I feel your pain, truly. I don’t believe the matchmaker is rigged as nefariously as you do, but I do believe (know) matches are rigged. I’ve never seen this much an outcry in any game matchmaking system in the existence of mankind.
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#fixowcomp
Just Boycott the format all together and wait for blizzard to respond to our pleas.
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The top 500 aren’t even 500, they are 200 at max, all of them with smurf accounts. Overwatch could improve their whole game experience with a clan system, but that was never their Intention, because they have the OWL, the biggest fraud in Esports.
Competitive in Overwatch is not competitive at all, because there is no competition in an obviously manipulated system.
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Hey dear.
I can’t agree with some parts but there is some truth actually…
I’m in masters and got up there with playing solo Q from silver to diamond and then duo
I can definitely say that good players get ranked up and climb the ranks very easily because I bought a smurf and played only dps (normally I’m main healer) I placed in gold.
then I left the account for about 3 seasons. in season 7 I started playing with it (I got a lot better) and climbed to high diamond within 50 games.
but when I played on that smurf I realized… that the matchmaking makes the people toxic in low elo and not the players… if you get atleast 4 dps mains on the team it’s to expect…
why doesn’t Blitz match the players in low elo like players in high elo??? I don’t understand… but I think that this is good
the players need to learn how to be etter than the rest of their elo and I know that is was most of the players don’t understand…they belong to that elo where they are playing at until they get better
vxnc
This is such a stupid argument. “If GM players can go from bronze to GM, then why can’t you?” Obviously if you are 3k SR above whatever elo you are in, you are so far ahead in skill that you can carry your way through that elo easily. But no one here is claiming to be a GM player that is stuck in silver.
I did watch a couple GM players lose games in silver doing their climb, btw. Which is absurd, but shows how badly your teammates can hold you down in this game. You can be 1-2 ranks above your elo in terms of skill and still be stuck there, because of the absurd matchmaking, throwers, & trolls.
You can say “b-b-but the other team has that too, so it’s even”. Not unless you play a ton of games, then it will eventually even out. But if you only play a handful of games a week, it is very possible that you are going to be on the bad end of RNG and get most of the games where your side has the bad players/leavers/throwers and get fed up with the game and quit, without playing enough games for the rng to ever favor you.
And it’s just an absurd argument to make, anyway. “The matchmaking is broken” “but sometimes the broken matchmaking benefits you and sometimes it benefits your opponent, so it works fine”
That’s like if you have a broken clock and the repairman says “no, it’s not broken. Sometimes it is showing the correct time, sometimes it’s showing the wrong time, it’s even”
Just this season alone, I’ve had five games where my team was stomping the other team (finishing attack round with 4+ min left in bank) until 1-2 teammates inexplicably leave after round 1, causing us to draw or lose. I’ve NEVER seen the opposing team leave after round 1 when they were destroying us, giving me a free win.
And in regards to the “if you are truly better than your elo, you will climb regardless of the matchmaking” that is true, IN THEORY, if you play enough games, but it is still a bad argument. Because you have to play a LOT of games to get to your true elo, like several hundred at least, to offset all of the inherent problems in the overwatch matchmaker. And most people don’t want to have to play several hundred games in which they have to continually carry their team and still frequently lose, when they can see that they are clearly more skilled than their counterparts in their elo, and just want to play against others at their skill level, but keep getting pushed down, due to factors outside of their control.
I mean, I had about a 55% win rate 2 seasons ago, close to a 60% win rate last season and over 65% win rate, not counting my placement matches, this season (placement matches were a joke, since I did it right at beginning of season when all the trolls come out).
So yes, if I played hundreds of matches, and patiently endured all the aggravation that goes along with the broken matchmaking, I would most likely get to the elo that I believe I belong in. But here’s the thing, I shouldn’t HAVE to grind through a ton of matches involving unfair competition, because that kind of thing ALWAYS wears me down to the point that I don’t want to play anymore.
I just want to play matches that feel fair, like I am on an equal skill level as the rest of the players in the match (you know, how a competitive matchmaking system is SUPPOSED to be). Not constantly be put in matches where I SEE that my teammates are playing far inferior to me and continually making ridiculous mistakes, forcing me to have to hard carry and clutch the game for us to win. And losing games that I played really well in but didn’t hard carry QUITE enough.
It’s exhausting and demoralizing and I’m strongly considering quitting the game, because of it. Which is frustrating because I think the game as a whole is great, but is just ruined by the broken matchmaking.
The most frustrating part is when I play against players that are much higher elo (as part of a group or pug), I have a blast and am still one of the top contributors to the match (and tend to win a lot more than I lose at my current elo, which should be “easier” to win games at).
I just want my regular competitive matches to be like that. I’m not willing to invest my time and energy to play hundreds of matches just to get to the point where I can get consistent fair matches, though
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There’s a lot to talk about in your post, but I think this is a core issue.
OW is not a grind. By “grind” I mean a game where you earn something simply by repetition of play in the game. WoW is a grind game. Borderlands is a grind game. There are probably others, but I personally HATE grindy games.
It doesn’t matter how many games you have to play to get what you believe to be your “true” elo. That’s simply not the point of the game.
As a matter of fact, I know several people who’s GOAL is to play several hundred games this season. It’s not to “find their Elo” but rather simply to enjoy and get better at the game. Not to mention, people throw their games in an effort to lower their MM score so the games will be easier for them when they do play.
OW is hard. If you are at your “true” SR the games will be very, very difficult. So difficult that you will lose half of your matches. Not get close losses either, some of those losses will be getting stomped.
If you don’t like how long it takes to “grind” to get to a certain SR value, Overwatch simply wasn’t designed for you. That’s PERFECTLY fine.
WoW wasn’t designed for me but it is an extremely popular game. The thing is, you don’t see me getting a subscription, playing the game, then going on to the forums complaining about how absolutely boring it is to grind out stupid rinky-dink quests just to gain some meaningless level.
So don’t come on the Overwatch forums and complain about how much time you’ve put in, how many kills you’ve made, and all you got was this lousy SR. This game isn’t about increasing numbers. It’s about getting better and having fun.
A static SR is not a bad thing at all. Neither is a slowly rising one. Not only is that a core design philosophy of the game there are many of us for whom that is THE KEY SELLING POINT. This is my first multiplayer FPS. Why? Because in the other ones it wasn’t fun to go into a match and get immediately pummeled by people much better than I. Here, I get teammates that generally are close to my level. Maybe not compatible or the same skill set, but a smurf or a thrower is pretty noticeable (and rare).
Don’t get me wrong. There are in fact several issues with the matchmaker, but even the title of this thread is basically a restatement of how it is actually supposed to work. OF COURSE THE MMR SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO CONTROL UPWARD MOBILITY IN RANKS. That’s the ENTIRE POINT.
It’s so scrubs like me don’t ruin higher level games and good players don’t come down and ruin my games. In and of itself, the MM is actually very, very good. Bad people, big range groups, and bugs (like the one fixed in the most recent patch) do make things hard, but that’s hardly the MM’s fault. (Well, groups maybe…)
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“This is such a stupid argument. “If GM players can go from bronze to GM, then why can’t you?” Obviously if you are 3k SR above whatever elo you are in, you are so far ahead in skill that you can carry your way through that elo easily. But no one here is claiming to be a GM player that is stuck in silver.”
Then why don’t these players get stuck in low/mid masters???
My brother stopped playing about a year ago and I took his account from 2k to 3k with about 75% winrate playing ONLY Zen and I’m not a GM. Why did I not experience these “forced losses” you speak of? His trash MMR surely must have tried to keep me at 50% wr according to you guys?
“Supports can’t climb btw” lol.
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‘My brother stopped playing about a year ago.’
That is your answer. They said the system becomes unsure after a period of no play and from a business perspective it would make sense for the system to start you off easy in attempt to let you get hooked by giving you games you are more likely to win.
Since you are a different player you took advantage of the systems generosity period and was able to take the account to a high level.
If Zen is also a hero that he didn’t play very often on that account and you suddenly using your zen skills on this account would of course be yet another factor that would throw it off.
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Yes, the more you “improve” you will be given crappier teammates. Only about half of your games will be enjoyable, but that’s enough to keep most people hooked in this game.
And it’s funny how I posted with basically the same message as this and the “handicapping is wrong for competitive play” megathread and my forum account got suspended for “trolling”. Lolz
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I started a Discord server of bronzes about a year ago. 17 of us have graduated to gold. One just made it to masters. There’s several in plat.
I have to laugh at these single anecdotal statements of “rigging”. Sure, you have to improve a lot and play a lot of games in order to go up even one tier.
There is a huge difference of skill in 500 SR and even with a 75% win rate you’d have to play 80 games to get there.
People want what they haven’t earned. There isn’t a problem with the SR system. There’s a problem with people.
Yep. I placed mid gold in S4 then immediately dropped to mid silver. Now I’m a solid master player - main hanging in mid master and placed this account 3600. A lot of my friends I made at the time have successfully climbed as well. Some have made it to GM and one flirts with T500, others are in plat/diamond. But other friends are still in silver.
The one thing my silver friends all have in common is that they blame the system rather than their own gameplay. They’re always looking for some shortcut to rank up without trying to improve. One of them boosted to 3800 from silver, and he maintains a solid 5% winrate on the heroes he actually plays. One of them tried buying an alt account because he felt that his MMR was busted; it ended up within 100 SR of his main.
There’s not some big conspiracy against low ranking players. In fact, the key to climbing is way simpler than you all are making it out to be: you just need to focus on improving your own gameplay.
You don’t have to game the system. You don’t have to 6 stack. You don’t have to buy an alt account. Stop coming up with excuses and improve yourselves. God damn.
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My Discord just expanded send could use another professor. If you’re interested let me know. Your experience could be useful if you’d like to help out about 150 below average players!
I appreciate the offer, but I’ve already got my hands full with a couple discords on top of irl obligations. Good luck with the climb though 
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the fact that the mm achieves 50/50 through loss streaks is proof enough its rigged . If the mm worked then you should win/lose , win/lose/lose , win win. something like this not a several game win streak followed by a dive .
THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN ANY OF BLIZZ’S OTHER COMPETITIVE MM SYSTEMS .
wow arena
HotS ect.
every season it bounces me all over the place from 900-2250 no one has this much skill varriance day to day idgaf.
If some dip stick is on doomfist/genji/tracer and they go in and dive first way a head of the team and die, its a 5-6 ever team fight . Because that same player res’s and runs right back in while everyone’s dead. How is this not throwing ?? this is what happens to people in lower ranks after the win streak.
so that’s one game. next one no on talks and you have 4 random dps spread out . game three leaver . so that’s 3 right there you had basically no control over.and it will cycle like this till you bottom out and all of a sudden you get teams that are communicating, making more synergistic picks ect .
ya this is less common above gold because trolls in those ranks get bounced down to us quick.
And yes if you are high plat,diamond or masters then of course you don’t understand because you just fly through, but people have a hard time improving at these ranks because the game quality is so crap.
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Or perhaps it’s a combination of luck, emotions, and inconsistency that lead to your streaks.
Everybody draws from the same pool of teammates. It comes down to luck whether you get a thrower, smurf, noob, or whatever on your team. There’s nothing you can do about that, and it’s really unlikely that the matchmaker tries to look for that stuff. It seems to just balance MMR and SR and stacks across both teams.
If you’re playing while mad, then you’re going to underperform which will lead to more losses which will make you madder and so on. And of course there’s the inconsistency that comes with being human. We’re not machines. Some days we’re going to underperform, others we’ll overperform.
The system is not trying to force streaks on you, although they will happen. The only thing the matchmaker tries to do is create a fair match.
Best argument ever.
Somehow with Bliz fanboys, you can’t criticize the system. It is obviously a mess and will be remembered as such in game history. Kotaku for instance regularly posts about the mess competitive overwatch is. Youtube channels talk about that a lot now in a negative way. The bliz lobby and fanbase is starting to loose the war. But hey basically it is nearly the same matchmaker that was in season 2, just the effects are too big to not be seen now.
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Good for you, smurfs are a cancer to competitive gaming.
Oh, really now? I am the one that thinks that this game will only grow.
And more bad news for you, mid November, this game will shoot up in players and views as something else happens.
A big part of the problem is the lack of insight at lower levels as to where you are out performing and under performing. HotS shows you little badges at the end of the game when you do well in certain aspects. This is important because it gives you a bit of insight as to how you compare to other players at your level.
Another thing that is frustrating but people dont realize is that ranking up is a moving target. As you get better so do other players. The only way to actually rank up is to get better significantly faster than the rest of your peers at your level (and those slightly above you). The skill level to play in Plat in S10 is not the same skill level needed in S2 or S5 even.
The point of frustration is not actually your rank. If it is we need to talk about where you find your self value. The point of frustration is how in the world do you get consistently good, fun matches in comp. Ranking up is not the answer. The same issues you have a your current rank exists throughout all of the ranks.
Therefore something needs to change, I’m excited to see what the OW team has in store for this summer. Grouping needs to be encouraged by the MM and good team play needs to be rewarded over good solo play (also important). Removing PBSR was a good first step, although i’d like to see it implemented across all the ranks, but more needs to be done, and it seems more is in the works.
Worry less about moving up in rank and more about playing the best game of OW you can (and having fun while you do it). If you can do that your rank wont matter.
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I stopped playing DVA, Orrissa and Zen as much, whom I main, and started to play DPS and other defense or tank heroes more to counter the enemy. The result was winning a lot more than losing. I wish I had started doing that sooner.
If you are a one trick, can’t play a decent tank or support, or are not willing to switch to counter for the sake of the team comp then you may keep losing.
I also won more matches by being willing to go off DVA, Zen or Orrissa for the sake of the team comp or to counter. Even if I had to switch during the last few minutes of the match.
Yes, it hurt my stats and I might have gained less SR for switching heroes mid match but I won for doing that.
Winning with less SR is better than losing SR.