My opponents name is showing but the rank is not there. I am in the Diamond 5 tier - does that mean he is legendary?
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No it means that YOU are not legendary. Opponent rank isn’t shown in game outside of Legend rank (but you are free to google a mod fixing that).
The opponents rank is no longer displayed (is hidden now).
Can’t think of a good moraled reason as to why they would have chosen to remove that feature from the game.
Possibly so we noobs aren’t immediately discouraged from playing the game when we realize how much more advanced all of our opponents are??
Probably to keep players in and playing. Same as how you bail on a match you know you’ve lost then get a “You won your last ranked match.” on relog. No, I didn’t win the match, why the untruth?
Here’s the reason.
In older versions of Hearthstone ladder, matchmaking was based on rank. That changed with the new ladder system.
In the old system, a legendary player would never fall back to the lowest ranks. Start of each month, they’d start somewhere 50% or 75% up the ladder already. Players who got to 50% would start at perhaps 20%. Etc.
In the new system, every month all players get reset to Bronze 10. Sure, legend players get more bonus stars so they climb much quicker. But they still start at Bronze 10.
Now imagine seeing a game on YouTube where one player is Bronze 5, and the other is Platinum 3. That seems to be insanely mis-matched, right? But perhaps they are both players who ended last season at low legend. They have similar MMR. One player did a long grind the first day of the month and worked their way up to Platinum 3. The other had family visits and only logs in on the second day, and is Bronze 5 after their first two wins.
Showing the ranks would cause people to yell “manipulation!” “mismatch” and “matchmaking fixed!”.
(Okay, they yell that now as well, but at least they cannot provide misleading screenshots as “evidence”).
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Thank you for adding that. Totally forgot the false “You won your last ranked match” message. Kinda insult to injury. Blizzard taking pity and throwing a bone, or thinking people are stupid and wont remember what happened last time they played (they must not remember or why would they reengage)
Dangerously close to saying rank is not equal to skill level…and I agree. TAKE COVER! INCOMING ATTACKS.
Serious note though, why not replace displayed ranks which are independent of skill level based mmr with a display of mmr?
I feel the reason is because rank is a reward of time invested, the “grind”, and mmr is more reflective of player ability. And they find it more benificial to reward/display those players who spend time (time is money) rather than those who are higher skilled players due to factors other than raw time investment.
(not saying people do not get better over time with experience or that there is not skill to this game. Am saying rank may not be the best way to measure or label a players skill, as inferred from hidden internal mmr system and its role in determining “worthy opponents.”
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I’d say that skill level equates to potential rank.
Some players decide to do fun decks instead. Some players play just a few games ranked and much more Arena. Sometimes real life happens and a player can’t play at all for a while.
But I do think that for players who really commit, skill determines maximum rank. (And if you commit enough, then your skill will increase as well).
You have my vote!
I still would keep the ladder. It’s fair to award those who put in more effort, by giving rewards as they climb the ranks.
But in the “below legendary” ranks, I would definitely agree that displaying MMR on the screen next to your rank, and displaying MMR of your opponent, would be a good idea.
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