The CTFpickup one.

Pickups are nice but why we have to wait at least 30 minutes to play a game there? On public we just join and play.

Random until it looks like it was skill based

Hello, I think that you'll never be able to please everyone with the shuffle systems...

I know it's funny but if your name really is Sophia and you're not a guy whose parents had the silly idea of giving that name, then you should tell people on the servers you host that you are a girl and it will probably make everything different and better.

Well, regular shuffle is pretty useless, for plenty of reasons: small playerbase, fake accounts, the difficulty of measuring skill(especially in team-based mode without fixed teams).
The problem with random shuffle is that people might not necessarily cooperate in doing several shuffles until you see something that resembles balance. Maybe they want an easy game for themselves, or don't want to have people they dislike on their team, etc.

Personally I'd go with random, but ultimately it'll be up to the players on the server whether or not they're able to arrange a GG.
Making everyone happy is nigh impossible so I wouldn't stress too much about it.

Well said.

Go play at #ctfpickup if you want decent matches.

If you're just a bit experienced with CTF you shouldn't bother playing public for anything else than warm up, it really isn't worth it when you can play pickups :)

you can have decent matches on public often enough too, and you can have BS games on #ctfpickup aswell.

but generally, CTF 5vs5 on pub is a completly different game than 4vs4 pickup.

me red, rest blue.

On the server I host I go with skill and look at how the teams look to make sure they're balanced. If they're not I just vote again or switch players manually (telling them first).

problem is voting again doesnt work as the shuffle just remains the same after 1-2 times. and manual switching doesnt work 90% of the time because players will just lose their spot if they spec

make own server, if u start lose just kick them and /abort tehehe ))

Problem with rating based shuffle is there is always the one cockface who specs after the shuffle passes and then joins the other team that is now stacked with higher rating players to "compensate" for the 3v4. That and all the other problems people mentioned in this thread.

Random, because skill based can produce very uneven teams too. After 8:0 game, another skill based shuffle will result in "no players shuffled" or the trollish same teams but switched colors red-blue. Players may not want to do manual shuffle in that case if there are specs that would "steal" the player spot.

go for random because quakelive skill ranting almost always fails to do a proper job in ctf

Hi Sophia:) Its not easy to get a fair shuffle with fake accounts or winjoiners on the server, shuffle can troll players quite often. If there are mixed skill players on the server (from tier2 to 4 like in public games), its better to use skill based option. But if the server is full of great players, random shuffle works better I think.
PS. Thank you for hosting this server, it's really great <3

thank you!

i think i will stick with random for now but one problem is that people are so used to it being a skill based shuffle that everyone f3's after the first one (expecting "no players shuffled" if they try again) and sometimes the first shuffle is the worst shuffle lol.

hope to have some premium games this week!

put that ready up thing to 100%, as long as you are there you can keep shuffling :>