Lets talk about this. Everyone says smurfs are a huge issue, which yes, you will run into smurfs on the other team. What I would say is, from my experience personally smurfing in silver-gold (which I literally just have the smurf account to play with my friends but that’s another discussion) you don’t actually run into that many meaningful smurfs. What I mean by that is, it is people that are not smurfing and are just playing well on an alt, or their main account is maybe a couple hundred sr higher than that account.
I played a lot of games solo on the smurf account just for fun, I was a little hungover, didn’t want to play on main. I had so many games where not only would my team call people on the other side smurfs, (which they were wrong most of the time) but they couldn’t even recognize I was a smurf myself. In fact, the only people that asked me if I was smurfing out of the like 15-20 games I played were on the other team.
People are so wired to look for smurfs on the other team, and find a reason as to why they are losing, when my teams never even knew why we were winning. If you think smurfs are bringing your sr down that much, then I do not think you’re being very aware. It does happen on both sides. Also, I did not run into a single “smurf” that I would say was even as close to as good as I am, and I am not that much higher than the rating I was playing in.
As for throwers bringing down your sr, not only did I not run into a single thrower on my team or the other team, but lets talk some quick statistics because maybe that was a once in a lifetime thing. You are more likely to go against a thrower than to have a thrower on your team, assuming you are not throwing. it is the difference between 6 possible throwers and 5 possible throwers. Now yes, that does mean you are more likely to go against “smurfs” than have them on your team. But as I said earlier, smurfs are not as much of an impact when it comes to ranking up as you yourself are. You determine what your rank is.
Guess what dude, you’re in luck! I do free VOD reviews for people that are actually looking to get better, I’ll probably start posting them on Youtube. If you don’t think you are the reason you lose games, send me a game and I’ll tell you what went wrong! This account is around high diamond but I am consistently a low masters player with great understanding of the game.
Careful… if you only do vods on the perspective someone sends but they are looking for why a game was lost… that’s not the whole picture. If someone ASKS for a vod but don’t care why they loss and only ask for pointers, then yea only focus on their perspective.
Ya for sure, for a vod review I would only focus on the sender and would want a relatively close game. I also want the person who sends it to actually be looking to improve.
Your logic is flawed, and you make assertions without evidence, or when the evidence contradicts you.
And no, half the posts here are not about forced 50/50 or rigged games. Not even close.
So you’re saying it’s never the game’s fault that people lose? Really?
I don’t know what rank you are, but if you’re far outside of gold, and you’re talking about carrying in gold, I’m not sure why you think your situation applies to the average gold player. What matters is how well gold players can carry gold games, not diamonds, not masters, not GMs.
If an OWL player joins a gold lobby and wins, that is not a statement about whether matchmaking is working well or whether or not matches are rigged.
Finally, A) how are you defining rigging? and B) what’s your evidence that matches are not rigged?
So you open with saying you spent some time smurfing, then you quote people on forums “saying the game is rigged” implying they are completely wrong. Thing is if you are admitting you are playing in a tier that you don’t belong - it stands to reason others are doing the same thing. So how is that giving people a fair shake? even if you are at the bottom of the ladder you should at least be able to expect game integrity, you could well say it’s rigged could you not? what’s the point of ranks if only top tiers get a fair shake?
Literally everyone that played against you in low ranks RAN into an actual smurf - you.
You heavily influenced the outcome of every “test match” and pushed the poor opponents down, just to prove a point. While enemy players tried extremely hard to win. In fact, they had to work much harder than was actually appropriate for the rank and they still lost. How frustrating and stupid is that?
On the other hand you probably pushed some potatoes up, that didn’t actually “deserve” a win. And that will make the next games worse for their upcoming team mates.
And because there are thousands of alts and smurfs, the integrity in the middle ranks is nonexistent and quite frustrating.
You are not the only one messing around with SR, MMR and PBSR
It doesn’t end with you logging off.
That’s kind of a truism. “To win, you have to be better.” Yes. Agreed.
The question is, how much better should you have to be.
The question is, how often do better people lose and is that due to matchmaking.
The question is, are matches fair and how often.
The question is, does matchmaking affect win rates in a way that it shouldn’t.
The question is, what is the matchmaker optimized for.
The question is, can it be improved.
Refer to all my other replies, I don’t want to repeat myself.
I actually do not think that it is the game’s fault. There are one sided matches, and some games that would be unwinnable if you are not playing way better than your rank. I would not blame the game for those games. The matchmaker puts people of similar MMRs and SRs together, and does its best to create the fairest match it can while also keeping queue times relatively low.
Now the reason some games are very one sided could be many factors. First of all, the losing side could just have awful chemistry, they all play differently, and the game cannot possibly spot that, and then you could have the winning side that actually match each other’s playstyle very well.
There are also a lot of inconsistent players, especially seen in lower ranks, that could just be playing their worst game in a long time, and because it is a team game the whole team doesn’t feel like they are working together.
The last thing I’ll mention is some people play better or worse on certain maps. An example of this that actually works for me, is Gibraltar. I am a hog main, and Gibraltar is the worst hog map in the game. Overwatch does not know what maps people play better on. You could argue that they should be taking note of that, but that would cause so much issue in the matchmaker.
How can you, with all due respect, throw this statement into the room so bluntly. You have proven yourself that the matchmaker CANNOT decide it according to MMR. Because you’re INTENTIONALLY giving him false information as a Smurf.
We’re either going to have a real conversation or we’re not. If I make several points and ask questions and ask for clarifications – for claims you made, and you cherrypick a single sentence and ignore the rest, why would I engage with that?
Also the fact that you think the game has never been the cause of a player losing is evidence enough for me that you’re not being intellectually honest.
I have already explained why I don’t think smurfs are an issue. I also did end up gaining about 50-60 sr per win towards the end, reflecting that the MMR system does work the way it is intended. It is trying to boost me to the skill level at which I am playing at, but it doesn’t know my exact skill level so it has to go in large intervals. In all the matches I played, I was the only outlier I saw. Everyone else felt like they were playing like a gold player, despite my teams not thinking that because they saw a low level doing well on the other team and their confidence dropped.
I believe no matter what, even if you were unfortunate enough to go against me (the biggest smurf they will see in 200 matches), you will climb out of your rank if you are learning and confident in those skills you are developing.
Pretty fair. People just don’t counter swap, or they play Lucio/Mercy with a Rien/Hog and expect to keep everyone alive. Or they play Junk/Symm into Pharah and expect their tanks to do the counter swapping bEcAuSe they have ultimate.
In what circumstance could it be the game’s fault in which none of what I said could possibly apply? No matchmaking system can be perfect, you will not have perfectly even matches every single game. The only possible thing I can of that the game can do better is actually banning smurfs and throwers, because they don’t and that is a sad reality. I do not think smurfs and throwers are the reason people cannot climb though. It is their own skill level.
I said at the start, I have answered everything else earlier and in order to fully respond to your post it would require me to write entire essays for every response. I cannot answer everyone if I have to repeat myself on every single response.
This might be the only thing I have not answered. I would say games being “rigged” is defined as purposefully one sided.
After your test, another one will take your place. How many threads do you think we’ve seen in this forum alone trying to prove that smurfing isn’t a problem while actually smurfing.
That’s like smoking cigarettes to prove that smoking isn’t unhealthy.
Or that climate change isn’t real because it snowed one day in December.
You just don’t see the big picture of your actions and all the consequences.
If your main account has +3 MMR and you are playing in -3 MMR range with a smurf, that has a fake -3 rating, the matchmaker THINKS you are -3 (while you actually are +3).
So the matchmaker THINKS, that he has created a fair match with best intentions. But a smurf FAKES his rating, so the matchmaker cannot match him against his real opponents. Also due to SR-range limitations.
The big picture is that your own skill level will determine your rank. You will lose matches that didn’t feel like you could do much to change, it is in fact a 6v6 team game so there are a lot of “factors” (players) that could change the outcome of the game.
I don’t think you’re thinking about the most important thing. I used to be a low rank, and I am still working on climbing higher. I started off in silver. I did not come to the forums and whine when I could not climb. I played the game with the intent to get better, and not blame any other factors. I struggled through silver, I struggled through gold, I struggled through every rank and every single point of SR that I have gained with the same amount of smurfs and throwers you have to deal with.
You cannot tell me that you can’t rank up. You cannot tell yourself that you can’t rank up, because that mindset will only bring you back. Going into games with a high expectation will only cause you to tilt more at minor things and play worse.
This isn’t how the MMR system would make games. Having an MMR value of +3 just means you have high MMR. But MMR is heavily volatile. You can lose games and not lose MMR or you can win games and lose MMR.
MMR doesn’t correspond with a Rank. Its simply the number that defines how your performance stands up against other players in the lobby.
You may have MMR +3, so you get matched with a Tank main who has MMR +1 and a Support that has -1. And the MM will balance the other team accordingly in an effort to achieve (as close as possible) a 50% chance for either time to win.
