Glad Poland got absolutely monged gotta give you my props for that, I also agree that Tardet providing a salty message as administrator (especially when he had the power to voice an opinion on a different method) is unacceptable. There's one issue that's not entirely touched upon though, which is the fact people mess up the word 'fairness' when it comes to competition.
Fairness could mean either one as they're mutually exclusive:
Provide an 'even' playing field for both teams based on ping difference (the home and away system).
Provide an 'even' playing field based on a team's ping skill potential.
The first point is self explanatory but the second point is a bit more complex in the sense that 120 ping isnt an accurate representation of a team's skill, so to minimise this you only include teams where the ping difference has no influence on gameplay, especially when you could potentially have the weaker faction with higher ping, easily meaning you could get stomped as the opposing team has the stronger faction with the better ping. It wouldn't be as bad if the people playing on the stronger faction have worse ping as the faction advantage for that map ultimately has a clear advantage in a specific class field, but still, ping ultimately being RNG to some respects past a point. You could 'adapt' to 120 ping, but that adaption shouldn't have to be the case as you're actually having to go against a high ping team maybe once or twice in a year - so its ultimately not worth it an arguably unfair. Besides, having too high a ping means you're not using the warband's mechanics as intended (warping through players, it's not a mechanic, it's not a skill, it's a hindrance as a result of awful netcode.
You're probably wondering 'but NA players have to adapt to EU ping' and that's completely true, but you've also go to remember, NA is a large place where the pings usually range from 20 - 100, so usually people are playing with that ping constantly, so not only are you good on the side with high ping, you'll also be good on the side with good ping whilst most EU teams would be only good on the side with low ping. This brings me onto the mutually exclusivity, what even playing field are we going by? The fact that there's no real 'ping' advantage when we're talking raw numbers? Or are we going by the fact that an even playing field should be a field which teams can show their potential with the scene they've adapted to and use the mechanics as intended instead of having constant delays or warping? In most current tournaments we're using the first option which oddly isn't the best option.
NA played well because they have the ability to do that with the different pings; pings which ultimately shouldn't be allowed to be even consider when it comes to competitive tournaments in Warband (other competitive games have good enough netcode to have little to no difference between 10 ping and 100ping, warband's not the case).
Even though including every nation ever in such a small community is a good idea, if the community is good and healthy enough to continue in their own continent, then the inclusion of others should not be the case. Why do you think there's multiple regions and region locked tournaments for most competitive games?
NA, you played well and I respect that (Poland are just losers at this point), but don't go away thinking that it's either team's true potential and that you're 'better' than the team you faced.
Juve said:
I don't think you understood the main point of my post, I'm not attacking you or claiming that you're saying NA didn't deserve. It's just ironic that home/away is suddenly a huge problem now that it has disadvantaged a big team in EU. I get Poland's frustration because it's always been a (mostly brushed off) problem for NA teams.
Nothing wrong with your post Tardet, just the irony of it all bothered me, you know?
You've been around in the community for years to know that this isn't the case; home and away has ALWAYS been a problem and has always been changed to find the best suitable option because it just simply doesn't work (due to the reasons above), the home and away system only exists because we want you to play, otherwise it's always been an issue and seems to always be an issue (probably in bannerlord too). The poland example, they're ultimately salty because of the loss, but that match was a perfect indication as to why the system doesn't work. If the EU nations had thr choice of the inclusion of NA under the awful home and away system; they'd probably say no but its tradition at this point so arguing against it before the tournament starts would bring nothing. The rules are pretty much copy and pasted every year, so the home and away system just sticks around. Gibby Is pretty much the only person who thinks playing with high ping to include other continents is a good idea; but that's because it's cool rather than practical.
Even NA know that they're not better than the polish team, NA have always been underdogs; you're not suppose to win if you're taking the latter of the mutual exclusion. NA is fantastic, but obviously shouldn't have won. I wish you goodluck in the finals and I'm sure this will go down in NA history.