Casual Gameplay, Please: An Update On My Deranking Friend

I see your point @Cetren but I think the main reason people are rude and tryhard in rank is because it's ranked. If there's no goal to work towards in casual play, I think a lot of people wouldn't feel the need to get upset with their teammates because they don't lose anything (except items I suppose, which could be a problem.) It's not about the people themselves, it's about addressing why they get so salty in the first place. In most cases, I don't believe that it's just who they are as a person and would translate to anything they played.

With regard to fleshing out ranked mode, that's true and I didn't think of that, but I do think that casual play should be more of a priority than ranked. If no one's playing ranked, it's probably because they would rather play casual, so I feel like the devs should be catering to the needs of the community in that sense.

@scerckan We're trying to have an actual discussion here, so if you could not go about insulting people that would be great. Also, you missed the point. I've said several times that a) I'm not defending my friend or asking for him to get unbanned, but simply lamenting the fact that there are people like him who feel the need to do that, and b) it had nothing to do with not wanting to face people, he doesn't care about losing, it's about people at high ranks being rude to each other and generally making the game toxic and unfun.
Again, no one is saying he shouldn't have been banned. The point is that his situation is a symptom of a problem with toxicity and people being forced up the ranks who aren't actually good enough or who don't want to play ranked in the first place.

@Lowbei what part of "This thread isn't about the ban" don't you understand? Mentioning does not equal discussing. In fact, I don't think I even mentioned the ban in this thread, just the fact that he was dc'ing to derank. I'm not discussing it, I'm not contesting it, I didn't even mention it. I was simply using the situation to prove a point.
Also, I believe what @GrannyonAcid was trying to say wasn't that the game was too competitive, quite the opposite. It's too easy to rank up, so getting to rank 1 isn't a real achievement. Anyone who is halfway decent and plays frequently enough can do it, so in that sense it's not very competitive at all, because you don't really have to compete to get there.

@GrannyonAcid That's exactly the issue, I'm glad someone gets what I'm trying to say lol. On the one hand, deranking does hurt the people you're playing with, and it's not fair to newer players to be put in matches with people way better and more experienced, which is why it's bannable. On the other hand, for people who just want to have fun in a non-competitive environment, deranking is the only solution that currently exists.

@purebalance I guess it's just a matter of different perspectives. In my experience, the thing that makes it not casual is people's attitudes. In general, players at higher ranks are really salty and aggressive. My guess, which could be wrong, is that it's because they actually care about their ranks and so they get upset when others endanger that. I feel like being able to play in a situation where ranks aren't affected would go a long way towards creating the kind of "casual" environment I'm talking about.
(Also why the quotation marks? Do you think I'm lying and the friend is actually me, or something?)

@Lowbei If you want to talk about obeying forum rules, we could talk about how you're derailing this topic and literally making it about you.

Leaving that aside, I looked at your profile. I did notice one thing, and that's that you've been banned before. Feel free to correct me, but I'm guessing it was for being rude to other players, which you seem to do an awful lot with very little provocation.

You may be well-known, but so was Hitler. The fact that a lot of people agree with things you've said is neither impressive nor admirable. What is both impressive and admirable is being able to hold a conversation with someone that doesn't agree with you without mocking them or throwing thinly-veiled insults around. People will be more likely to take you seriously if you can make your argument without attacking anyone else, or saying they're "hilarious" in lieu of an actual argument.

In the meantime, does anyone know if there's a way to close my own topic? I feel like we're not actually talking about the original point anymore, and anything worth saying has already been said (on BOTH sides of the discussion, before anyone starts accusing me of trying to censor people that don't agree with me).

@twistedmonkey In theory, it would entail exactly the same things as ranked, except that your rank wouldn't be affected, so you'd have nothing to lose except items. The playerbase thing is a totally valid point, and not one that can be circumvented too easily I agree that the idea behind ranks is sound, but if we're going to keep the one gamemode there need to be some adjustments so that you can't get to rank 1 "by accident" just by being a halfway decent player.

The deliberate deranking thing only gets you a ban if you do it enough. The ban is based on your ratio of games played to games dc'ed. So it is possible to do it without getting banned, but there's still a problem regarding the reason it's bannable in the first place - namely, it's not fair to the people you're playing with, and it's not fair to people at lower ranks to be matched against someone of a much higher skill level.

@DeadByFlashlight I don't think I made my stance on DCing clear. I think it's despicable and as you said there's no excuse unless the game is being held hostage. The only other way to derank is to play badly on purpose, which is bad for all the same reasons that DCing is bad, albeit to a slightly lesser extent. But I think it's a problem that there are people that feel like they have to DC just to play in an environment they find fun.