Thanks for the suggetion Cyn, I appreciate it. The ability for a player to decide to join or leave won't be happening in the foreseeable future for a number of reasons though I think. One major reason is there will always be that one guy who decides he's going to just stick around in Primus and bully everyone and ruin the experience for all involved. The same holds true for the player who demotes his gladiator(s) for a similar reason. The second one is even worse because he could be "fully loaded" with gear. This is the Internet we're dealing with, remember? We already have players trying to "slow level" or "just do tavern fights" in an attempt to game the system. It won't be any different at the top. We gamers are a crafty bunch as you already know.

The idea of removing the bottom X% is not that dissimilar to how many European soccer leagues do things. Bottom teams get demoted for not performing well giving them a chance to rebuild and see what they were doing wrong against weaker competition and top teams get promoted to see if they can continue to climb against stronger opponents.

One of my main jobs it to balance freedom, flexibility and fun vs cheating, exploitation, and trolls. It's a tough job!

Thanks again for the feedback.