It is partially a skill/community issue, but at this point I think it goes farther than that.
The algorithm itself is not messed up. My guess is that's it's pretty uncomplicated and linear so in theory, if every flight had the same culture and level of heavy exalting, it should work.
But because of how simple it is, it is easily gamed. If you look at dom data, Earth used to not be a powerhouse at all. They did not automatically win due to their size.
I guess over time, at some point people realized that Earth could easily be a powerhouse. More dom enthusiasts and heavy exalters were attracted to the flight, snowballing into the effect we see today.
If the algorithm was unbalanced and Earth had a real advantage, we'd see Fire doing way better than they are now. If you look at the number of times flights place in 4th/5th/6th in addition to the top three spots, you can get a. idea of how much passive exalting a flight is doing when they're not actively pushing. This is the work of the heavy exalters who keep doing their thing even without pushes.
According to this data, Fire is a weak dom flight. Despite their size, they have not attracted heavy exalters due to a weak dom program (I have met a bunch of people who left over the past year). Even Water, a strong dom flight, does not regularly place in the 4th/5th/6th spots.
If the algo was truly unbalanced, we'd see Fire and Water placing higher on average than they do now.
So yes, it is a skill/community issue in the sense that if other flights could somehow attract the heavy exalters too this wouldn't be an issue (a potential solution might be individual dom/exalting rewards). However, at this point Earth as a flight has "gamed" the algorithm to the point where Earth had to work hard to avoid going into WvE with fatigue. I think it's understandable that people are frustrated with that, though it's not really anyone's fault.
Re: Dom Thread
It is partially a skill/community issue, but at this point I think it goes farther than that.
The algorithm itself is not messed up. My guess is that's it's pretty uncomplicated and linear so in theory, if every flight had the same culture and level of heavy exalting, it should work.
But because of how simple it is, it is easily gamed. If you look at dom data, Earth used to not be a powerhouse at all. They did not automatically win due to their size.
I guess over time, at some point people realized that Earth could easily be a powerhouse. More dom enthusiasts and heavy exalters were attracted to the flight, snowballing into the effect we see today.
If the algorithm was unbalanced and Earth had a real advantage, we'd see Fire doing way better than they are now. If you look at the number of times flights place in 4th/5th/6th in addition to the top three spots, you can get a. idea of how much passive exalting a flight is doing when they're not actively pushing. This is the work of the heavy exalters who keep doing their thing even without pushes.
According to this data, Fire is a weak dom flight. Despite their size, they have not attracted heavy exalters due to a weak dom program (I have met a bunch of people who left over the past year). Even Water, a strong dom flight, does not regularly place in the 4th/5th/6th spots.
If the algo was truly unbalanced, we'd see Fire and Water placing higher on average than they do now.
So yes, it is a skill/community issue in the sense that if other flights could somehow attract the heavy exalters too this wouldn't be an issue (a potential solution might be individual dom/exalting rewards). However, at this point Earth as a flight has "gamed" the algorithm to the point where Earth had to work hard to avoid going into WvE with fatigue. I think it's understandable that people are frustrated with that, though it's not really anyone's fault.