The ISSUE: the “Fake Rank” sentiment is making Competitive less competitive and current Ranking system isn’t as rewarding as OW1 was.
Why change what was a HUGE part of Overwatch’s success? C’mon now.
Preface 1: The current Matchmaker (MM) does an exceptionally amazing job at placing a Player at the rank their skill is telling them they belong. It is of my strong opinion that the way the current MM operates also helps dramatically improve the Player’s skill development to the game–provided the Player has an optimal mental environment for such improvement/development.
Preface 2: As we know, the Player Profile has an hidden internal MMR that is being used for matchmaking, whereby, the SR/Rank visual is almost moot/irrelevant to a Player’s skill at the start of every season. Of course, after X amount of games played, the Player’s Rank ends up ‘catching up’ to the internal MMR.
Players have been crying out for years now that they eagerly desire to predominantly play in games with Players of equal Rank (skill level), by which, they regard is their visual SR/Rank. This sort of Matchmaking is what I like to call TOURNAMENT STYLE MATCHMAKER (MATCHMAKING) where all Players in the match are the same RANK.
I am aware that the Matchmaker matches Players of similar skill level to one another despite the disparity of SR/Rank visuals seen in Player profiles. I am addressing the Competitive reward system of the game being less…rewardy.
One of the greatest reasons why Overwatch was so successful is because the reward system a Player experienced came through the progression of their rank. Gaining and losing SR–even though losing dramatic amounts of SR can be very painful at times–was one of the main reasons why Players took pride in Competitive and even considered their SR a personal achievement, thereby, keeping the engagement level at all time highs.
In my strong opinion, this has been SIGNFICANTLY undermined and has a current trajectory not looking good for the longevity of Competitive and Overwatch as a whole.
The sentiment of ‘no one cares about rank’; ‘rank is meaningless’; ‘rank is fake’; etc. is spreading far and fast and is destroying the very needed perception that would elevate the standards of Competitive.
In other words, Competitive is becoming LESS Competitive.
Rank (Bronze, Silver, Gold, SR RATING, etc.) IS important for the Player just as much as hidden MMR is important for the Matchmaker.
There needs to be a balance to both by emphasizing the importance of both.
How do you accomplish this?
My suggestion is to utilize TWO Matchmakers for TWO specific purposes in and for Competitive Overwatch. The reason for this is to make Competitive MORE Competitive, thereby, increasing the level of engagement to the game, which will only help grow and maintain the game’s health and longevity.
We need to make RANK IMPORTANT again.
Here is my suggestion:
Let’s differentiate between the two styles of Matchmaker:
- Player Progression Matchmaker -the current one we are experiencing using hidden MMR.
- Tournament Style Matchmaker - the shared sentiment of wanting to play with Players of the same skill level utilizing SR/RANK
Having two specific Matchmakers will emphasize the importance of both SR/RANK and MMR.
Competitive reward system must reward the effort of the Player when they WIN and NOT when they LOSE. It may sound harsh, but the sentiment of “participation awards” has NO PLACE IN COMPETITVE. The Competitive reward system must allow the Player to experience what LOSS is suppose to do and that is to lose what you’ve gained.
- Every match WIN must come with a minimum and maximum floor/ceiling of FIXED amount of SR being gained, but at a variable rate of the winning Players based on their performance in-game.
- Every match LOSS must come with a minimum and maximum floor/ceiling of FIXED amount of SR being lost, but can be buffered through Player stats and in game performance.
SUGGESTION:
Increase the duration of the Season to 3 months instead of 2 months.
The first TWO months, continue utilizing the Player Progression Matchmaker we currently have where the Player will then be PLACED and/or RANKED appropriately with X amount of games played. After the first TWO months of the Season has ended, the final 3rd month will begin to utilize the Tournament Style Matchmaker. Essentially, the first two months will be like a prerequisite for how the Matchmaker will match Players into games for the final 3rd month. I would further suggest that the Tourney style Matchmaker use an aggregate Rank of the Player’s Seasonal Career High and where they ended the first 2 months of the season.
In my vision, this does many positive things for Overwatch and the Player base.
Here are few:
- Gives purpose and motivation for Players to grind Competitive the first two months and even increase odds of desiring to improve so as to rank as high as they possibly can.
- It compliments the best of both worlds (MMR and SR/RANK) by emphasizing the symbiotic importance of the two, which would increase the odds of health and longevity to Overwatch.
- Creates even more avenues for Company revenue generation
- Will help improve the highest level of peak play such as Contenders/League
- Will help with Universities/Campuses that engage in dedicated eSports
- Gives ample time for creators to control the distribution of skins, voice lines, emotes, sprays, etc. Don’t just create the demand, MAINTAIN THE DEMAND by maintaining the SUPPLY. This will also help produce QUALITY over QUANTITY.
- The positive list can go on and it definitely outweighs whatever CONS you can think of (and I have).
- This will help facilitate Season Games (first two months of the season), which will help with garnering a wide viewership/audience in ANTICIPATION FOR the Season FINALE (the final month), which will be able to showcase who the TOP 500 RANKED Players are for EACH LEVEL OF RANK.
This will also help combat accounts that are abusing the system because of the quality of data it will generate. Overwatch has been around for A LONG time. The data is in. Overwatch knows what constitutes each level of performance within each respective rank.
It will take time to be able to interpret the data as it comes in, but will inevitably help begin to develop and design policing systems to keep Overwatch a thriving community.
Having the Seasons last for 3 months, in other words, one season per calendar quarter will help improve the current lackluster state of the Overwatch Competitive scene which is sorely needed. ASAP.
NOW is the best time to do this as Overwatch 2 is still new. We’re only in Season 3.
There’s nuance to this and the suggestion is open minded, but this is the general gist.
My vision on this is extremely clear as I see the PROS significantly outweighing the CONS.
There’s no contest.
Blizzard, you know how to reach me.
-Bro (Hanzo)
TLDR:
The “fake rake” sentiment is damaging to Competitive and is making Competitive LESS Competitive. One of the fundamental and foundational reasons for Overwatch’s success IS Competitive.
SR rating and Rank was a HUGE success for the Player to experience their own sense of progression, regression, and improvement. Players also took pride in their SR and even considered them an ACHIEVEMENT.
The current OW2 Ranking system greatly undermines the success of OW1. This MUST be addressed and fixed. Now is the time to do that as OW2 is still in it’s early stages.
The Ranking system must emphasize the importance of BOTH SR/Rank and MMR.
SR/RANK is important FOR the Player.
MMR is important FOR the Matchmaker.
There must be a symbiotic and equal relationship between the two.
My suggestion/solution is to increase Overwatch seasons to 3 months instead of 2.
2 months of MMR Matchmaking --the current MM we have in Competitive, which I like to call, “Player Progression Matchmaker”
1 month of SR/RANK Matchmaking --creating a new leaderboard for EACH rank using SR/RANK as the means for matchmaking, ,which I like to call “Tournament Style Matchmaker”
Nuance in details are in the post.
Love you all,
-Bro (Hanzo)
