I wouldn’t say forced 50/50. I noticed that when I went to the US servers, I went on a mass losing streak due to 200 ping, but I really wanted to play a lot more in ranks to climb. After the loss spree from US servers, I went back to AU severs and weirdly enough, continued the loss streak. I noticed my games were unwinnable and the competent players that I team up with or see, and can pull off strats with are non-existent. So basically if you go in a loss streak, it feels like you end up in a lower pit of MMR where it’s even harder to climb out until you somehow go on a winning spree. Remember, HOTS is a pure team element where it’s shared EXP. Carrying is possible but very limited.
Before the loss spree in the US servers, I was easily wining some games and losing some. It was a very slow climb, but after the loss spree it seemed to continue its own momentum of losing. No, it’s not psyche as I’m always trying to play in a consistent focused condition and seem to always be analysing my mood, feelings and skills.
For example:
Before the loss spree: I had players that could soak, and draft PROPERELY on Dragon Shire. I could combo with Muradin’s bolt and pull off HGC strats, or pull off a full-stacked wizened duelst on Greymane and not die in the match at all on ranked.
After the loss spree from US servers- I find it hard to sync with any of the players and die a few times as Greymane. Players don’t really soak as much and fight mid more often. They don’t draft properly, like a recent match of mine on Dragon Shire, team went tank, healer (me), mage and 2 ranged aa’s with no bruisers and top got obviously bullied badly. These are the things I feel and noticed. So it makes sense when players consistently cry “losing spree” it’s because they lost a few games and MMR decided to spiral them down with other descending or lower MMR players that make it even harder to climb out with.
It’s like climbing down a ladder, but they add a tonne of layer of bricks each time you take a step down. I mean, I’ve also randomly disconnected a few times from ranked draft screen (Hopefully Blizz or whatever has fixed it) which also impacts your MMR HUGELY in more ways then one. Each disconnection is like worth 3-4 games of losses each and the MMR will try probrably have trouble trying to adjust with the huge jump of missing MMR each time. However, I’ve been through this cycle and each time I’ve carried and climbed back up. It gets easier. Just need the time and well, finding quicker games within my server, instead of waiting almost 30 minutes to an hour for a game. Another reason why MMR average is all over the place specifically for Australians is because there isn’t much players over here and it’s going to average me with the worse end of the stick.