Introduction
With a few days delay after Twitter post (due to Top16 Qualifiers) it is time to celebrate my best ever Gwent Pro Ladder placements on leriohub!
I played about 40 ladder games since then – you could check out in-game how each faction score developed.
Score
- Syndicate (2502 fMMR/25 games/80%wr)
I used Lined Pockets Vice list as described in the July Season summary (same list I brought to Top16 Qualifier). Also experimented a bit with Nekker Pockets, very similar to what Puzzle.Express brought to won Qualifiers. Somehow SY is not so successful when it comes to highscores right now and still rather unpopular according to GwentData and my stats.
Syndicate traditionally feels skill capped – harnessing full value from cards like Ixora or Acherontia requires not only good preparation, but also fast thinking during execution. I failed especially in the latter many times.
- Skellige (2516 fMMR/25 games/80%wr)
- Nilfgaard (2531 fMMR/25 games/84%wr)
I started with Battle Stations Enslave 6 to test it before Gwint Pro Polska vs Gwentdetta Showmatch. This type of Enslave is rather boring, so I switched to Formation Soldiers Ball.
The weakness of this deck is lack of good tempo pointslam cards; it relies on engine and status control value. Probably this deck would have performed a bit worse but for surprise value; there is a space for improvements in the list.
Letho: Kingslayer is inspired by Puzzle.Express streams; main targets are Admiral Rompally and Philippe Van Moorlehem.
- Northern Realms (2538 fMMR/25 games/88%wr)
I don’t rate Northern Realms very high, so this score is a big surprise to me. That’s the only faction where I came up with a new list – Golden Nekker Cintrian Royal Guards. It worked well for me, but it seemed rather accidental. Also Kupcevic tried the list, and reached very good score, stating that it has loads of points if only Mutagenerator gets found early enough.
It encouraged me to push NR further and as you could see, it became my best faction. This list thins to zero cards, which I think is what most Gwent ethusiasts love (to name a few: Vilgefortz, Traheaern var Vdyffir…).
- Overall Score (10.087 MMR/100 games/83% wr/48.7 LEI4)
That’s the highest placement score in my Gwent Pro Ladder journey and one of the highest ever in general (if you happen to have a printscreen of a better placement result please send it to me). Obviously not everyone plays Top4 factions to exact 25 games, so we speak of nothing more than Gwent trivia and a point of reference.
The best placements score I’ve seen recorded so far are by my former teammate Javis: 10.051 MMR. I used his results as the background for fLEI article featured image.
Thoughts
- Ladder is very varied, one of the most diversed I remember. Monsters? Deathwish, Vampires, Ogroids, White Frost, Relicts, Tatterwing, Arachas Swarm, Moshcraft with Renfri Koshchey… Players seem more confused about what is good for climb and also less oriented for tryhard. Wonder how much impact Spyro farewell to Gwent had in this regard. It is not about balance being perfect, but the less tryhard ladder is, the less tryhard you have to be to achieve satisfying scores with 2nd or 3rd garnish decks. Of course Formation Soldiers or Skellige Warriors are quite popular as always.
- Pro players are ‘confused’ too – in Top16 Qualifiers my algorithm named 34 different decks; each player contributed more than 2 unique lists on average!
- The decisive factors for unusually high placement MMR were deck advantage and… luck. Given how both of these favored me, 90%+ winrate was achievable with perfect play.
Closure
Now, how to win Gwent Masters 5 Finals Qualifier? Tournament play is the only real test of Gwent skills right now. Congrats to Puzzle.Express and Gravesh who made it in just finished Top16 Qualifier!