Voluntary Personal Level Cap – would this work for both EA and the players?

Many in our community would agree that Rivals is the best Mobile RTS out there. Yet, it's not as popular as we might wish for. There's a number of reasons for that:

1. Skill-heavy RTS like Rivals are not the right thing for everyone, i.e. the overall potential audience is smaller than for titles like Fortnite or Clash Royale.
2. Those who like skill-heavy RTS often come from a "classic desktop gaming background". I.e. they played and loved the classic C&C titles, StarCraft or WarCraft 3. And for these, micro-transactiions that impact the multiplayer balance (aka "P2W") are a big turn-off. This also explained the negative PR after the announcement of Rivals about a year ago.

The conundrum is that the only proven monetization model for Mobile games are either F2P with ads, or F2P with in-game transactions:

• Ads won't work for Rivals because you need huge audiences like the hyper casual games
• Micro transactions that don't impact the gameplay itself (like vanity) don't attract enough buyers
• That leaves micro transactions that give you an advantage in the game, like the unit level system in Rivals

Still, a lot of people tried Rivals, and fell in love with the game. They know it has P2W elements, but still recognize that the P2W component is not horrible.

At the same time, even if you accept many of them get frustrated over time. Because even if you spend some money (say, $20 per month), you'll be behind the L13 or higher decks you see on the ladder for many months. It can be frustrating for all kinds of players:

• New players are in catch-up mode, so they will meet a huge amount of players with higher unit levels
• Experienced players of mediocre skill will lose a huge amount of games if they don't pay a lot. They might accept they are not the best players, but losing a lot because of skill and then another lot because of levels can suck hard
• Experienced players with high skill love the game, but they can still hate to go up against decent players with 2-3 higher unit levels – often, they will play as little ladder as possible, and just play events and customs

So, let's assume that the monetization model of Rivals is a "necessary evil". How can we still make it work better for the players to reduce frustration? 

Three months ago, others and I suggested a Casual Mode for Rivals. Yet, we never heard a word from the devs. Hence, we can assume that it won't happen for one reason or another.

That's why I tried to come up with another idea that keeps the motivation to pay for unit levels intact, but at the same time reduces frustration for players who don't pay a lot to get their units to L13 quickly:

A voluntary level cap!

How it would work:

• There is an option in the settings
• If you toggle it, your own units will be capped at the level of the highest unit in the opponent's deck
• Example: 
• I have a deck with L13-14
• If I would now meet Alarak, whose best units are L13, all my units would be capped at L13 max
• If I meet a player whose best unit is L12, all my units would be capped at L12
• If I meet a player with an L14 or L15 unit, my unit levels would be exactly as they are today
• That way, if a player uses the toggle, he will much less frequently have a significant level advantage. (Of course, it would sometimes still happen. like when someone has a L12 deck, but upgraded their tank to L14.)

You might wonder: Why would a player use this toggle? Well, I certainly would! Because I prefer to play on equal levels, even though I spent a lot of money to get my deck to L13-14:

• I spent money partly because I like to support Rivals
• And I spent money partly because I wanted to climb the ladder & because I didn't like to play against significantly higher levels all time time
• But the downside is that today, I too often have a big unit level advantage for my own taste. Some of these matches might still be fun (e.g. against top players like Lopatka who gives me a hell of a time even though he is ~2 levels below my units), but others will just become "not fun anymore" if I feel I just mostly win through levels

Hence, with this toggle, I could still benefit from my unit levels when I meet the L14-15 players of Rivals. But I would get better games against a ton of the other players. My winrate will certainly drop 10 percentage points (or more)., but that would be worth it! 

There's even a very rational component to use this toggle: Playing against good players without level advantage is better training value. Which is not just great for tournaments, but also for the Rivals events. Through better training, I can perform better at Events, giving me better rewards (incl. on the premium track), which then further boosts my unit levels.

(Speaking of tournamnets, RLong will soon announce his 2nd tournament. Join his discord to stay in the loop and play it!)

It's not clear how many players would use this toggle. But I bet that at least 50 of the top 200 players might. This would already be a significant change, especially as it's likely that stronger players will do this more often than weaker players. People who try to break into the Top200 with L10-11 decks would now meet strong players on about equal level far more often than today.

And the best thing: It would not be a disadvantage for "whales" at all. On the contrary: Those who don't use the toggle would be in a more unique position of having level advantage. Their relative winrate to other top players would improve (because e.g. my winrate would drop).

Maybe I miss a downside (besides the hopefully limited development effort). If not, it could be a great opportunity to protect the interests of EA, to protect the status of "whales", and still to significantly improve the experience of many of the other players.

What's your view?