Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story - Part 3

Vol.19 Ch.14: The Slow Ladder Climb

In the Classmancers Club of St. Mary's, practice started off with thorough warm-up exercises. The routine involved physical exercises as well as warming up to the game's controls. Most of it was based on the warmup practices of pro players.

It might have seemed excessive, especially since the girls were only going to play some Ranked matches. The average online player jumped straight into games with zero warmups or preparation, so compared to that the Valkyries' routine was clearly an overkill.

With that said, as players aiming to excel in the competitive scene, the Valkyries had to conduct themselves professionally. They had to get used to the idea of preparing their mind and body for every upcoming battle, no matter how big or small it was. High-level play was all about minimizing mistakes; Fiona wanted to make that concept as natural as breathing for the team.

Not to mention, a solid warm-up also helped the player to improve during practice. The better their condition was, the better they observed everything around them. This directly contributed to learning better from mistakes. Therefore, even though these warmup exercises ate away at the already lacking time for practice, Fiona insisted on conducting them regardless.

After the extensive warmup was over, the team logged into the game and played against opponents in Ranked. This ability to easily arrange matches with players around your skill level was great for improving, especially for a team sport that needed 10 players to hold a game.

Unfortunately, the matchmaking system was far from perfect. Assigning a simple rank to each player was oversimplified. Such a system struggled to take into account the teamwork quality between players, a factor that varied greatly depending on whether the teammates were familiar with each other.

But, that is to be expected. Fiona thought. Most types of ranking systems are flawed. This is a common design problem that seems very difficult to solve.

Fiona encountered similar issues in many sports. It was always difficult, if not outright impossible, to accurately evaluate a player's skill using simple math. There were far too many factors involved in that equation.

To sidestep all that headache, most sports used simple ranking systems that awarded points based on match and tournament results. These were far from accurate, but they were simple and functional, and that was what mattered.

Classmancers' ranking system was largely the same. After every match, it awarded the most points to the winners.

However, the system also tried to be a bit more than that. It gave the players extra points based on various achievements, such as scoring many kills, getting many assists, having few deaths, and so on.

It sounded great on paper, but naturally, there were problems with this system. You could often find players complaining about how most of these extra achievements favored aggression over defense. For players who preferred a slower and more methodical playstyle, it was very difficult to score any bonus points with this system.

Unfortunately, there was not much that could be done about this. A ranking system was bound to be imperfect as long it was invited by humans.

At the very least, in Fiona's case, the bonus points from achievements served her well. Even when the team lost a game, if Fiona performed well then she got rewarded with enough points to mitigate the penalty.

For one game, the impact of the bonus points was almost negligible. But, across many games, the bonus points accumulated and propelled her rank forward.

In particular, once the team started facing Platinum rank opponents, their progress became very stifled. Fiona was the only one making progress these days thanks to her solid performance, which was how she had already reached Platinum I despite all odds.