I know there's an existing PugChamp thread but I wanted to start a new discussion about some of the current issues with PugChamp and how the system can be made better. I think any existing pug system could be improved to get what we need but all systems right now have their flaws:
- Comp MM doesn't have a good ruleset and doesn't create quality games
- TF2Center/Stadium makes no attempt to balance Pugs
- FACEIT attempts to balance pugs but the actual player experience is awful since you can't pick your class
- PugChamp is great for high-level gameplay but doesn't allow for more than three pugs to be run at once
- MixChamp is great for medium-level gameplay but starts immediately when all 12 roles are filled, so it doesn't really suit high-level pugs
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The Problem: Imagine if 100 people are added to PugChamp. By the time you finish picking 3 pugs, B4nny and all of the invite players from the first pug are already added again. So at a certain point people aren't able to play as long as pugs are picked one at a time. If all pugs start at the same time you'd solve this problem and you can solve this by using a computer to pick teams based on skill rating.
If PugChamp or FACEIT are able to solve this problem, great. If not, then let's figure out next steps. Because until this issue is fixed, nobody is able to promote PugChamp. When new players ask "hey where do I play" we're forced to tell them to go to TF2Center which is not the right solution. We should figure out how to grow PugChamp and make it possible for 50+ people to play at the same time.
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The Solution: The proposed solution is to replace the human picking of PugChamp by returning ELO or some kind of skill rating system to PugChamp and then allowing a computer to choose the teams. We acknowledge the fact that as the system grows it won’t always be the most fun for all players at all times. Sometimes there’s toxicity, sometimes you don’t get to play with your friends or you end up on a team with someone you don’t like, and sometimes the games aren’t balanced properly. However, I think given a large enough sample size, a computer could pick really well or even pick better than a human to create evenly balanced games.
Once you have this automated picking system in place, you can run an infinite number of pugs at the same time provided you have enough servers and enough medics added. We'd synchronize the start time of all the games in waves, such that the system would wait for every single pug to finish before starting the next wave. By synchronizing the start times of the pugs, you maximize the potential for evenly matched games with each wave of pugs (and you can't dodge high-level players by queuing at the right times).
Example: Wave 1 starts at 7:00pm with 100 players added. 8 pugs would be started with 4 fat kids. You have three minutes to get into the server, and the matches end in 30 minutes with no overtime. After 33 minutes, all pugs should have completed. Add in 5 minutes of buffer time and start the next wave of pugs at 7:38pm.
In traditional nerd essay fashion, Micspam and I have drafted a document outlining some of the issues with PugChamp and how these can be resolved. I also made a companion video in case you don't want to read the document but either way it's a long ride.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11-p_dFw4urcZQ6Jxt2cCK_qcqDmxVyGb4d-s3x-jjDY/edit?usp=sharing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLCXro-EqrY
Would love to hear your feedback and if you're interested in working on this kind of project then hit me up.