On a new account you place based slightly on your QP performance but mostly on PERFORMANCE in placements. Performance is your actions per minute (damage, healing, other various metrics). Most people place gold because, guess what, gold is average and most people are average.
On an account that has already placed in comp, you will place very close to where you left off the season before. If you decay, you’ll place near your pre-decay SR. You can walk around the edge of the map and do zero damage and you’ll still place near where you left off. Even if you brush placements 10-0 and carry, the best you’ll do is an SR adjustment as if you had 10 wins from where you left off (+ ~25x10). Going 10-0 against silver players doesn’t make you GM.
It’s also based on your performance relative to expected performance. For example, if you’re a masters player and queue in the morning you might get in GM games and even if you win very few games, you can go UP in rank because you aren’t expected to do well in a higher rank than you are. Season 9 I went 2W-8L in placements, having left off at 3650 I placed 3820. This is because every game was 4000-4200 and the matchmaker probably expected me to go 1-9 or 0-10.
And finally, matches are often very one sided in placements. Just deal with it, don’t stress too much, and go next.
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I tend to stay in the 4100’s.
On my fresh alt I had completely ridiculous QP stats with enormous WRs. First 10 placements, went 10-0, with completely insane stats as well.
It placed in the 2300’s.
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Wow. Is this rigged or what? 
The only issue is most accounts should place initially in bronze like 1500 range not in gold. All this does is demoralize players as they drop so they can join the cabal of conspiracies that the game is rigged when really they just belong in bronze like most new players do.
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This is either a typo, you’re lying, or you should submit a bug report. If you sweep placements on a new account, you should place in low masters. Initial Competitive Skill Rating, Decrypted
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Quick play has no effect on initial placements. Wins matter more than statistical performance. Initial Competitive Skill Rating, Decrypted
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had both accounts ended up on ~3.2 last season.
Trying to play placements on my main heros and get placed at 2.4 
Also I’m getting 3 minute queues at prime time (on EU) on 2.4. Now, i was wondering if i get in some kinda “smurf que” because im lowrated ? My tank stats can’t be that insane. It’s mostly people level 25-30 who have similar gamesense so i’d say they are not above diamond. But still interesting to know if even new player get these queues on a fresh account or not.
Placed 1800 Silver, dropped to Bronze (1200ish), started getting a more even winrate and figured it was where I belonged. Watched vods, got better and started climbing again. Nearly got back to Silver before the season ended.
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@taco - Playing the same heros? That’s odd to me. I’ve placed several brand new accounts and always place close to my main. Placing in GM is probably an exception but I’ve placed master.
@CptHuggyFace - It’s rigged in the sense that how well you play gets you the rank you deserve. How is that a bad thing?
@MsSysbit - I say “most people place in gold” because most people ARE gold. Some people might get lucky and place a little higher than they belong AND get an unlucky series of losses for various reasons after that will get them to silver, but they’re still gold and in the long run they’ll get back there.
Exactly you can be placed in plat with horrible performance. Just because you had luck and won most of them.
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This is not true, i know that for a fact because i have few alt accounts and i did few experiments. Qp performance or performance in other mode before competitive matter a lot.
Then explain every player in bronze. No one places in bronze. No one knows if it is even possible. Gold is average skill set for those who have played the game; it’s not average for newbies. I paced like 1900, dropped to 800 first season I played. That seems to be the very common story for everyone in bronze. Dropping ~1000 SR from initial placement because placements force players into ranks they never deserved.
It is, i was placed at 730 SR once on new account when i was doing experiment, didnt even lose all placement games and had few potg even lol.
What sorcery did you use? I’ve never seen it done on initial placements.
Did you actually read that link?
If yes, share your data. Show how it contradicts the data that I’ve gathered.
Based on the date, that was from season 4. At that point, streaks bonus/penalties were still in the game. New accounts also started with their SR 200 below their MMR. This data is not relevant to the current game.
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I wanted to show that to other Guy. It wasnt my argument. Yes i read your link. Even when i definitely agree with a lot of things i have to say that qp is affecting competitive based on my on experience with more than 6 new accounts with different play style or performance. Even from new seasons. Not sure if season 4 was in my link. Cant remember which one was it.
Look you did a great job there i like it but honestly its still kind of your theory how is it working. I have different one based on my on experience with not one but many accounts.
Placements are complete bs. I won 7 of my 10 games and in 9 of those games my performance metrics were very high. I gained 60 SR from last Season. 60!?!? If those were normal games I would have at least gotten 100.
Last season I bombed my placements and lost 200.
I want placements gone. I hate them. I can’t do them anymore
If those were normal games where you gained and lost 25SR per match yes you would’ve gained 175SR for the 7 wins but also lost 75SR for the 3 losses. Right now your net was +4 games and with a 60SR gain that would mean 15SR per win.
However you are right in that if they had been normal games you probably would’ve gained a bit more but probably not that much more.
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