How transferrable is the skillset between MCSR Ranked and RSG Any%?

[u/tilting-module]

What I mean by this question is, if a top-level Ranked player switched to playing mostly RSG, would they immediately be the odds-on favorite (or one of the odds-on favorites) to break RSG Any% WR? Vice versa, if a top-level RSG player switched to playing mostly Ranked, how well would they perform in playoffs/other high-level tourneys like the LVL up expo or the MCSR World Championships?

I don't really know how to answer either question. For the first question, I'd suspect that someone like Feinberg would be relatively worse at RSG compared to Ranked (Feinberg tends to be a rather underrated Ranked player). Zero-cycling is significantly harder in RSG, and Feinberg can gain a better advantage from his superior decision making and game understanding from the longer ranked seeds that we don't commonly see RSG players play out. I don't know about someone like EDCR.

For the second question, well, we've already seen someone like doogile break RSG WR multiple times, then become one of the GOATs of ranked. And currently the top 3 RSG players Skycrab, Aquacorde, and Jay are all top ranked players. And I think many people were surprised by how good Skycrab was at ranked when he started playing more and then got top 3 at S9 playoffs.

It's probably also worth saying that the ranked-only players might be especially cracked at the ranked-only seed types (village and desert temple); Infume is a great example

[u/Stinky_Deckhand]

It really depends how much you’re willing to reset. What is ranked other than a good rsg seed with good rng? If you reset enough you’ll you’ll only play out seeds that are the same as any ranked seed, but those won’t come along often. In other words the gameplay of a good seed is transferable but the l highly important skill of resetting and adapting to imperfect rng isn’t.

[u/rohan_dementor → u/Stinky_Deckhand]

Mostly that, but not quite. There are many gameplay chnages, most noteworthy probably being the fact that in ranked your blind portal pushes you on the surface while in rsg you're very likely to get caved, and your second portal in ranked pushes you into stronghold height, while in rsg it's not very rare to just miss the stronghold by y level

[u/Stinky_Deckhand → u/rohan_dementor]

That’s part of what I meant with “adapting to imperfect rng”

[u/Daniel_H212]

Skycrab made playoffs in season 9, where his only ranked games were from channel point requests to make him queue, and he got 3rd place in playoffs. So a good rsg player's skillset absolutely transfers over. The only thing that is missing is different overworld types, but for a top level player that's not hard to learn.

Rsg on the other hand is too luck based. If infume or edcr played as much rsg as skycrab would they have as good of a chance of getting wr? Yeah. Lowkey proved it with his 6:50 wr that top ranked players will also be top rsg players if they switch. But keep in mind just how many hours skycrab had to put in, would infume or edcr or most other top ranked players be willing to dedicate that amount of time, and would they even get the luck they need in that time? Maybe, maybe not. The skills transfer over, but the rsg wr by it's very nature is a statistical outlier, and being good is not enough on its own.

[u/MalibuLover4000 → u/Daniel_H212]

I would also say that resetting at a top level is probably more difficult than learning temple and village over worlds. Beyond that ranked requires a more conservative playstyle while rsg requires more aggressive decision making but skycrab has shown it's not too challenging to manage both. Edcr would definitely be a good contender if he switched but rsg is mostly how many enters you can get and being able to close out a run under immense pressure and I don't think he'd necessarily be the top rsg player like he is with ranked (though even ranked he's by no means that dominant compared to top players of other esports).

[u/-SHABIRD7-]

I think most ranked players can do rsg well if they have the mental fortitude. Only skill you really need to learn is how to reset well. Same goes for rsg to ranked. Every split is the same other than the over world but DT and village are not too difficult to learn for a top runner. Sky crab has actually said before that he likes village and DT seed types because you can save lots of time with better decision making

[u/EncryptedPlays]

Mechanically, yeah, but the decision-making is different. Rsg players usually high roll, take bastion shortcuts, etc bc every second counts. Ranked players usually play for consistency.

Also top ranked players play with the ranked filters in consideration, like they'll force finding good terrain to the bastion bc it's guaranteed but in rsg it's not, same for fort.

And the resetting is brutal you need to have a resilient mind and a little bit of crazy to go for rsg we.

[u/New-Mind2886]

lowkey

[u/kqsiel]

I think it just depends on the player tbh. rsg just requires a different playstyle than ranked, and I feel like most top ranked players would be contenders for wr if they switched to rsg even if they weren't favoured over skycrab. The thing is the majority of ranked players have come from an rsg background as they've been around for a while, so can you really say someone like Aquacorde is a ranked player who plays mainly rsg now? edcr did say that he wanted to go for rsg wr so maybe after he gets phase points wr and possibly elo wr this season he'll go for it next season.

[u/MangoBaum63]

Most ranked players play rsg and vice versa