I am going back on break from the Pits, I find the current game in the Blood Gods to just be extremely aggravating even with the changes from this week. All playing this game is doing at this point is making me angry every time i do arena fights. 5 wins in a row and maybe get 15 points, then 1 loss to a 1st round KO hit and loose 26 points, I don't know how that is enjoyable for anyone. I just can't see spending the amount of money I do on this game to play it just to be aggravated, my blood pressure just can't handle this crap for lack of a better term.

Bottom line for me is I don't think that any ELO or MMR system will ever work in the Pits. These systems are meant to measure player skill. In chess its your chess skill, in WoW, LoL, EQ2 its your pvp skills, you directly control every single move your character makes and your skill is what determines your rating. In the pits we have some amount of control over our glads with strategies, but once your to the end game and everyone is in max gear, where most of use are using very similar strategies, and player skill really isn't what decides fights anymore.

Nate summed it up in a PM to me:

If two near identical gladiators fight each other and both are using the same strategy (which many rage gladiators do) then I would expect crit effects and skills to make the difference in who wins the fight.
Crit effects and skills procing will make the difference, both things that are completely based on a random number generator and completely out of our control. In a fight if your knocked down and you aren't lucky and get up before you taken any damage.... you've lost. If you get chain stunned with either a 2 round stun or multiple 1 round stuns... you've lost. If your block ability proc's 5 or more times in a fight.... you've won (ha! mixed it up there). These are just some examples there are many many more that are completely random number generator based that will cause you to loose.

Most fights at the high end aren't determined by player skill they are decided by which glad got the luckier rolls with the random number generator and got a key knockdown, 2 round stun, AR skill proc on first swing of the fight, or something similar. In the old system it didn't really matter as much, a single lose to any of these would equal a win and you'd continue on. But now a loss like this wipes out up to 20 wins worth of points if your at the top. It's just a game breaking flaw to me.

Anyways I've been up on my soap box for the past month arguing for change. I am now off it.

If anyone wants my email to stay in touch or maybe to get together in other games just shoot me a PM, I'll check these forums for awhile i am sure.