Was unsure how to phrase it another way, but here goes. What if you got to see the map you were playing on beforehand, and an imaginary coin is flipped, giving you a 50% chance of either: Picking your Battlegroup First and pick what side of the map you wanted to play on. Seeing what faction(s) your opponent is playing and pick your battlegroup second in response, getting the side of the map they did not choose. The Big Positive: It would add another layer of strategy to the game, and help solve part of the map issue in that you can pick battlegroups more suited to certain maps (I.E. Dont pick a campy BG if your in a position where you could get rushed very easily). It would add a sort of counterplay to pox Possible Negatives: Terrain based battlegroups are significantly stronger since you can pick them on maps that are convenient for them. Certain maps would see certain battlegroups more often (potentially, not a guarantee) I don't know how I myself feel about the idea (I don't even know if it's possible!), I just thought it was an interesting concept to think about.
I don't like it. It seems a bit too campy, and having your BG revealed half the time might make certain runes DRASTICALLY better or worse: nora drain, rock trap, blink times two, domination, chopping block, etc- All would take a significant hit from being a garuntee'd include in your opponent's BG.
On the one hand it's nice, you can make counterbgs for onetrick ponies and possibly eventually lower their rank significantly so you won't have to face them often. On the other hand, it's not a healthy solution - you still have to waste your time playing boring matches. I've suggested several times random deck selection with xp gain depending on amount of unique runes in decks you selected as rankable. So if you want a high rank, you better play diverse bgs, while if you want to play a single bg you are likely to rot in lower leagues.
I'd disagree with showing the faction, but I like the idea of a coin flip to decide what side of the map you start on. If you won the flip, you could either pick a side and your opponent plays 1st or you play 1st and your opponent picks his starting side. Would possibly help make maps that aren't mirrors more fair.
We're all making assumptions here, it may look either decent or not on paper to some people, but you have yet to see it in action. What could be done is, this system can be implemented as a separate mode in Normals, making it an experiment, if I may. If good comes and stays, it could be implemented into ranked according to how the Pox community feels about it, otherwise we should simply set the idea aside and not look at it at all.
