Is it just me or is the game at a state where you can not get a balance of 10 players anywhere close to the same skill level the majority of games.
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I have noticed that there must be less players on EU at least as about a year ago there used to be a dead zone on ranked about 3-am to 6 am where you couldnât get any games.
Now on weekdays sometimes canât get any games until after 10 am so there does appear to be less players, which will probably in turn make match making worse.
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This is the unfortunate consequence of being put into maintenance mode. With no new content the game is not drawing in new players to replace those that leave. Further exasperating the issue is that HotS has had little to no advertising and is not easy to find on the website.
As result the player base is not large enough for everyone to get matched with people around their skill level. From what I have heard at and above the rank of Diamond there are more cobwebs than players.
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Not only you. Nearly every game is a stomp of one side for me.
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A very large portion of games are influenced by either a leaver, trolling, toxic keyboard warriors, or a mix of the three. Things quickly collapse when your team is playing a player down or are too busy spending half their time typing.
This isnât exactly surprising. Youâll need to play in organized places (NGS) or at high ranks (masters+) to avoid this.
If playing ranked, and all the players are supposedly the same skill level, then the only defining factor in winning and losing besides the player themselves is their hero picks. Thatâs why drafting is the biggest difference between wins and losses in ranked mode. Itâs the independent variable.
In other modes, this game will quite literally hand you a designated win/loss or a potential win/loss. (Yes I do believe half of all the games one plays are decided before they even begin) The fact that I think thereâs designated losses in this game, where someone didnât have a chance no matter how hard they tried, tears it for me.
The AI/Matchmaker knows what heroes you play well and the ones you donât and sets you up accordingly. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain though. 
The small player base has created a situation where solos can face stacks at high rates. That really feels bad when one team isnât coordinated and gets manhandled by a 5 stack on comms lol. It feels even worse when a team didnât even have a chance due to a feeder, griefer, or afker.
This is soooooo egregiously wrong.
The game system does not magically know who a player âplays wellâ and all sorts of variables affect the game because a player has to constantly make different choices. Matching is made before the player even picks a hero in ranked. I think you forgot to figure out the âthenâ part of your in/then statement and went full on tin-foil rant.
Maybe if youâre the sort of player that sits effectively afk till itâs time to contest an objective and otherwise only brawls mid regardless of game made that you might convince yourself that âskillâ is figured out by the system because you arenât doing much by way of applying said âskillââŚ
Free will exists, you have the magic capacity to make choices. The games does not make distinctions between a stealth hero stealing camps, a solo healer split pushing, or a tank that sets up bush ganks for enemies facechecking bad spots.
The issue is less that people face âstacksâ but rather convince themselves that Big Brother has mapped out their rest of their existence into randomized gatcha rolls.
Itâs almost like the player population is low or something.
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Unfortunately, this hasnât been remotely true since they revamped Hero League, and made it so in Storm League, players can group two ranks apart. As a Plat, Iâm often playing with/against Silvers, or Diamonds as often a Platinum player, will group with their Silver friends, etcâŚ
When you also factor in Hots is in the retirement home, lower player population, and high number of smurfs, itâs amazing the matchmaker in ranked works as well as it does to create mostly even games.
Well, when they DID get an influx of new players (During the pandemic) they didnât do anything about it. Just stood there like goldfishes.
Another time a known streamer tried HotS for the first time, and it drew enough attention to cause an influx of new players. Again, they stood there and did nothig.
So, here we are.
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Game has literally been nothing but this for years, and apparntly all my mates quiting and being toxic represents my skill level so, yea
Itâs kinda like Bioware making the last Dragon Age game
You gotta expect a disaster, not KOTOR
If you get a balanced game, hey great