Competitive OW in no way incentives its players to learn to play competitively and SR and matchmaking being based on anything other than average SR differences is a direct contributor to this. The perception of a system that relies on hidden MMR over true ELO provides players with an obvious path to success that runs directly counter to mastering the game because they are aware of the following:
The matchmaker will not create teams with balanced skillsets and/or playstyles.
It can’t be assumed that the set pieces required to plan and execute plays will be available in any given match.
There’s no point in developing strategies for a team you can’t rely on against an opponent you can’t predict. If there’s no point in using them then there’s no point for the average player to learn the fundamentals that inform the basis of competitive play or the more advanced skills that define the highest levels of play.
This unbalanced environment benefits individual moment-to-moment performance as it is the most consistent path to winning in said environment. If the average player doesn’t have to learn something to succeed then they never will.
If it’s assumed that the ability to plan and execute plays within a team is a part of player’s skill then it should be evaluated against all other players regardless of the number of other players they are grouped with. The matchmaker should remove balancing based on team sizes to increase the frequency of full, communicative groups playing against solo queue players. Even if six-stacks only win ~3% more they are still attempting to play a fundamentally different way which you’ve statistically shown to be better. You’ve also shown that solo queue players will only encounter this every ~1150 games, effectively never, so how are they expected to learn from it. Knowing that they can’t win with selfish, uninformed play will force players to lose if they can’t adapt to teamplay.
I have more thoughts on this but I’m starting to ramble.
TLDR; Match stacks with everyone to put teamplay on display and force the community to learn the fundamentals of the game.
And yet, Blizz know their MMR struggles with wide gaps in premade groups badly enough that they limit the gap to 500 and even 250 from Diamond upwards.
I just don’t understand why they permit this damage to MMR and match quality by such a broad range that it never comes close to in ‘naturally made’ groups of solo players.
Boosting is not supposed to be permitted, and yet this seems to encourage it.
I mean, it’s not even fun to be carried if you get these on your side, and that too directly impedes your own performance by giving you nothing to do and hurting your own “performance” gain.
And this is why I asked in my questions post to verify they still feel the current 1000 SR range for Bronze through Diamond is still fair. Just remember that way back in the day when they introduced the changes for season 2, we as a community cried out when the range was only for 500 SR when it was testing in the PTR. Not to say things has changed since then. Also it is my observation that the apparent skill level of Silver through Platinum is neglible at best. I observe this by playing non-Competitive modes and discover the skill rating of my opponents when I am being outplayed.
People tend not to play their ‘best’ heroes in non-competitive modes. I won’t touch DVa or Orisa in them, so I’m not surprised you see players underperform on what they do pick.
It’s when your beating them and they decide to make an example of you by switching to their competitive mains that you notice the skill gap open up.
Have you considered extra EXP for grouping in competitive as an incentive?
Will the next PTR patch that’s coming with Horizon come with addition hero balances? If so, will the balances only get released when the revision does or can we expect them to come out at different dates?
Players already get a 20% XP bonus when grouped in any game mode.
Very rarely does a patch only get partially released in Overwatch. It is very likely that all content in the 1.25 patch notes will go live at the same time.
Question: Does the game perceive 6 stacks to have an advantage over 6 solos or does the game not take groups into account when it comes to sr gains/losses in all aspects. need clarification as Father kaplan did state that in the recent inverview with unit lost/stylosa the game preceive groups vs all solos as having an advantage therefore the group would win less /losing more sr. was this a slip up?
It’s a great addition though i’ll still be solo queueing as I canno speak on mic at all, and in a massive group my anxiety would be through the roof. I’m at fault since grouping with those who don’t speak on mic gives a team a disadvantage sadly.
I’m curious as to how SR gain/loss works with a group consisting of people with different SR.
For example, say I’m 2500, and I group with someone 2100. Would the game expect me to “carry” more, and punish me with a harsher SR drop if we lose? Or does it not matter at all since the overall SR between the two teams should be similar enough?
I don’t speak on mic either, I just convey everything with the in-game commands, but it usually works out.
Only thing I want is the “Come here for healing” lines for the supports to be said instead of the “Group up” lines when aiming at someone and pressing X. Makes no sense to me to say that instead of something the other player can understand upon hearing to avoid having to look to chat to see what you mean- especially cause “Group up with me” is a little vague along with widely ignored as far as I’ve seen, but what can you do?
Same here, although I wish the game had a more sophisticated selection of voice lines to choose from (such as a menu). I’m hoping once LFG is live that there will be plenty of groups that will accept a mixture of players both with and without microphone capability. I’m happy to listen but I don’t really speak.
in effect you could just have your healers spam “hello” through out the match so Tanks and DPS know where they are. Why then can’t you see them through walls. #QoL
This is what the community needed to hear. I have been playing in a 6 stack since the first Halloween event. I try to promote and tell people to play in a six stack. it is the best way to play the game.
Does these bug fixes include new ones? Or are you actually starting to look at her? And by “look” I mean “discuss buffs for her” - I do not mean “laugh at her winrate dropping” like you’ve been doing the past 2 years.
