matchup
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Guild Wars 2 dev blog explains WvW matchup system changes
There's been a small (but not insignificant) change to the way Guild Wars 2 determines world-vs.-world matchups. The official dev blog on the matter explains that, in the beginning, WvW matchups were chosen "by sorting all worlds in order of their Glicko rating, then counting off sets of three." As a result, matchups were often between the same three worlds, so ArenaNet introduced matchup variance to counter that problem. However, it appears that the devs have made an adjustment to the matchup variance formula that causes the range of worlds with which a given server can be matched to be "greatly reduced." The idea behind the new formula is that "There will be fewer matches where one or two worlds are potentially steamrolled, though it comes at the cost of seeing more of the same worlds." That's all that the average GW2 player needs to know, but if you're interested in the math and statistics behind the change, check out the full post at the game's official site.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Teaching ourselves LoL matchups
I'm always looking for things to teach players in the Summoner's Guidebook. We have, however, covered a lot of the low hanging fruit in one way or another. In League of Legends, and virtually every other asymmetric competitive game, matchup knowledge comprises the huge bulk of information that is truly useful to read about. This week was originally going to be a counter-Ryze guide, but then I decided to cover a broader topic to help reach more people. I don't really like discussing specific character matchups largely because the character you're using matters almost as much as your opponent's. What does Ryze do against Kassadin in lane, for instance? The answer is not a whole lot if the Kassadin is decent. I could write a counter-Kassadin guide, but a lot of it wouldn't be usable by Ryze. Instead, this week we'll discuss how to think about the opponent's kit and develop a strategy to win on your own (or at least survive).
Seven ways PC World is wrong about the iPhone-Android matchup
Android's new features in the upcoming version 2.2 (aka "Froyo," announced this week at Google I/O) are certainly intriguing, but some sections of the press have gone off the deep end in their analysis of what this means for the iPhone and the smartphone market in general. PC World's piece, "7 Ways Android 2.2 Froyo Tops Apple's iPhone," is a perfect example of this phenomenon, and it reads like it was written by someone who's never even held an iPhone. All seven of their points are easily debunked, even leaving aside the fact that they're comparing today's iPhone with the as-yet-unbuyable Froyo phones of tomorrow. Read on to find out why -- and bring marshmallows.
