Is off season comp affecting MMR?

That’s some pretty loose science. Why doesn’t Blizzard tell us how things really are?

That’s not for me to answer, and my experience is an enough proof at least for me to convince me that mmr does not drop in off-season if it did I would have placed in low plat.

Oh I see. But it is for you to claim authoritative knowledge of how MMR works. Sure.

Since I have actually experienced it, yes I can tell you that it doesn’t affect your mmr, I can’t tell you why blizzard doesn’t tell us about those things as I am not a blizzard employee… You posted on a forums public for people to share their thoughts and experiences and that’s exactly what I did.

Also you disregarded everything I said and pointed out only at that comment in my post, I’m gonna assume you’re trolling or just messing around as you showed no actual interest in understanding whether the system does affect your mmr or not instead you’re sorta attacking people? I’ll refrain from commenting on this any further.

How’s about let the people who actually play the mode decide instead of spamming FUD? There is no reason to think off-season influences mmr. It would make no sense to do so, and gives blizzard no benefit; they know people don’t play off-season the way they do otherwise so it’s not getting the matchmaker useful info. On top of this, personal experience says it doesn’t as well, and anecdotally no one has given reason to think otherwise.

First of all, don’t listen to Cuthbert. He’s like actually delusional and does nothing but confidently spout conspiracy theories without providing any evidence. Second, I’ve experimented a bit with off season to see what effect, if any, it has on MMR, and the conclusion I’ve come to is this:

Off season competitive does have an MMR that is initialized to your final MMR of the prior season, or, if the account is fresh, then it is initialized to the ‘default’ MMR equal to around 2350 SR. This MMR, however, does not have any effect on your actual competitive MMR, and at the end of the off season it is discarded.

The Alternate Account

The first piece of evidence I have is one of my alternate accounts. I bought it at the end of season 10 and got it to level 25 the day before the off season. I didn’t touch competitive until the off season. My first off season competitive game was the same SR that it would have been if it were the first placement game - a mid gold game. After about 7 games, I was being placed in mid diamond games, indicating that the system was recognizing improvement at about the same rate as placements even in the off season and was attempting to place me in the right rank. I stopped once I hit my first master game at about game 15.

Then season 11 started and I queued up for my first placement game. If off season MMR impacted competitive MMR, then it would make sense I would be placed in a master game, for that is where my off season MMR was. But no. I was placed into the default rank of mid gold for my first match, and I had to work my way back up through the placement matches as if I hadn’t already done that on the account.

The freshly placed account

Second, I had an account which I placed on the last day of season 11. It was level 27 and 3000 SR. I screwed around on Torb and lost pretty much every game in the off season, and by the end of the off season I was in mid gold games. The next season I did placements, and it put me right back in diamond games, and it ended up placing 3300. If off season had an impact on its SR, I would have been put back in gold games and been placed in plat.

The main

And then finally I have my experience on my main account. Whenever I play in off season on my main, I usually stack with my silver-gold friends and we end up in high gold games. And usually I’m just messing around, so we lose a fair amount of games. Since I’m a mid master player, if off season MMR affected comp MMR, it would follow that the next season I should place lower. But every time I’ve placed no lower than 100 SR of where I left off, and a couple of times 100-150 higher.

So I think it’s safe to say that off season does not affect the next season.

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Better question: why is mid gold the default? Mid silver seems far more accurate player population wise, no?

I dunno gold is often considered where the majority of the average playerbase is and is considered the “C students” of the SR system.

Well if we look at the rank distribution

Gold contains the largest number of players and this distribution indicates that 2500 is the 61st percentile, so the mean falls in mid gold which is also the starting point for placements.

We can’t say if mid gold is fixed as the starting point or if it could change with the mean, though.

My issue is more that players start then decay downwards; it’d seem smarter to start them lower rather than have the players decay downwards. The fact a lower tier exists shows it’s not the best starting place as games probably ahould start you near the bottom, no?

Initially started high silver but decayed to triple digits and have since entered low Gld. That serms to be a common path so why start them so inflated? I doubt the average New Player’s skill level is gold. Using the averages of seasoned players for new seems odd.

Also if it starts players there it natually will have some degree of inflated player base.

Hey, I’m still waiting on an answer to my last reply. Wanna quit dodging it?

Sorry I think I missed it. In my thread or this one?

This one…look further up

Okay here we go:

Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as “luck,” so we can rule that out.

What we’re talking about here is a system. My theory of Match Making Rating (Overwatch’s handicapping system) does not preclude individuals from reaching the higher ranks. The question is whether or not the players who make it there are truly the best at the game. And I would argue that Match Making Rating prevents that sorting process from taking place. None of our ranks mean anything, because nothing is being proven in the Competitive Play system as it exists currently.

As I’ve said in my thread on the subject, MMR guarantees in every match that some weak players will move up in rank and some strong players will move down. The system is unproductive by design.

I’ve played Overwatch since Day 1, and in early access. Like you I think I did get better at the game as I practised and spent more time with it. But the story of my Competitive Play career, as told by my rank, is completely incoherent. I qualified at Platinum when I started, and my rank ranged wildly between Platinum and Bronze for as long as I continued playing. Those are the ranks in which Match Making Rating is in effect. If you don’t feel the effects of handicapping, it’s probably because you managed to escape the threshold of MMR, which is at Platinum.

I spent the better part of 6 seasons in platinum… I even placed platinum last season and can consistently climb out. Everyone gets better at the game, even slowly. If you don’t keep up you’ll drop rank, if you aren’t a consistent player it’s possible to reach some higher ranks on a good day. Some people will get pushed up, but they’ll also fall down. Especially below diamond where things are performance based. Theyll be gaining minimum and losing a ton. You can find these people who complain about losing more than they gain. It doesn’t handicap anyone

What do you think Match Making Rating is? Why do you think it exists, distinct from Skill Rating?

So you’re basing all of this on your experience, when your experience is an outlier. Most people don’t fluctuate between 4 ranks constantly, and just because you haven’t made it past platinum you’ve concluded that’s the threshold. Most people sit in one rank after improving, falling, or placing there.

No, my thread is based on the facts disclosed to us by Principal Overwatch Designer Scott Mercer, and other Blizzard representatives. Go read it if you want to have an argument with me.

MMR exists so that when your SR is adjusted due to leaving or decay, you aren’t playing at too low of an Elo. It’s also used to make faster adjustments to your rating when you are outperforming/underperforming

We’ve seen the Scott Mercer quote in your opening post many times. You should probably actually include the link to where you got that quote.

Also, you NEVER referenced any other Blizzard statements in your opening post in your topics.