Edit : submitted before finishing :P
The thing that holds me back from joining games of a higher level than me so I can kick on from 1600-1650 to 17+ or whatever is a mix of in-game raging and spectator flaming. There is a guy who seems to be present in 50% of BF TG at ~1700 level all day long and I have a horrendous experience with him raging at me every single time, and the times when he's in the other treat and my time beats him, he always publicly blames his teammates. I'm just using this guy as an example because there are many, many more like him who seem to have this compulsion towards raging and attributing blame in every game, and when you are, say, 1620 in a 17xx room, you feel like a dartboard.
Recently I played a couple of BF TGs that had slam in them and there were huge numbers of specs. I didn't play my best games from the beginning, far from it, but from the moment I knew I was making mistakes I was massively distracted by the knowledge of what the spectator chat with 100 specs would be saying about me.
I've repeatedly referenced BF above, and I'm not really a BF player at all, even though I play it s lot with friends because it's easiest to get games going, but I think the BF community is peculiarly toxic, and it must make up 50% of TGs hosted. I think the toxicity is just all-pervading rather than being specifically in-game or specifically amongst spectators. I don't know whether it's because mistakes or a weak player can be so much more catastrophic to a team due to the nature of the map, but there is definitely an overall problem with the culture and mindset of a lot of people who play and watch MS' most popular TG map.
On the TG 18+ front, I see those hosted and played every day. It's usually the same people, though, and it's usually 2000+ plus Lavie. The same names probably join those rooms because they have no-one to play if they don't play each other, but it's also interesting that in MS, 18+ will usually be filled by 2ks and 16+ is usually 1700-1800. Whether this is due to a small number of players to play with at a high skill level or the inclination to noob bash, I don't know (note: I'm only talking about 1800 joining 1600 rooms when I say that, not the 2k people playing together), but quite often a room will be filled by higher rated players than it is intended for. They're spilling over from somewhere, perhaps because there isn't a big enough active player pool at their skill level at any one time, but is removing spectating the answer? Probably not, because most specs are 15xx or lower (and sometimes the most abusive ones are 1300).
Will removing spec make those players better players and more active? I am inclined to agree with the people that say you can't force people to play and you will simply have fewer people active in AoC who can become potential players. Equally, a lot of people spec because they just want to relax, or they're doing something else, eating, semi-afk, tired, etc. As for making them better players, you do have to play the game to improve, but a bunch of weak players are not going to improve to 18+ level and increase the player pool at a high skill level just because you take away spec and force them to play (you can't force them to play anyway, but even if you could). High skill players probably forget how hard it is to reach their level and how long it takes, perhaps in some cases because they are very talented and it was easier for them.
Using myself as an example, I've been properly on Voobly for about 10 months. In that time I've played about 500+ rated 1v1 and TG games, and probably 100-200 unrated, plus played in Balance of Power and Nations Cup (as a captain of one of the worst teams). In that time I've improved from a flat 1500 to probably about 1650 average across all settings when I'm playing at my best. Think how long it would take me to improve to the point where I can legitimately populate these 18++ games, and that's if I even get there. Most don't have the talent, time or determination to reach that level of play. People often forget how extraordinarily tough this game can be to learn and master, and how even at 18+ you could be considered an expert, just not one of the top experts (2k) or the very best players (2k++++).
You can think of sporting analogies where the best players or teams only have competition from a small number of opponents. In tennis, thousands of players have an ATP or WTA ranking, but you generally have to be in the top 100 to do anything other than die horribly to top 100 players. That's why tennis players have to face the same players all the time. The number of people who can reach like rank 500 and then go on to break top 100 and be competitive with the good players is like 1% of low-ranked 'journeymen', and usually it happens fast at a young age due to talent, coaching etc or not at all. You can think of taking spectating away like this. 500 ranked tennis players play tournaments against other 500 ranked tennis players every week. Next year, they will face the same players at the same ranking. Maybe a few 500 players will advance to 300, then 150, then top 100 over a couple of years, but for the most part, 500 ranked players will still be 500 ranked players even if you make them enter twice as many tournaments.
The thing that holds me back from joining games of a higher level than me so I can kick on from 1600-1650 to 17+ or whatever is a mix of in-game raging and spectator flaming. There is a guy who seems to be present in 50% of BF TG at ~1700 level all day long and I have a horrendous experience with him raging at me every single time, and the times when he's in the other treat and my time beats him, he always publicly blames his teammates. I'm just using this guy as an example because there are many, many more like him who seem to have this compulsion towards raging and attributing blame in every game, and when you are, say, 1620 in a 17xx room, you feel like a dartboard.
Recently I played a couple of BF TGs that had slam in them and there were huge numbers of specs. I didn't play my best games from the beginning, far from it, but from the moment I knew I was making mistakes I was massively distracted by the knowledge of what the spectator chat with 100 specs would be saying about me.
I've repeatedly referenced BF above, and I'm not really a BF player at all, even though I play it s lot with friends because it's easiest to get games going, but I think the BF community is peculiarly toxic, and it must make up 50% of TGs hosted. I think the toxicity is just all-pervading rather than being specifically in-game or specifically amongst spectators. I don't know whether it's because mistakes or a weak player can be so much more catastrophic to a team due to the nature of the map, but there is definitely an overall problem with the culture and mindset of a lot of people who play and watch MS' most popular TG map.
On the TG 18+ front, I see those hosted and played every day. It's usually the same people, though, and it's usually 2000+ plus Lavie. The same names probably join those rooms because they have no-one to play if they don't play each other, but it's also interesting that in MS, 18+ will usually be filled by 2ks and 16+ is usually 1700-1800. Whether this is due to a small number of players to play with at a high skill level or the inclination to noob bash, I don't know (note: I'm only talking about 1800 joining 1600 rooms when I say that, not the 2k people playing together), but quite often a room will be filled by higher rated players than it is intended for. They're spilling over from somewhere, perhaps because there isn't a big enough active player pool at their skill level at any one time, but is removing spectating the answer? Probably not, because most specs are 15xx or lower (and sometimes the most abusive ones are 1300).
Will removing spec make those players better players and more active? I am inclined to agree with the people that say you can't force people to play and you will simply have fewer people active in AoC who can become potential players. Equally, a lot of people spec because they just want to relax, or they're doing something else, eating, semi-afk, tired, etc. As for making them better players, you do have to play the game to improve, but a bunch of weak players are not going to improve to 18+ level and increase the player pool at a high skill level just because you take away spec and force them to play (you can't force them to play anyway, but even if you could). High skill players probably forget how hard it is to reach their level and how long it takes, perhaps in some cases because they are very talented and it was easier for them.
Using myself as an example, I've been properly on Voobly for about 10 months. In that time I've played about 500+ rated 1v1 and TG games, and probably 100-200 unrated, plus played in Balance of Power and Nations Cup (as a captain of one of the worst teams). In that time I've improved from a flat 1500 to probably about 1650 average across all settings when I'm playing at my best. Think how long it would take me to improve to the point where I can legitimately populate these 18++ games, and that's if I even get there. Most don't have the talent, time or determination to reach that level of play. People often forget how extraordinarily tough this game can be to learn and master, and how even at 18+ you could be considered an expert, just not one of the top experts (2k) or the very best players (2k++++).
You can think of sporting analogies where the best players or teams only have competition from a small number of opponents. In tennis, thousands of players have an ATP or WTA ranking, but you generally have to be in the top 100 to do anything other than die horribly to top 100 players. That's why tennis players have to face the same players all the time. The number of people who can reach like rank 500 and then go on to break top 100 and be competitive with the good players is like 1% of low-ranked 'journeymen', and usually it happens fast at a young age due to talent, coaching etc or not at all. You can think of taking spectating away like this. 500 ranked tennis players play tournaments against other 500 ranked tennis players every week. Next year, they will face the same players at the same ranking. Maybe a few 500 players will advance to 300, then 150, then top 100 over a couple of years, but for the most part, 500 ranked players will still be 500 ranked players even if you make them enter twice as many tournaments.