Pending Opt-in Backup Queue to revitalize dead ladders

[NonbinaryAgenda]

A list of every ladder with check boxes that you can toggle to add yourself to a backup queue. It would work like this:

If someone tries to search for a game and no one else is on the ladder, Showdown sends a notification to every player who is currently online, not in a match, and has that ladder toggled for backup queue, asking if they would like to join a game on that ladder. If they say yes but someone else has already joined the battle first, the notification could either just disappear or redirect you to searching for a game in the normal queue… whichever feels more intuitive.

Not only would this do a lot to combat the problem of dead ladders, but it would also encourage users to spend more time team building, so as to have reliable teams ready in their favorite ladders, as well as to experiment with formats they otherwise wouldn’t bother building for since it’s so hard to queue up a game.

 

[NonbinaryAgenda]

There would obviously be some issues with implementing this idea. It must be easy to turn off all checkboxes and limit the maximum number of notifications to prevent annoying spam. But most importantly, it would be difficult to factor in ELO for this so it would probably have to be unranked only and function like a challenge*. But still, it would give people the opportunity to play more obscure tiers they otherwise would not have access to because almost no one ever queues them.

Edit: *or, depending on how popular the feature is, it might be possible to restrict the notifications even farther to those within appropriate ELO range.

I was also thinking that to avoid notification spam, the challenges could act as a chat room that only opens/flashes orange when a relevant challenge is posted.