This time, we would like to touch on something that most likely has started to become more of a problem than ever:
With an idea thrown out by Rookie here, we will just cut straight to the point that we wish to make.
In our current meta with [technically] over 200+ tracks available to us, every team that mostly played tracks for quite some time now has one thing in mind during matches with certain spots:
“Top 3? Pick GBA Boo Lake, Horror Mansion, Colour Wonderland...”
“2, 3, 4? Pick Sparkly Road, Hell Pyramid…”
...and so on, you should get the idea.
(We’re aware that Boo Lake in particular is fixed, merely think of it as an example here.)
Yes, with certain spots, you pick certain tracks which is common sense because RTWL does it, MK7 did it, MK8 does it and this approach of strategy most likely will never ever change.
The key difference is that getting that type of picks in CTWL matches matters a lot more than they would in any other format/game we just pointed out above due to how many advantages they grant you on those specific tracks.
That also leads to a meta on Custom Tracks which is constantly shifting around the same 20 tracks for quite some seasons now. Why is that?
The advantages you’re being given are just too huge to be ignored and it would even worse for you to have the opponent snatch those advantages from you so hitting anyone with the "you don't have to pick those tracks if you don't want to"-argument isn't holding much water from a strategic point of view.
This obviously gets a lot worse when a team gets around 70% of the track picks which at this point is a very common thing to occur.
The decisive factor here in conclusion is [pretty much]: who gets certain track picks first?
So how do we plan on going into CTWL differently?
As mentioned in the video, a set of tracks (32) that gets switched up each season was an idea to get a taste of the diversity that CTGP actually is capable of offering rather than just limiting ourselves to the same 20 tracks every single time like it has been the case for the past 2-3 Seasons in CTWL now.
The WL Council however wishes to combine that idea along with a random-only idea into one and here's a quick run-down of how we will do it:
- WL Council randomized a list of 20 tracks for each week league-wide
- those lists will be announced in a channel that CT-reps have access to ahead of match time
- as for what league-wide means; basically, all divisions will have to play with the same list we randomise for W1, same for W2, etc.
That way, we believe that we would give people a lot more needed diversity for CTWL and it would get rid of a hardcore track pick meta when Custom Tracks just have way more to offer than just the same 20 tracks that are being picked over and over again for seasons now.
Also: this is merely a possibility at this stage but there may be times where we will be given an additional update for CTGP which would include an indicator of a person having actually picked random which could open possibilities for a true random only format which we introduced before Season 13 but didn't gain a lot popularity due to us being unable to tell if a host truly picked random or not (unless they stream).
With an idea thrown out by Rookie here, we will just cut straight to the point that we wish to make.
In our current meta with [technically] over 200+ tracks available to us, every team that mostly played tracks for quite some time now has one thing in mind during matches with certain spots:
“Top 3? Pick GBA Boo Lake, Horror Mansion, Colour Wonderland...”
“2, 3, 4? Pick Sparkly Road, Hell Pyramid…”
...and so on, you should get the idea.
(We’re aware that Boo Lake in particular is fixed, merely think of it as an example here.)
Yes, with certain spots, you pick certain tracks which is common sense because RTWL does it, MK7 did it, MK8 does it and this approach of strategy most likely will never ever change.
The key difference is that getting that type of picks in CTWL matches matters a lot more than they would in any other format/game we just pointed out above due to how many advantages they grant you on those specific tracks.
That also leads to a meta on Custom Tracks which is constantly shifting around the same 20 tracks for quite some seasons now. Why is that?
The advantages you’re being given are just too huge to be ignored and it would even worse for you to have the opponent snatch those advantages from you so hitting anyone with the "you don't have to pick those tracks if you don't want to"-argument isn't holding much water from a strategic point of view.
This obviously gets a lot worse when a team gets around 70% of the track picks which at this point is a very common thing to occur.
The decisive factor here in conclusion is [pretty much]: who gets certain track picks first?
So how do we plan on going into CTWL differently?
As mentioned in the video, a set of tracks (32) that gets switched up each season was an idea to get a taste of the diversity that CTGP actually is capable of offering rather than just limiting ourselves to the same 20 tracks every single time like it has been the case for the past 2-3 Seasons in CTWL now.
The WL Council however wishes to combine that idea along with a random-only idea into one and here's a quick run-down of how we will do it:
- WL Council randomized a list of 20 tracks for each week league-wide
- those lists will be announced in a channel that CT-reps have access to ahead of match time
- as for what league-wide means; basically, all divisions will have to play with the same list we randomise for W1, same for W2, etc.
That way, we believe that we would give people a lot more needed diversity for CTWL and it would get rid of a hardcore track pick meta when Custom Tracks just have way more to offer than just the same 20 tracks that are being picked over and over again for seasons now.
Also: this is merely a possibility at this stage but there may be times where we will be given an additional update for CTGP which would include an indicator of a person having actually picked random which could open possibilities for a true random only format which we introduced before Season 13 but didn't gain a lot popularity due to us being unable to tell if a host truly picked random or not (unless they stream).