(Note: If this looks familiar, I already posted it on the TL and B.net forums, where it got some and no interest respectively. I just realized that I never posted it here, and thought maybe people might be interested)

So assuming that everyone reading this actually plays SC2 (not always true, I know!), all of you are in a division. But what does that actually mean? Unless you're in Grandmasters, not much; it's basically a bunch of randomly chosen names in the same league as you for you to compare your point total against. That's... OK, I guess... I mean, it's nice to have that top 8 achievement to look at when I'm really, really bored, or to see that at #6 I'm the top Terran in 100 randomly chosen players. But couldn't they be so much more? I mean, obviously the concepts of a division in professional sports or whatever couldn't be directly transferred over, but I expect a lot more from a core part of the SC2 ladder. I was thinking about this, and came up with some ideas on how they can be improved.

• Chat box/message wall in division screen

This is a really basic first step - right then, it turns the other people in your division from random names to actual people that you can trash talk, be nice to, whatever. There's a ton of empty space on the ranking screen, so I'm sure they could find somewhere to put it in. The only downside I can think of is that these would require some moderation, but I think Blizzard can handle hiring a few part-time mods that could easily work from home. The upside? An instant addition to competitiveness and a greater feeling of community, the latter of which is what many people think is missing from SC2.

• Give priority in the matchmaker to division matchups and highlight those matches

As far as I know, what division you are in right now does not affect your matches at all. Even if you are competing by points with your division-mates, and even if you can trash-talk them, it would be a pure stroke of luck to actually play one of them in a ladder match, and even if you did you probably wouldn't know it because the game doesn't tell you! I think that should be changed, and that the matchmaker should give a high priority to matching people up in the same division. If two of said people are queuing at the same time, in my opinion the game should try as hard as possible to match them up unless their MMR's are way, way far apart from each other, such that few or zero ladder points would be gained or lost if the favored player won. Also, on the loading screen, the fact that the other player is in your division should be highlighted, along with their rank and record. However, the matchmaker should avoid using this "priority" system to match up the same division players twice in a row or in a short time period, because I don't think most people want that on ladder.

A related idea that I had was that these division matches should count for extra/double ladder points (both won and lost, and there would be no extra effect to MMR) - I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not, but I think it is worth considering. This would reinforce the idea that the division is something important and give some extra feeling to those matches, but I also understand that it might throw the ranking system off. Like I said, not sure about this one...

• You should be able to see if players in your division are online, and challenge them to matches worth ladder points

Even with the above change, it might be fairly rare to actually play someone in your division in a ladder match, especially in lower divisions where people don't play as much. Well, this is another way to create more competition between people in the same division, as well as a way to go against that guy taunting you in the above-mentioned chat box with something on the line. The match would behave exactly as a normal Quick Match, including the ladder points (not sure about MMR). This does have some potential for abuse, but the fact that divisions would still be random means it would be pretty hard to get in the same division as, say, your friend who you would want to help out, and it would also be a good idea to place a limit on these "challenge matches".

One thing I'm not sure about this is, should it be possible to reject some/all of these challenges? If there was such a system I wouldn't want people to just be able to dodge challenges all the time, but at the same time, a lot of people don't want to be playing ladder or ladder-like matches all the time, and these challenges could even become a method of harassment, which should obviously be avoided if possible. Hmm, might need to think about this one a little more...

Also, should the above "double points" idea apply to these as well? It might increase the possibility for abuse, but it could also make these challenge matches seem more important as well.

• It should be harder to be promoted or demoted during a season

Now this one might be controversial - after all, getting promoted is the main goal of a lot of ladder players, and I'm sure a lot of people don't want to have to wait months to do so. However, having promotions be as they are now would make the competition within a division pretty hollow; after all, the winners at the end of a season in anything below Masters would be "the best players not good enough to be promoted", which isn't exactly something you put on your resume. And one of the main points of this is that the goal of winning/doing well in your division would sort of replace the goal of being promoted right away (and changing leagues after placement matches would work the same, so it's not like you can never get promoted!). You could still get moved during the season if you were way, way out of the league you were in; this should only happen if you were tanking, or having a much better player use your account, or something similar.

• End-of-season division tournaments

This would be the hardest one to do, but would be very, very rewarding if Blizzard could pull it off. Imagine, if you will, the end-of-season ladder lock period. Right now, all that means is that your bonus pool stops growing and you can't be promoted or demoted; you are, in theory, supposed to play out your bonus pool and use the time to go for another meaningless achievement. Imagine instead that the top 8, or 16, or 32, or whatever players from each division were placed into a tournament, to take place in that week. They would be somehow scheduled for matches; maybe they contact preset opponents, maybe times are preset based on when you're most commonly on, maybe you're matched up with whoever else is there when you log on, maybe people who can't play at all are replaced by going down the division, I don't know - scheduling would probably be the hardest part. Once matches are actually scheduled, maps would be taken from the ladder map pool (maybe with vetoes) and the players would play a BoX (Bo3 with Bo5 finals? Different by division? I don't know), with the winner moving on and the loser... not. Eventually, there would be a grand final match, and the winner would get the title, once and forever, of Champion of Marauder Mars for 2012 Season 4, or, you know, whatever it actually is. I believe one of the many HoTS promised changes was that it would be easy to observe a normal match; these division tournament matches would hopefully be easily linked from the division page, maybe even publicly archived. Now, the idea of champion leads naturally to my final suggestion...

• More rewards for winning/placing high in a division

Right now, as I have said, all you get for your division placement is an achievment in Feats of Strength, where maybe a really, really boring stalker might notice it at some point. That's not enough; all of this "making divisions better" stuff has no point if no one cares about how they place in their division. At a bare minimum, winning one should give you some kind of nice trophy to put on your profile, separate from normal achievements (but not mandatory; after a while, you may not want to make it public that you were once champion of a bronze division). High placings (not just winning) should also give out special portraits and decals, because we all love portraits and decals, right? Winning a tournament should probably give you an automatic promotion, although most winners would probably get it anyway (especially if the tournament matches counted for points). So, what about giving out real-life prizes for winning a division? Say, a free authenticator (but I already have an auth- shut up, no one cares), or $10 off your next Blizzard purchase. Just small things, nothing that will bankrupt Blizzard, but I bet a lot of players would be interested in stuff like that... and, after all, if those extra rewards entice 1 player per division to stay interested enough to buy HoTS/LoTV/SC3, then Blizzard has made money.

I understand that, of course, this would be a massive incentive for abuse no matter how small the prizes are; tank for one season, then win the next, for example, ruining the experience for many honest players in a division. Adding prizes (or even doing this without prizes - people will cheat for the smallest incentives!) would require a lot of policing, and may even be unworkable. There would have to be strict rules against smurfing, and they would have to be enforced (perhaps with the aid of automated systems to flag if, for example, someone's APM suddenly doubled and they started using different hotkeys). Again, though, I feel that this would be extremely rewarding if pulled off successfully.

I know this is a lot of text, but I really do feel that divisions can and should be a lot better, and I also think that this would entice a lot more players to play SC2 ladder more often and more seriously, leading to a better game and better experience overall, not to mention higher event viewing numbers. What do all of you think?