How Competitive Matchmaking and Rating Works (Season 24)

I thought masters was 3% last we heard? Is there an updated distribution?

I was looking at the OP’s source reference. Sorry if it’s been updated.

Also from OPs references, which are more lies. They have done nothing to fix this since season 6. At least, not for anyone else.

Am I the only one seeing discrepancies here? Not with the first quote specifically, but in general. Its no winder so few people trust the dev team when they post. I can understand why they refrain from posting here.

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The matchmaker needs retooled for role queue. It clearly matches by average TEAM MMR, and it needs to match by average ROLE MMR. A team-wide average was sufficient for open queue games where switches could happen, but is completely inadequate for a role-locked match.

Platinum tanks fighting Silver tanks will never be a fair fight, etc. If your team has a DPS SR average of 2500, the opposing team should have DPS with an average of 2500 SR. This doesn’t happen and is trivial to verify.

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If a game is supposed to be a 50% chance of winning or losing. Then when you get to your SR you start the infamous oscillating of win 2 lose 2 win 2 lose 2. Then thats NOT a 50% chance of winning is it? If i take a coin and flip it 10 times, what are the chances of it coming up head head tails tails head head tails tails?

You could convince me that the match maker actually calculated 50% matches if the devation was random over like…10 to 15 games. But it just goes win win lose lose win win lose lose.

The match maker will give you matches below 50% chance of winning to bring you to your SR and give you above 50% to bring you back to were it thinks you belong. Its why its sooo streaky and consistent. its why there are stomps and there are games you couldnt carry on your best day.

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More thoughts:

Doing this adjustment for the matchmaker could actually DECREASE queue times as well by opening up the total SR spread for a team while keeping it intact for each role. So for example you could (in theory, and if necessary for the matchmaker to create a game) have Diamond DPS, Silver Supports, and Gold Tanks in one match… but the opposing team would have EXACTLY the same configuration.

This gives the matchmaker more latitude to pull in players, without disadvantaging one side or the other with imbalanced roles.

It has some benefits and drawbacks…

One benefit is that lower ranked players get to see how higher rank players work, which should bring match quality up over time as lower ranks are exposed to better gameplay and strategies.

A drawback may be that the match could be frustrating for a higher rank role to get paired with a much lower one (diamond tanks getting silver supports)… BUT the opposing team would be working under the EXACT same condition… so ultimately the match is fair.

I’m confused. If you aren’t a fan of the game, why are you here? Isn’t there some better use of your time than hating on something that only affects your life because you allow it to?

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“Some men just want to watch the world burn” - Alfred Pennyworth

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Ignore the toxic people here, you are doing good job dude.

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there shouldn’t be a hidden system at all, frankly I would like to know exactly how it works in a way that is verifiable.

I think we should get rid of SR entirely if we have MM, I want to know my real rank.

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Seconded with enough characters.

Your hidden MMR is very close where your SR is. So its pretty much ± your SR.

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I don’t know that since I cannot see the source code for the game and its clearly meant to be obfuscated therefor it likely is not your SR+ or - its more likely a number they don’t want us to see so the next question we ask ourselves is why.

It doesn’t really make sense not to just show us the actual rank if its + or - our SR roughly, what’s the reason.

I think manipulation.

The people who make the game have an obligation to make the game successful so I think they have sufficient motive to be doing something uncouth and trying to obscure it by not showing us what is happening under the hood.

IF Blizzard is innocent what do they have to hide? What do they gain?

There is several reason actualy. Trade secret, its too complicated to understand for normal player, it might lead to abusing the system… few reason for example.

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Don’t really believe that, SR is simple and open but MM is a trade secret, why.

I think obscuring what they are doing is enough evidence of some kind of potential manipulation. This game is designed to be addictive and its pretty reasonable to ask if Blizzard is designing MM to prioritize appealing to a certain pathos over making Overwatch a game of skill w/ some respectability.

I want to know my rank, I don’t want to know some rhetorical rank placing me in as far as I know, some totally abstract matchup.

Because MMR might not be simple number so revealing it would mean to show calculations which are made behind it.

I mean Activison has several patents registrated which are used in matchmaking for their games so keeping something like MMR hidden as trade secret kind of make sense.

You know your rank. I explained to you already that your SR is pretty much your MMR.

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It doesn’t address any of my concerns. If this game is just a big psychology experiment then I would like to know now up front otherwise I don’t agree with the ethics of this.

I don’t really care that it’s some kind of secret, I want to know my rank, sorry.

For all I know It’s probably a secret because it is manipulative and Activision doesn’t want anyone stealing their patented recipe for getting people addicted to their video games.

If our SR is pretty much our MM then just show us our MM rank. Nuff said.

Like I don’t necessarily disagree with you but, it misses the point of what I’m talking about.

If what you’re saying is true then our SR cannot be more or less our MM plus or minus, because you’re saying MM rank isn’t even a number (not sure about this one).

For one thing I think we know to some degree as a fact that Blizzard manipulates our ranks we just don’t know the extent fully because its all obfuscated.

Psychlogy experiment? I though blizzard is company which is making games and trying to profit from it.

You already did by reading and aception ToS while creating account.

Whatever… All great games which have replayability are addictive. Yes they makes games for profit. They are not trying to save world with it for free.

I already gave you few example why they dont want to maybe. You have SR, accept it, deal with it, or move on.

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That’s false, I did not agree to it because it isn’t being disclosed.

I was calling it a psychology experiment as a metaphor, the idea is I am suggesting Blizzard might manipulate SR to get a certain feeling out of it which might unbalance play in favor of emotional reaction.

This makes the game more addictive probably, and it’s evidenced by the fact that to some degree we know the algorithm aims to make matches always evenly matched, which is unrealistic and an unnatural way to play.

I think this is why so many people feel frustrated or annoyed with this games ranking system, I think Blizzard should just be honest about what they’re doing.

That’s my issue. I get that you want to defend Blizzard but it doesn’t address anything I have said or my concerns about the game.

I am dealing with it (and many others actually because this is a major complaint about the game I have seen many times) and I’m probably not going to move on because it’s my major criticism with the game.

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