I wasn’t actually aware of this until I watched a Nubkeks video last night.
People had been wondering why, for example, former master players would have the same win loss ratio in placements, and have very different results.
It turns out that the first two placement games count for a lot more than the last two. So if two players of the same rank are 8-2. But one of them won his first two games while the other lost them. One will end up diamond, and the other platinum.
A full rank is kind of a huge difference. And it seems completely arbitrary. I don’t understand the logic of doing that.
Was there any reason given?
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I have noticed this some time before and I always assumed it was because the MMR is “average” of you games and every additional value added to average influences it a bit less.
The same thing happens on hotslogs, your first 1-2 games of the season swing your MMR as much as +100 to +300 points. After ~5-6 games you only move 50-60 MMR points, and after 20+ games you only move around 10-30 points after a win or loss.
Since I assume Barrett and the new owner (Zam Network) have modeled their algorithm to reflect average MMR swings in the HotS rank system, I would say their calculations are very accurate especially for players who upload at least half their matches (or even all of them).
It is sad that the first few matches of a season matter so much, because this is a 5 player team game where you could just get very unlucky and have an AFK or feeder in your first or second game. That should not count for nearly a full league tier of rank points.
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Yeah, a player who got an afk on his first two games is technically much worse than everyone else : S
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This is old news. It is the reason old players don’t move up ranks in forever. This is because the more games you play, the less impact each game has on your MMR. Ot is simple averages and math.
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There is a fairly simple idea that you gain P/n points where n is the number of matches played. Supposedly the more you play, the more precise it is, so there is no need to change your MMR.
I realized that after my second match.
On the first one i played with and against people of my former rank (gII), but unfortunately my team had a troll that went afk.
Next match i got paired with people from 4-5 leagues?divisions? whatever… lower than mine. After the stomp we did i climbed, but still under were i started.
Now i have no idea what is happening, im getting matched with people from gold IV to plat II.
I dont want to be thrown at higher ranks or under the one i reached last season, i want to do it myself, not with random placements.
Can we get rid of them? If they are supposed to be based on your last rank, why do we have to do them again every season acomplishing nothing?
The first loose was just too savage and unfair 
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Thanks. I was wondering how I went from Gold last season to Silver 4 with a 50/50 placement