is being put in bis bracket with players whose average item lvl are 277 with 284 weapons. That obviously is not right.
2) Frostmourne player: Skilledk, geared at average 233 item level, with max item level 245, And he is able to join low bracket with players whose average item lvls are 213.
I understand that you want to make battleground bracket system fair by preventing twink players entering lower brackets. But dkfurious is not even a twink. Compared with skilledk, dkfurious is far below geared.
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Now here is my suggestions based on Season 7.5
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[I] 5 levels and 3 brackets (debatable):
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level 1: Avg item level <=200 and max item level <= 200 ------------------------------- LOW BRACKET
level 2: Avg item level <=213 and max item level <= 232 -------------------------------- LOW BRACKET
level 3: Avg item level <= 232 and max item level <= 245 ------------------------------ MID BRACKET
level 4: Avg item level >= 245 or max item level >= 264 ---------------------------------- HIGH BRACKET
level 5: Avg item level >= 264 or max item level >= 284 ----------------------------------- HIGH BRACKET
[II] One LB + Three Queues for battlegrounds:
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queue 1: for level 5 players (bis players)
queue 2: for ICC and Lordaeron
queue 3: for FM and Blackrock seasonal
When a player entering a queue for battleground, a load balancer (LB) will determine the player's level and realm and put him into the corresponding queue.
queue 1 has higher priority then queue 2, and queue 2 has higher priority than queue 3
That means, the system will try to fulfil queue 1 before consider queue 2, and then queue 3.
The benefit will be mentioned below.
[III] Adding additional fair controls when cross-realm feature considered:
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1) Frost Mourne + Blackrock seasonal players can join brackets just based on the player levels.
2 ICC and Lordaeron players should have progressive meter when season advanced, that is:
When FM advanced from season 7 to season 7.5.
ICC and Lordaeron players can only join the matching brackets in the second half of the season.
Otherwise, they can only join matching level brackets with ICC and Lordaeron players
or brackets with one level higher players from FM and Blackrocks.
This is where the 3 queues system comes into play because we need to prioritize intra-realm bgs over inter-realm bgs.
For example: In the first half of the season when FM progressed from season 7 to season 7.5
ICC+Lordaeron players joined the queue 2, and FM+Blackrock players joined queue 3.
1) LOW Bracket
High priority (intra-realm bgs): Queue 2 will always have higher priority to form battlegrounds with ICC+Lordaeron players with matching level brackets. Then (inter-realm bgs): When queue 3 does not have enough players, LB will distribute level 1 players from queue 2.
As a result:
level 1+2 players from ICC+Lordaeron will have higher chance join LOW bracket with ICC+Lordaeron level 1+2 players
level 1 players from ICC+Lordaeron can also have a small chance to join LOW bracket with level 1+2 players from FM+Blackrock
2) MID Bracket
High priority (intra-realm bgs): Queue 2 will always have higher priority to form battlegrounds with ICC+Lordaeron players with matching level brackets. Then (inter-realm bgs): When queue 3 does not have enought players, LB will distribute level 2 players from queue 2.
As a result:
level 3 players from ICC+Lordaeron will have higher chance join MID bracket with ICC+Lordaeron evel 3 players
level 2 players from ICC+Lordaeron can also have a small chance to join MID bracket with level 3 players from FM+Blackrock
3) High Bracket
High priority (intra-realm bgs): Queue 2 will always have higher priority to form battlegrounds with ICC+Lordaeron players with matching level brackets. Then (inter-realm bgs): When queue 3 does not have enought players, LB will distribute level 3 players from queue 2.
As a result:
level 4 players from ICC+Lordaeron will have higher chance join HIGH bracket with ICC+Lordaeron evel 4 players
level 3 players from ICC+Lordaeron can also have a small chance to join HIGH bracket with level 4 players from FM+Blackrock
But wait.....what....what about level 5 players (you might ask)?, well, they always join queue 1. When queue 1 doesnt have enough players for a certain amount of time (10 minutes?) queue 1 will borrow players from queue 2 for level 4 players and queue 3 for level 4 players if they have any.
Of course, this can also be applied to all seasons with number changed for each season.
And the implementation detail can be very complicated, but the idea behind is simple:
1) define multiple levels of brackets based on each seasons (this can be stored in a data layer)
2) ICC+Lordaeron player can join matching level brackets in the second half of the season
3) prioritize intra-realm bgs over inter-realm bgs
Thank you very much
Yours, truely, DkFurious
