Tiering of points based on difficulty is good and should remain in place, so that players' points get allocated relative to each others points.
This system encourages high skill game play. If someone knows something that others do not, they will be rewarded for learning about it, or are encouraged to learn it at higher level (more skill and higher skill games). This also allows more high skill players to experience a greater variety of techniques. This has been achieved by reducing the number of points needed for one to reach level 5, and increasing it for those able to reach that level (and therefore do not have any existing skill).
The remaining points for each match is also calculated based on skill: the higher the skill, the higher the points to reach tier 1. This allows players with low skill levels to play on higher difficulty maps and lower skill players on lower difficulty maps. While not ideal, we believe this system is more balanced (or at least is the current system) to bring the gameplay experience closer.
We decided to adjust the difficulty based on the skill level of the game. A players level can increase the difficulty of a map by 50% based on their current skill, while on a higher level map the difficulty is raised by 35% based on their current skill (because we think it should be closer to the match) with increasing levels meaning higher rewards to play. This is not an ideal system, but we feel the balance should be good and allows each map to be played on its own merits. This should compensate for the skill level difference, to improve match play and improve the quality of play of the game.
There will be two new maps which, from the first weeks and through the first season, will be unlocked for players. These will also be known as "Season 2" and will be created according to specific criteria, based on a mix of skill and map. Players will also earn points to obtain Season 2 maps (for which we have created custom maps), for which we plan to provide the rewards from each season in the right order depending on performance of the season.
We also expect this new system will encourage more casual players to make up their own maps by putting them together together, which will lead to a variety of maps, which will be easier to play on with a player without any special skill. This will also lead to increased community feedback, which will in turn improve the quality of play.
We also expect this system to introduce the 'free and open-ended nature' of competitive maps, which are easier to organize and create, since it does not require a separate map pack (a common issue with old maps), players will be able to play their own maps without a team to help them with the map pack. The only requirement is that they have one map (for which we will provide the rewards) in their account, otherwise they have to pay for the pack. We will be monitoring how this translates to the community.
