So as I've moved up the the rating board I've reached a point where when I get matched against players with a higher rating I'm often getting blitzed. I understand (and appreciate) the Elo system that should normalize your position in the rating system so that you get competitive matches, and if you do well you're going to start hitting the ceiling of your deck and skill level. I also understand that the nature of the system means everyone is going to lose at times. Here's my problem: Half the time I'm going to play against players rated higher than me (and when I play I feel like lately it has been a significant higher level than me). I always play for the win, and with the design of my deck that usually means going for KO not victory squares... but against a superior deck this frequently equals getting blitzed. (Even when the game has clearly been lost I'll try to play it out to get two stars, but when I'm getting stomped this rarely is successful and usually isn't fun for either player dragging out a game already in hand.) Now the math says if you get blitzed -2, if not +1. Now if I get blitzed on 2/3 of my games against higher rated players (33% of my total games) this puts me at best at a zero change to my standing. I'm trying to increase my standing and don't know what to do. I've considered when getting matched against a significantly higher rated player just running to the victory squares and trying to survive two rounds just to avoid the blitz (and allowing myself to get mauled in the process), but this is playing not to lose rather than playing to win. This wouldn't be much fun, and I feel that's not what standing is designed for. I could also change my deck, but I don't feel that I should have to do that just to get positive net standing points (and it still has the feel of playing not to lose). Maybe I'm in a funky rating spot where I can beat those below me often enough to keep my rating, but I match up horribly with those above me, I don't know. Or maybe I just had a run of bad luck that will go away. I just find it frustrating to try to raise my standing and getting stymied by frequent blitzes. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? Edit: Bad math.
If you really try to win every game and won't surrender early and still have -123 Standing (looked you up), then there is a problem with Standings and they should be calculated otherwise. Sorry to hear that
Scarponi has low standing because he tanked in the past (before he knew about standing or that tanking was against policy). AFAIK he's done an admirable job bringing his standing back up!
As Flaxative notes, my current standing is admittedly negative because I got some bad advice and wasn't aware of the rules early on. Since I found out I have done my very best to play legit and keep standing in mind as I play. Flaxative and I discussed it a bit when he started the PvP season, and I told him that though I acted out of ignorance I was okay with accepting the consequence (not being eligible for PvP season ) since it was still my error. I've been working hard at bringing my standing up so as to be eligible for the next PvP season (if there is one) and also because I want to escape my shame of negative standing. My opening post is because, though I was moving along alright, I'm starting to stall out being able to bring my standing back up. I don't want special treatment (like I said I acknowledge my standing is based on my own error), but it seems that it shouldn't be a situation where someone who played poorly, but is now trying to do it right can't work out of their hole. Just wondering if anyone has any advice on how to keep moving back to positive.
FWIW, my standing hasn't started to backslide, it's just stalled out or at least slowed to a snails pace. It's no big deal if you play 10 games and get blitzed on one (+8), but if you play 10 and get blitzed on 3-4 then you're barely making any headway. This isn't a big deal for someone with positive standing already. But, for someone trying to atone for their mistakes, it's pretty crippling.
Standing is somewhat flawed in that it only punishes the absolute extremes (unless this is what it's designed for, in which case it works very well). It's very easy for a new player to lose a ton of standing by getting blitzed frequently. There's plenty of empirical evidence for this. On the other hand, I quite often leave matches against people I don't want to play against. Mainly because I don't like them. I'm an amiable person so there's only a couple of these occurrences, but still, my standing is rarely below 10. Those trying much harder than myself can and do end up with a lower aggregate standing.
