Simply tallying up the number of alterations doesn't make for an argument. While I can't speak for the quality, I can note that O-12 started at a more N5-ready state than most factions so it should have received fewer alterations/upgrades. Why CB decided that PanO should not only finally become the inarguable best at shooting, not just by having +1BS, but by having by far the strongest mods on their dedicated gunners and also get hacking on an A-tier level is beyond reason. I think given that PanO has access to game defining gunnery units, having any Pitchers at all is a mistake given that Pitchers is the primary tool that factions use to circumvent not being able to deal with hard ARO pieces directly. Isn't it funny how that's exactly what's happened to Ikari specifically? We don't. At best we threaten our opponents with repairs. If you don't have remote presence on your TAG, then planning to actually repair them is high stakes gambling at uncertain odds.
The ammount of samples for most factions is not enough to have a valuable conclusion. I wish there was more, the data is very interesting.
I’m curious why you believe that 'O-12 started at a more N5-ready state than most factions.' Vanilla O-12 wasn’t really a top-tier faction at the end of N4. Also, they didn't just receive upgrades; some unit changes actually included nerfs. I would really appreciate it if you could elaborate on your reasoning." It is possible that this was done to address the long-term issues within the PanO player base. Alternatively, it could be an attempt to live up to PanO's reputation as a technological giant. It is also worth noting that Yu Jing received Pitchers in every sectorial as well. Ikari achieved an impressive 3rd place finish in IGL21, a tournament with 79 participants. While the sample sizes aren't massive, datasets with over 50 games are sufficient to reveal statistical trends. I have compiled a table using a standard balanced win rate of 48%-52% and a P-value of 0.05. Here is a breakdown of the metrics: Confidence Interval: The upper and lower limits of variance attributable to extreme luck (good or bad). Severity: The percentage deviation from the normal win rate level. Correction Games: The number of consecutive wins or losses required to return the stats to an acceptable range of variance. P-value: The probability of this specific scenario occurring in an infinite number of perfectly balanced parallel worlds. Taking 'Next Wave' as an example: Assuming a perfectly balanced environment (48%-52% win rate), the probability of achieving a 66.1% win rate over 127 games is only 0.0009. This implies that out of 10,000 parallel worlds, this scenario would only occur in 9 of them. It is statistically nearly impossible to attribute this result to chance alone. But I still want to remind everyone that until CB fixes the stupid 'UNKNOWN' bug, we should take this data with a grain of salt.
I don't know why I find it funny that Haqq is the 3rd most played but have received the least new stuff in the last few years. Also, how the hell did that many get in tournaments with Next Wave when it only came out a few months ago?! Something does't seem right there.
Remember, ITS is really self selective for competitive players. In addition, Next Wave the most promoted faction release in CB history. It was a full court press of publicity with support of dozens of Influncers. Finally, it has some very powerful pieces and seems to have a few different competitive builds. I am not surprised that they ended being the most popular factions for this season. I am glad that utilization of Haqqislam increased after the lower numbers of ITS 16.
Unfortunately the "unknown" is not a bug it is real players who do not, for one reason or another, submit their lists to the tournament. I have suggested several solutions to the problem, we will see if one can be implemented... Till then the best solution is for the TO to strongly insist players submit their lists....
"I have to say, buffs are effective, but combining them with the 'fun factor' is even better. The changes to Saladin for Haqq are just incredible. I was originally on the fence about starting a Haqq army, but after the Saladin update, I'm diving in without hesitation.
