CS:GO will forever hold a special place in my heart. Now don’t get me wrong, it is by no means a perfect game. I believe Valve needs to be more in touch with the community and focus more on improving the game as a whole instead of creating more aesthetic modifications for the sole purpose of dat ca$h money yo. This lack of consideration for the community’s needs is best seen in the matchmaking system. Not only is it missing the essential 128 tick servers, there is also no sort of ringer system.
A ringer is a player who fills in for a team when a player leaves and completely abandons the match. While all third party matchmaking services allow players to join a match that is in progress, ESEA allows teams to pick a player out of those available to ring on while anyone can join a game with a free spot on FACEIT and CEVO. This means that the team can’t choose the player with the highest stats to join their game and thus gives everyone a chance to join a game in progress.
In Valve matchmaking, however, once a player leaves, they cannot be replaced and you are stuck with a bot that plays like a chimpanzee with its head down a well. I stand to wonder who thought it was a good idea to handicap a team like this and why nobody told them otherwise. An entire team shouldn’t be penalized for a single player’s unsportsmanlike conduct. It makes it even worse when the bot doesn’t listen to your commands and proceeds to rush mid and die.
Adding Ringers to Official Matchmaking
Players should have the option of inviting their friends to the game if someone leaves. In addition, there should be an option in the main menu for ringers to join a game where a player has left. Players could also make themselves available to ring via either a status change or some sort of lobby and would then be alerted when a game is available to join. They would simply join if they don’t want to play a full game and, as such, the ELO loss/gain would be cut in half regardless of when the ringer joined the in-progress game to make it fair for everyone involved. All in all, it’s a system that could benefit everyone and would almost entirely remove the need for a 4v5 game.
Why Should Valve Care?
Valve should care about improving their matchmaking services because it helps beginners get comfortable with the game and enjoy their experience. The more they enjoy their experience, the more money they’re likely to take out of their bank account and convert into Steam Wallet funds. Third-party matchmaking services require a certain level of skill, with ESEA being the highest and FACEIT arguably being the lowest. Yes, there are casual and deathmatch modes, but those don’t test your aim and reaction time as much as the high-pressure environment of MM. In my opinion, Valve would be better off taking the time to improve matchmaking with ringers (and 128 tick servers) than spending their time making skin cases, operations, gloves and fixing minor bugs.