The top 7 (ranked) players globally

[gards]

The top 7 (ranked) players globally

Five of them have won less than two hundred matches. That doesn't seem right to me. The other two have been busting their asses and have an equal amount win to loss ratio nearly. Around the three hundred marl.

So. Are the other five future Einstein's? Or is some BS at work here?

 

[TV_JayArr]

If you lose the games at a point where losses barely make you lose MMR at all - like below 2,5k MMR - they don't matter in comparison with someone losing them at high ranks - worse case losing more than gaining with a win.

 

[SrdjanB]

Five of them have won less than two hundred matches. That doesn't seem right to me. The other two have been busting their asses and have an equal amount win to loss ratio nearly. Around the three hundred marl.

So. Are the other five future Einstein's? Or is some BS at work here?

Come on man, what the hell prompted you to cast suspicion on guys who happen to be top places in Ranked.

With majority of best player either focusing or just spending large part of playtime on Pro, they aren't going to tryhard for ridiculous scores, once you are in top 100 you get all the rewards, so there is really no incentive to try for top 7 (you can get unlucky and fall from top 100 though so that is a risk)

Some of those players have really impressive win rates, but not impossible, we had fair share of decks that turned out to be really dominant when they were first made, so there is that.

Grinding 200 games with deck that is really good in meta in the right moment can, with a dash of luck, get you those results. Not that those 5 players aren't really skilled and among the best right now but those are all contributing factors.

About the number of games I can tell you from my experience, I started playing serious decks on Ranked after I hit Rank 19 (before I was messing around with joke decks) and had around 70% win rate since.

 

[Hellsmoke77]

As much as you hear "we are all equal" this isn't the case, IQ and experience matter. Was watching Oceanmud destroy people with his wild hunt deck last night which many argue is wildly underwhelming due to the bad bronzes and silvers in that faction. Even with every other game being against a sniper who knows all his cards he destroys one after another because he's smart, knows his deck and has lots of experience. It's really that simple.

Edit: He's not top 7 btw but used him as an example because he is one of many great players I sometimes watch on Twitch.

 

[gards]

So you played with "joke decks" until rank 19? Am I playing a different game here? Getting to rank 19 is difficult.

Red flag

 

[4RM3D]

Getting to rank 19 is difficult.

Let's compare it with car racing. If you are bad at driving, you are still going to lose, no matter how good your car is. However, if you are good at driving, but have a mediocre car, you can still potentially win, if you can play to the advantages of your car. However, if you are also facing off against an opponent with the same skill, but with a better fine-tuned car, your prospects drop quickly, unless the opponent gets unlucky in a turn and crashes or has engine problems.

The same principle applies to Gwent. Some players are just more skilled than others and breeze through the ranks straight to rank 21, while others are struggling to climb even to rank 18. Either way, there is nothing wrong with it. It all depends on which goals you set for yourself and which route you take to achieve those goals.

 

[Noela]

So you played with "joke decks" until rank 19? Am I playing a different game here? Getting to rank 19 is difficult.

Red flag

It is difficult for you, there are enough people saying that the real problem starts once you are rank 19 and not before. Maybe you just have the same problem as me. I AM A VERY MEDIOCRE PLAYER. I don't netdeck, but even if I'd do it, I know I would never reach rank 21 because, as I've already said I AM NOT GOOD at this.

 

[Rawls]

Maybe you just have the same problem as me. I AM A VERY MEDIOCRE PLAYER.

Hey! Me too! I'm quite content with getting to rank 18. Once I get there, I invariably tend to stall at some point. I'm comfortable with my mediocrity in GWENT. There are some things I'm really good at ... and some things that are just fun. This is definitely the latter for me.

It's much like how I almost always like the second hardest difficulty setting in most RPGs. I like the challenge ... but don't feel the need to torture myself.

 

[diabloirlandes]

I got to grandmaster yesterday with a Henselt Machines deck I tuned myself, but still It wasnt a list I completely did myself. I just tweaked the golds and silvers.

So basically, I'm in the top 2000k but that is my limit right now. I understand I'm still uncapable of creating a deck from zero, or using different decks or cards that get my winrate from 60-70% to 80% winrate.

The game is difficult, and you need to check absolutely everything the opponent does, track wich cards he has to play, time the rounds properly, and sometimes take huge gambles. I've managed to shorten many rounds by playing an early Villentrenmeth or make him a decoy so that they need to choose between henselt's target and him, sometimes this prevented me from losing CA, sometimes made me lose the game.

There's also times where I struggle with the timer and end up doing a subotimal play or a not-so-sure play.

Top 2k is like 1% of the player base of gwent, people there are already good, but people in top 100 are either really lucky or different altogeher.

After two months I also noticed stuff like playing only 10 games a day improves my winrate, since I focus much better on the first games than in the games after 3 hours of cotinued play.

I also think if you have a lot of free time, you should be able to climb as long as you are good and lucky. Coin flip is a thing, and if you play enough games you will get a lucky enough streak of 7 games or so and improve your MMR by 100 points or so every now and then.

 

[Noela]

Hey! Me too! I'm quite content with getting to rank 18. Once I get there, I invariably tend to stall at some point. I'm comfortable with my mediocrity in GWENT. There are some things I'm really good at ... and some things that are just fun. This is definitely the latter for me.

It's much like how I almost always like the second hardest difficulty setting in most RPGs. I like the challenge ... but don't feel the need to torture myself.

Well, hello there, my fellow closed beta mediocre Scoia'tael player!

 

[diabloirlandes]

And from what I said, deck mastery is the most important. You have to manage wins even against decks that counter you, because facing two in a row will get you down fast.

What I found the most effective is the surprise factor. Netdecking is really popular nowadays, and something like a random scorch out of nowhere from a deck that doesn't usually run it but can time it properly, can fuck everything up.

 

[Hamood-Shinobi]

I noticed that too

 

[TheShift]

Well, hello there, my fellow closed beta mediocre Scoia'tael player!

Where's all my Mediocre Playas at?

Hey...ho...Hey..ho Hey...ho

 

[nunqmuo]

Yesterday there was a guy in top 5 global with negative ratio. Just saying...

 

[jsachun]

Lets not forget this game has RNG aspect. Even I would have a much better win loss ratio than what it currently stands if I had an RNG fiesta streak for 100 games. I know most players would tell you that if they win it's skill and if they lose, it's rng, but coin flip and the fact that you have a chance to not draw your win condition, as well as what deck your opponent you are pair with are playing, still leaves large part of chance to win or lose dependent on RNG.

 

[Maerd]

So you played with "joke decks" until rank 19? Am I playing a different game here? Getting to rank 19 is difficult.

Getting to rank 19 is not difficult, especially now with lower brackets. You just need access to enough cards to make a viable deck and above average skill in playing it. Even non-meta decks can get you there. Different decks perform differently, obviously. Personally, with my current deck I get into difficult competition around top 1000 this season (I'm #787 at the moment), where you have to play really carefully. People make almost no mistakes there.

 

[ErraticSpawn]

Let's compare it with car racing. If you are bad at driving, you are still going to lose, no matter how good your car is. However, if you are good at driving, but have a mediocre car, you can still potentially win, if you can play to the advantages of your car. However, if you are also facing off against an opponent with the same skill, but with a better fine-tuned car, your prospects drop quickly, unless the opponent gets unlucky in a turn and crashes or has engine problems.

The same principle applies to Gwent. Some players are just more skilled than others and breeze through the ranks straight to rank 21, while others are struggling to climb even to rank 18. Either way, there is nothing wrong with it. It all depends on which goals you set for yourself and which route you take to achieve those goals.

Excellent example. It also underlines why all the complaining about net decks (fine-tuned car) does not make sense. First of all, there are only so many useful synergies in a particular archetype, so that you will end up with a very similar deck over time even if you design it yourself, if you want to win the odd game with it ;-). Secondly, you still need to actually understand all of the possibilities of the deck and how the combinations are best played under all circumstances and against all other decks. After all, you have only 10 cards of the 25 (or more) in your hand and only if you are a skilled player (good driver) will you be able to take advantage of consistency and combos. Simply copying a net deck and using it will not make you win automatically.

I only play the game for about four months now and sometimes when I read a particular card text I tell myself what a useless card that is and why it is in the deck. Because I don't understand all the gameplay options (i.e. my skill level is not good enough yet). Then I watch a skilled player using it and suddenly I understand not only why "they" think it is a fantastic card, but also how you have to play it to get the most out of it. Play it in R1, don't use in R3, great value in short rounds, shines in really long rounds as a finisher, etc. Specific example: I could not see why Hattori was considered so great until I watched a few games and only then it made "click").

And to come back to the topic: If you are really at the top you can't get there with luck only, they all have the skill, some more than others, and some skill can be compensated through grinding (i.e. playing more games), but none of them is there undeservedly.

 

[twinkiegorilla]

I got to 18 with a deck that probably shouldn't have, last season. This season I got to 19 (and 100 mmr away from 20 last night, argh!) with a modified net-deck which I'd only JUST tweaked and got my mojo with last weekend. So I can't say it was "hard" getting there. But it was significantly more difficult trying to hit 20. I felt like i was walking the wrong way up an escalator.

 

[liezldiezldee]

So you played with "joke decks" until rank 19? Am I playing a different game here? Getting to rank 19 is difficult.

Red flag

I played garbage until 19 before switching to deathwish dagon...

 

[Bondonkadonk]

So you played with "joke decks" until rank 19? Am I playing a different game here? Getting to rank 19 is difficult.

Red flag

You can play joke and meme decks to rank 19 fairly reliably. I tend to play memes up to rank 19 just for variation during the climb and then switch to something more serious from there on out. I believe now it's around 3600MMR where the gain and loss of MMR starts to level out, before that you can lose more than win and still climb, but around rank 19 is when losing is almost as much as your wins, so you HAVE to win more than you lose to climb from that point on.

Suggesting the top 7 ranked are suspicious because they have a low match count is pretty ridiculous. It's simply a matter of numbers. If you can keep a high WR, you will climb extremely rapidly. Say for simplicity sake you need 100 points to get to #1, every win you get nets you 10 points and every loss loses you 10. Naturally someone with a 100% WR is going to get to 100 in just 10 matches, someone with 50% WR is going to stay roughly where they are, and someone with a 75% WR will get that 100 points, but they'll need more than 10 matches as each loss they take will drop them back down (15-10 or something like that, but my math is terrible so someone correct me). I'm not saying these guys will have got 100% WR, but what I'm saying is I bet their ratios are way higher than most of us normal gwent plebs, and that's why they're top 7 and we're not. ;P

Although, saying all that. I don't think WR is a good judge either. Negative WR doesn't really tell a full story. If you see negative WR in top ranks, could just as likely mean they spent the lower ranks messing round with meme decks too. Using the car and racing example, might just be that they're top drivers that felt like driving a really shitty car for their first batch of races just for the fun of it.