Hello Monatrox,
I’m going to respond to your post in reversed order.
Here is a post by Jeff Kaplan on Competitive Mode Tier Distribution: Competitive Mode Tier Distribution.
Going from top down, Diamond/Master/GM players make up 14% of the pool, thereby representing ‘part’ of Q3 (upper quartile, the whisker). Gold/Plat players make up 57% of the pool (the box, interquartile, 25-75th percentile ). Bronze/Silver players makes up 29% of the pool (Q1, whisker bleeding into the box). We’ve all had games where we see Gold/Plat players on same team, sometimes with Silvers dropping in (whisker bleeding in the box).
I don’t think Blizzard has people sitting behind a desk, putting individual players one by one onto a team (i.e. not intentional on that level). However, the formula for MM (i.e. players are numbers, computing stats of previous gameplays for MM) consequently puts players of varied skill level on the same team - the defined range of this may be too broad? I’ve mentioned binning a couple times, but I don’t have their algorithm.
Me playing better does not mean (equal) improving to the extent that I gain rank. Example: in sports, there are leagues at different levels. I may play well enough for the league that I’m in (i.e. win some, lose some, but with teammates of similar skill range), but never good enough to be on higher tier, and that’s okay.
Let’s say you have evidence that ‘in OW’, that is ‘literally’ what competitive is for. How do you view all the people ranked below Diamond? Failures? People who don’t try?
How do you define better? If one is better today than yesterday, and continues to be better the next day and the next day, one will eventually make it to the top (i.e. pro).
Also, I did not say the two are the same. I said that I am not looking to move to the next level (i.e. Diamond) “or” go pro. I didn’t write “and”. I am simply looking to sit down this holiday and play a fun game where teams are balanced.