At least on PS4, there does not seem to be any lack of players (in relative terms, I do realize that overall, sadly, Battleborn does have a much smaller player base than many other games) but that experienced people (myself included) do not like to lose to people of equal command rank and greater “skill” (skill, of course, usually equates to mic’d up premades using the best characters and comp for the current meta playing better than the other mic’d up Premade who might not have quite as good a team comp or be quite as efficient at killing), or be put on a team with newer people who are still learning and “bring down your team”.
I have for the most part given up on solo queueing (God that Is such a strange word, thanks English LOL) if I have anyone I can play with, but a very common (like every single time I play with a group of friends on mic) situation is this:
- Make a group of 3-5 BB friends, usually all CR 100 with various characters we can play effectively
- Sit in queue (Chaos Rumble has had consistently short wait times)
- Find an opposing team
- Theorize on team skill based on titles (or lack thereof) or if we happen to recognize enemy names
- Choose characters (generally we will have pretty damn decent team comp, unless we are messing around or are lore grinding / leveling)
- Wait for match to start
- Examine enemy command ranks
- If low - “Sweet! This will be fun and easy!”
EDIT: The “if low” reaction is not always the case. Often it’s “well this will be unfair, let’s make it quick” or whatever BUT after a series of losses it’s a relief to know you have an easy match ahead!
If medium / high mixed - "This could be challenging."
If all 100 - "■■■■. Why do we never get easy matches? Get ready for a tough one! Damn premades!" (ironically, said by a premade)
- Play match. If low, mercilessly stomp, generally no taunting, but, despite what people who post on here may claim, only VERY FEW people ive played with (a LOT LOT LOT of people over 6+ months) actually “take it easy” on less experienced players. These enemies will commonly be called “garbage” by certain people (more than you would think), mocked for not being good enough, and called cowards or ■■■■■■■ for quitting or surrendering. Feel great about winning afterwards, but also, deep down, know that you have just perpetuated the VERY BEHAVIOUR that drives away / discourages newer players. Feel a bit ashamed but also know that you will do it again given the chance.
If mixed medium / high, win, but with a bit more of a challenge. Fairly satisfying win, no “cheap / dirty” feelings afterwards for having stomped less experienced players (well, not as many, anyway).
If high, either have a good, long, epic fight that comes right down to the wire with intense heroics on both teams that we oh-so-satisfyingly win in the end (we all feel amazing about ourselves, our opponents, and the game after this. These are the kind of matches long time BB veterans live and continue to play for, but, sadly, these matches are in the vast minority), get brutally stomped and lose, either fast or slow (in either case, rage ensues during and after the match. Opponents are “cheap”, “tryhards”, “meta abusers”, “pubstompers”, etc, even though, roles reversed, most people will stomp a not quite as good team of equal CR just as hard and enjoy doing so), or be the team doing the stomping (in this case, “Yeah, we are so good”, “Wow, those guys sucked!”, etc.
If you are on a 5 person Premade, there is a good chance I have just described a typical afternoon or evening of Battleborn PVP for you.
If you are playing with one or two friends and have the rest of your team fill with randoms, you either get lucky and find people at your CR / skill level, win a bunch, stick with them, probably add them to your friends list, or get the vacant slots filled by lower level / inexperienced players who, no matter how hard they try, end up bringing your team down, which leads to resentment afterwards and “man I hate getting matched with noobs” comments.
So, to summarize, new Battleborn players (of which there seem to a lot. When I solo queue, for the past while, I seem to get matched with a LOT more inexperienced than experienced people, which is why I rarely solo queue anymore) have it REALLY rough in BB right now, but there also seems to be a LOT of them.
Hopefully they can put up with us jaded, cynical, remorseless vets and persevere to eventually become just like us and hate the new players we all once were.
Even if every single match was only against people of your skill level, I think many people (myself included) who just aren’t as outright skilled at killing as those “cheap, try hard” Pvp gods who can go 47-1 would miss the guilty pleasure of slaughtering noobs.
However, maybe a ranked queue or a truly competitive queue would give those Uber skilled Alpha predators their own pool to fight in, and the rest of us middle of the food chain, destined to be always average or just above regardless of how long we play for, players to have fun.
The optimal solution would be for us vets to be respectful of and patient with our rookie brethren and help them along their arduous journey, and / or learn to accept that there are frighteningly good players out there that will ■■■■ you up and learn to be Zen about it.
Do I see either of those things happening?
Sadly, no.
Stick it out, new people!
Phew, that got kind of long!
Thanks for reading and any thoughts?
