It really does rig matches. The “on fire” meter is a very real indicator of your MMR. If you’re on fire 20% of the time and the average for that hero at your rank is 18%, you’re going to get easier matches designed to make you climb.
I’ve tested this in many ways on many accounts and it’s just fact at this point. If I play my 3 main heros I’ll stay within a 200 SR spread for many seasons. If I play what the team “needs” (e.g. McCree when enemy has Pharah), even if we win THAT game, I’ll lose more down the line even playing my mains because I didn’t put out the APM of someone who belongs at that rank on McCree. I’ll get unwinnable losses, even playing my mains, for a few games until my MMR adjusts again then I’ll get games I can’t lose.
I’ve also tested “giving up” when the team is throwing. Just sit in spawn if there are others AFK. The matchmaker sees this as lowering your averages/underperforming.
I’ll get unwinnable games for longer after doing that because it’s trying to force me to derank. You don’t have to believe me but I’ve tested this far too many different ways for it to be coincidence.
Do the other accounts happen to be called S23 and MHz?
If you want it to be considered a fact, you actually need recorded and shared data: a list of matches played, hero choice, level of effort, etc. This would allow actual analysis do be done to see if what you are seeing is more likely than not to have occurred by chance rather than rigging.
No not really, you’re probably hitting your skill cap when you start winning and rising in rank then reach an area with equally skilled players hence making it harder. You’re probably better than low platinum but struggle at higher plat maybe. Just keep practicing and lean.
Truth is, nobody besides Blizz knows how MMR works, not me, not you, not that guy over there, not his mom, not Santa, and not Kaawumba, whose post is regularly referenced in these threads.
I have my theory, but it’s spotty and based on one of the few things said by Blizz, which is that MMR aims to make every match “fair”. To me, that means gym class match making, making sure the highest 2 MMR are on opposite teams, basically deamanding they out carry each other, while the lowest 2 are on opposite teams and 1 absolutely gets carried to victory. I’ve been on both sides of the equation and all over the middle. …but that’s just my speculation.
To be honest, I don’t care if you believe me. I’m just sharing what I’ve experienced, take it or leave it.
I’m not going to argue, just know that I have 7 accounts and would be diamond border if I only had one. I have a TON of time in this game and I’ve tested it enough ways to feel confident in what I’m saying but again you don’t have to believe me. I’ve taken on silver accounts, tryharded for a few games, and then I get 2-3 games in a row where I can literally AFK and win my team is so good. Then the matchmaker catches on and thinks “you don’t belong here” (because I’m doing literally 0 damage, less than a bronze player with 1 hand would do) and I get games I can’t even win as a masters player on a silver account for a few games, then it catches on “wow, you belong in diamond/master” and gives me more games I can’t lose even if I AFK.
One parting thought–If you don’t think MMR is used to design matches to push your SR in the direction it should go, what else do you think it’s used for?
The thing is that we have 1000+ hours played Cuthbert and his followers, who believe the exact opposite, that after dominating for a few games, the matchmaker finds a doppelganger to put on the opposite team to balance the matches and force things back to 50%. If we all say “I played a lot and it seems to me” then we have no way distinguishing between what you say, and what Cuthbert says, and what I say.
This is why we need shared data and statistical significance analysis. That is, science, rather than just people stating their opinions.
It’s in the name → Match Making Rating. It is the rating used to make the matches.
Skill rating is a friendlier, human readable form of matchmaking rating, with the ability to implement features like decay and leaver penalties without affecting how matches are made (matchmaking rating does not change during leaving and decay). See How Competitive Skill Rating Works (Season 13) → How Competitive Skill Rating Works (Season 13) → Summary → “Summarize Matchmaking, Rating, and Progression for me” to get the key references.
I think the people who have done the research in light of everything Blizzard has said about MMR over the past two years, and knowledge about how competitive ladders work in general - are as close as you are going to get unless Blizzard defines every detail that DIFFERS from other matchmaking systems.
We know that many variables are considered when matchmaking does it’s magic. many players do not even consider that map knowledge is a MAJOR factor in every single ranked game. The players with superior map awareness and knowledge, will have a distinct advantage over those who do not. Learning maps takes time, it’s a skill just like aiming.
Smurfs disrupt ladders in every competive FPS, and have since the start. It is very easy to conceal your skill from the matchmaker. In Overwatch streamers do this with heroes they don’t play - Lucio is a popular pick. Many people realized that Lucio is also an incredible duelist in the right hands, and he’s easy to grief players that can’t aim well with. Because even good players have a hard time hitting him.
These players enter matchmaking under the assumption that it is very likely that they will be playing whatever hero they normally play on THAT map. When they change this, they no longer perform at the expected level (they may not play the hero they picked as well). There is clear evidence that smurfs also use this method to trick the matchmaker into thinking that they are not as skilled as they truly are.
Players smurf in CS:GO all the time for lulz. it’s very easy to alter your sensitivity to something ludicrous to trick the check for accuracy, and play like a bot to trick the check for game sense. And then join a match, pick Junkrat, and repeatedly solo rip-tire the biggest threat on the enemy team out of the game. There is no recourse, you will just lose the game.
I don’t think there are many true smurfs. I think most of them are high plat and low diamaond DPS players that feed constantly and can’t climb. But when they feed in silver and gold and low plat, they don’t get punished - they destroy unaware players. They’re that average scrub you see in a cs or cod lobby that can’t take a 1v1 gunfight, they would lose to superior aim. They have to flank you and shoot you in the back to secure the kill. In high ELO, your teammate would see the flank and kill him, thus saving your life. In low ELO, your teammate would tunnel vision ahead and not see the guy - and he would get the drop on you. But it’s because your teammate was bad.
Just a few things that I have seen in my 26 years of playing FPS games.
Wolfenstein-3D was my first, DOOM was the first multiplayer (You had to use a BBS connection, the internet didn’t really exist). I played Duke Nukem 3D, team fortress, CS since it was in beta as a mod for half-life (I just got the 10 year veteran coin). I’ve played every Quake game, I have an heirloom hunstman bow and razorback on TF2, every medal of honor, every battlefield (including starwars), more…
I’m a student of CPMA. I apply those skills with Tracer and Genji. The ability to maintain shuriken accuracy while double jumping at odd angles for example.
Wouldn’t the easiest way to test this be to just dc after round one and reconnect. That way at most you’d have about 1/2 your normal dmg, 1/2 your normal healing etc without throwing the game since you’d only be briefly disconnect and reconnect during intermission?
Disconnecting can cause the disconnect penalty, which would confuse things.
The best way to test without being toxic is to switch between filling for 3 games, then insta locking your main for 3 games. You can use a different number of games, if you think the effect takes longer or shorter to appear. Repeat 20 - 100 times and write down heroes played and match results.
A somewhat more toxic, but probably cleaner test, is to switch between instalocking your main and instalocking a role/hero that you are bad at, but still playing to win.
Share the data, and let me do analysis on it to see if anything suspicious happens. The analysis would look somewhat like this: Overwatch Forums
Can you link were you found this information? If not your just spreading your own theory on how things work. For blizzard has never said specifically how they figure things.
I’ve posted my thoughts on the subject 200+ times on multiple accounts and you and that Basso guy in the last 2 days were the first to challenge it and I’ve been in threads with moderators and devs and nobody has challenged it.
It’s my theory that has only become stronger the more I play