Rating Restrictions

[VAN1SH1NG]

With the ladder population at a decent level at the moment I'd like to have rating restricted events or servers for ball ladder. Depending on how successful it is the idea could later be expanded.

The plan would be 800+ rating and something like a minimum of 20-30 games played this season. However all players on a SL clan would additionally be allowed to play to encourage the lower rated players to seek out a clan and improve.

I think the safest options to start with are one of the following or both:

• Specify a start time for one server to become restricted. This makes it easier for players interested in higher quality games to know when to get online. The downside is I can easily see a lot of players deciding to not bother logging in except when a rating restricted server is active. The event would last until there are not enough eligible players online to continue, although it could potentially be restarted later if it stays alive and more eligible players get online.
• Start a rating restricted server when at least 30 players are online. This would probably require a rating higher than 800 to make sure we keep enough for a lower rated server alive as well.

The other option is have a permanently active rating restricted server. I am concerned that this harm the population as many players will simply want to switch over to the restricted server as soon as enough players are available. I have no issue pushing lower rated off to pubs, but I feel like most will simply log off and not bother playing pubs. I'm very open to at least doing this as an experiment though.

Looking for your opinions on how you want to see this happen as well as what times are best for you if there is a set time. Sunday is off limits at least while leagues are active. However before the season starts is possible as well as any other day. I was thinking Friday nights might be best to start.

I'm also open to a much more limited map pool while rating restrictions in effect.