Going back a little over a year ago, we made our first transition to a brand new season of lounge; we adjusted MMR in various ways, implemented platinum, among many other things. It was all about doing what we could to maintain interest and motivation, and it seemed to be an appropriate move, especially to encourage more activity in the long run. Though, as I said, that was well over a year ago. We have been running with the same system for quite some time now, and during that time, over 1400 matches have been played by a total of 348 active players. When being compared to 150cc, we are obviously inferior in that sense, but our community has always been tiny, to say the least. Despite the clear difference between the two, we’ve always found a way to continue pushing the mode to its limits while being able to have fun at the same time. That’s what lounge is all about, after all.
With how things have always been leading up to now, we usually anticipate activity to rise a bit during the second half of the year, but unexpectedly, within recent months, it seems like activity has hit an all-time high, notably the last few weeks, with the large influx of members that have been joining. There have been quite a few people who have been branching out to give 200cc a chance, and we’ve also seen many newer players to the scene find their way to our server. I must say that it is a nice feeling, and it feels like we’re just going to continue growing. As much as the positives are a great thing to give all the attention to, it’s challenging to ignore the faults. For instance, we’re currently at a point where Masters avidly gain nothing more than 30 for 1st in a regular tier all match, as the number of bronzes, and the entire skill gap as a whole continues to increase. More notably, there have been a few events recently where teams have gained over 400 MMR for 1st. It’s quite crazy to think about, but it’s all just a result of the silliness that tier all brings to the table. Tier all has always been a double-edged sword for lack of a better word; in hindsight, it grants us a lot of activity, but at the cost of player balance. Generally, this hasn’t been an issue, as lounge isn’t much of anything to take seriously, but admittedly it is getting out of hand. Given all of this, along with the aforementioned bursts of activity recently (plus a heavy demand from the general public), we have decided that we are going to be officially transitioning to Season 3 of 200cc Lounge, starting January 1st, 2021!
MMR Reset
One of the main attractions of every new season is the MMR adjustments that take place, and the same applies to this time. Previously for Season 2, we did a soft reset of sorts, where players were brought closer to the median. This proved to be utterly useless for the most part, as most people ended up getting back to the ranks they had in Season 1 really quickly. This time, we really wanted to take this opportunity to capitalize on the idea of a “reset”, so instead of simply bringing everyone closer to the median, we are going to be doing a much heavier reset. Specifically, any players who are silver or below will be pulled to the placement value of silver, while any players who are gold or above will be pulled to the placement value of gold (3250 and 4750 respectively).
While this may seem a bit extreme, this serves as a solution to one of our bigger problems right now, that being the major imbalance that exists between players. Seeing as tier all is where the majority of our events are played, naturally, you’re going to have MMR distribution be very widespread. In the past, we’ve tried eliminating tier all to see what the results would be, but it ultimately killed activity, and we concluded that we don’t have large enough of a player base to go without it at the moment. Perhaps in the future, depending on how much the player base expands between now and the next season (whenever that is), we can consider removing it, but for now, it will be staying. We do encourage that all of you at least attempt to play in other tiers whenever possible, however.
Another factor to take into consideration is that all of the bronzes make up for nearly half of the ranked players in this server (see images below).
Admittedly, most players who join the server nowadays are usually placed in bronze, unless they are a familiar player with great success in something like 150cc or Battle. The problem is that these players usually stay in bronze unless they actually try to play on a regular basis, which, for most of the players in bronze, isn't realistic. There is undoubtedly a huge skill gap between some of these players, especially since some are more casual than others, and that can result in a huge divide. We considered the potential implementation of iron, but again, adding more ranks doesn’t really fix the issue we have at the moment, especially with our current player base. Overtime players should fall into the ranks that more accurately suit them, and plus, the effects of this reset should last for quite a while. That way, no one will be able to achieve Diamond or Master extremely quickly, just like last time.
Updates to the server — rules, ranks, tiers
With each new season comes several changes of course, but this time, other than a few minor changes, there isn’t much to mention. For instance, the ruleset remains the same for the most part, other than a few updates you can find below, but moving forward you can find the ruleset in our brand new MKCentral lounge section, just like 150cc Lounge has. We've adopted a similar format to their rules, credit to Cynda, so feel free to give it a read, even if it's just a refresher.
To begin:
In the case of a 6v6 event, the lower MMR captain will always have the first pick. In the rare case where both of the highest-MMR-players are tied, they will let ToadBot decide.
- It’s important to consider that tier all is objectively the most active tier, and that means that there will likely always be a wide gap between all of the players in the room. Giving the lower MMR captain the first pick makes it much more favorable overall, especially if the gap between both captains is large + there are not many high-ranked players in the event.
- We've gotten several requests for nickname changes recently, so we wanted to make sure this was known. Anyone who changed their name this season, even if it was relatively recent, will be allowed to request another name change. Just make sure to open up a ticket by accessing the #support channel in our server.
We also wanted to add clarification for a few things, since there have been misunderstandings every now and then.
In an FFA, any player who leaves the room, regardless of the reason, should not be subbed by another player.
In a mogi event, if a team is missing a player for at least four races, the teammate(s) will receive ⅔ MMR loss, while absence for at least six races will result in ½ MMR loss. The player who left the room, regardless of the reasoning, gets the full loss, plus the -100 and strike.
- Furthermore, since there is occasionally confusion about this, the player who subbed into the event should be included on the final table. The reporter posting it should note the player who left the event (along with their losses), as well as the player who gets no loss for subbing in.
Implementation of Grandmaster
Just in case Master wasn’t already a flex, especially this season, we are going to be implementing Grandmaster, which requires 11000 MMR to achieve. It may seem ironic that we’re adding this and not iron, but to be honest, at the end of the day, grandmaster is more of a title to hold than a rank. I commemorate anyone who chooses to go for this, as it will be quite an austere task, I’m sure.
Just to remind everyone of the current set-up of our ranks (which can also be found in the ruleset):
- Bronze: 0-2499 (Placement: 1750)
- Silver: 2500-3999 (Placement: 3250)
- Gold: 4000-5499 (Placement: 4750)
- Platinum: 5500-6999 (Promotion-based)
- Diamond: 7000-8999 (Promotion-based)
- Master: 9000-10999 (Promotion-based)
- Grandmaster: 11000+ (Promotion-based)
- Tier 1: Grandmaster + Master + Diamond + Platinum
- Tier 2: Diamond + Platinum + Gold
- Tier 3: Gold + Silver + Bronze
- Tier All: Grandmaster + Master + Diamond + Platinum + Gold + Silver + Bronze
The other change to take note of is the fact that Gold is now in tier 3. It’s hard to say whether this is temporary or not, but obviously, seeing as the MMR reset will be bringing everyone to either silver or gold, it will basically serve as another tier all for the time being. Once more people rank up to platinum and beyond, this may be reverted if necessary. However, we’d like to make tier 3 more active in general, and this should be something that helps make that a reality, even down the road.
Closing Remarks
Now that we’re at the end—as I always do in these types of announcements, I just want to thank all of you for your continued support of this lounge. It is because of all of you that we are able to have numerous events each day, and it has been that way for over two years as a result of your contributions. We’re only set to continue growing from here, so I hope that all of you are looking forward to this upcoming season.
As aforementioned, we will be starting Season 3 on Friday, January 1st, 2021, which means that we’ll be taking Thursday, December 31st to hand out roles to everyone. It goes without saying, but lounge will be closed that day, of course. As a side note, moving forward, you can find the ruleset and any future announcements in this section of MKC. Events will continue until the day we close, but until then, make sure to enjoy yourselves and take it easy.
Also, just to address the elephant in the room—yes, we’re announcing this on Christmas. Consider it a Christmas present from all of the staff, so I guess all I need to say now is Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Thanks again, everyone, here's to another great year of 200cc and much, much more.
- 200cc Lounge Staff
