Some unexpected ladder shifts may happen over the next few days

[Bren92787]

I really feel some more transparency is needed about how the league system works.

I am absolutely loving Outwitters--I think it might be the most exciting game I've played on iOS since the app store first opened. But the leagues are frustrating, and I think part of this is because there's something happening behind the scenes that doesn't make sense.

The game suggests, in the help section, that you have a skill rating--which is calculated behind the scenes and is not user-visible. This is the purported explanation I've seen Harti reference more than once for why sometimes users are seeing demotions after winning a game.

I definitely think that the system should be set to NEVER demote a player after a win. If a course correction is necessary, then a loss WILL happen, and soon--so the system should wait for the loss to do it. This is demoralizing.

I got demoted twice, once after a win, and I've wound up in Gifted now, where I'm winning about 7/8 games. I've gotten better since getting there--I've won like 7 games straight today, climbed the ladder in my league, but every game I hold my breath hoping for a promotion. What do I have to do to get promoted? The fact that there's no clear pathway to promotion, and yet demotions can happen even when you win, is really punitive.

It's also concerning, though, because I'm suspicious of the skill rating. This may not be true, but it SOUNDS as if the game is evaluating and grading the moves that I make. My knowledge of how AI works is pretty limited, but I'd be amazed if the system is able to actually interpret why I let a certain unit be killed to lure a player in a certain direction, or to interpret the delicate human nuance of me moving my units to shield other units. If there IS a behind-the-scenes point system evaluating my performance and deciding when I'm ready to move on, I think players--especially dedicated players reading this board and supporting the developers--have a reasonable entitlement to some basic information about what kinds of things impress this system besides just winning. Of course, the risk with this information is then a certain play style might be more encouraged to impress the system, but it seems as if this is already in place and its possible to win game after game in a way that the skill rating doesn't understand and looks down upon.