Match Making Rating (MMR), Handicapping

None of my previous threads on this subject have been resolved so I’m going to start a new one. I think handicapping is wrong for competitive play, because it completely undermines the ranking system. Also, by failing to disclose the fact to players in the game’s UI or Terms of Service, I think Blizzard is violating players’ right to informed use of their product.

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Holy Jesus, you’re still at this after 2 years. It seems you didn’t improved in 2 years since I left the game. I can’t believe the first the first topic I see coming back, is yours; blaming the system because you’re stuck bronze…

Move on from the game, you still have the same toxic mindset. Can’t believe you couldn’t grow up in 2 years… it’s just insane, to still be blaming the system. You must have absolutely done nothing to try and improve, and have kept blaming your teammates.

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stop it already!

there is no handicapping!

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Because its nonsense…

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calm down…

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You’re wrong. What do you think the MMR system is for?

Not to keep you in bronze when you’re really a GM.

if this repeatedly posted topic isnt considered spam and trolling what is?

edit: sorry for bumping this crappy content!

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That’s not his point. His older posts go into detail, but it is basically putting players that are losing SR or in the process of de-ranking on your team when you are doing the opposite.

The matchmaker not only makes matches harder by matching you against players with more skill. Sometimes, it makes matches harder for you by putting potatoes on your team. That is what he is referring to “handicapping”.

If you say you’ve never experienced such a thing… you’re lying to everyone and yourself lol. It happens and you have to deal with it. It makes the matches harder… but you can still put your head down, play smart and win em.

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I have experienced potato teammates, usually the first game of the day or if i start performing badly.

In my experience, I think it is just luck-of-the-draw. I don’t think the matchmaker does it intentionally. The SR system isn’t perfect and you do get matched with players with less knowledge or skill occasionally :man_shrugging:

There is no handicapping in Overwatch. As with all your previous attempts you have failed to understand what handicapping actually is.

Overwatch: Tries to make teams of equal ability such that the predicted win probability for each is ~50%.

Handicapping: Putting teams or competitors which have distinctly different skill or ability against each other and then applying an artificial penalty to the higher ability team/competitor to manipulate the predicted chances of winning to become equal when they otherwise would not be.

One starts off equal, one is artificially made to become equal.

Also, as per my other replies in your other threads, they’re not going to change it based on your flawed arguments. Either learn to deal with it in its current form or find a new game. Also stop spamming. Flagged.

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Cuthbert’s argument is that Blizzard’s matchmaker actually DID do it intentionally. He spammed the same thing on Reddit so here’s the version from there:

And it’s a very erroneous argument, especially in light of what Jeff Kaplan revealed about MMR on Seagull’s stream (the -3 to 3 system).

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Ah, well. That’s just not true. It happens… but not in any consistent, predictable fashion in my experience.

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So it’s not systematic and thus very unlikely to be built in to the matchmaking system?

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His entire argument rested on the notion that the MMR system was there to differentiate between “good” and “bad” players at the same SR. And with that “knowledge”, the matchmaker would make an “even” match by distributing the teams to have an even number of “good” and “bad” players at the same SR.

What the actual game is that sure, there’s “good” and “bad” players at the same SR, BUT MMR is what’s translated into your SR, so MMR is NOT a differentiator between “good” and “bad” players at the same SR. The point is that they’re all at the same rank, so you’re simply placed AND matched at that same rank, meaning that, say that you have a game with all players solo-queueing AND at SR 2400: it doesn’t matter how all 12 players got to SR 2400, they can be arranged in literally any way possible. And if 6 of those players are Grandmaster smurfs, ALL 6 can possibly be put on the same team because the matchmaker does not recognize “good” and “bad” players at the same SR, it only cares about what rank they currently have.

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to put people with similar skill in the same games, what do you think it is for?

and if you think for 2 seconds about it, then you’d realize that there are people on the other team with the same experiences as you, BUT THEY WIN that game. so is their MMR treating them preferentially?

so why do you get handicapped and others preferred treatment?

how does blizzard decide who gets the handicap?

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And if a player happens to be on fire for a few games? He’s still roughly the same SR, but how do they make this even match? They MUST counter that hot player, or the match won’t be fair.

Instead, a lot of us would rather just see plain old matches made with none of this forced even match stuff involved. If you’re 2100 and you can beat 2100’s, cool. Rank up. Instead, there’s a massive skill variance among 2100 players, and if you happen to be hot… well, you get to play Hard Mode 2100. Just for the sake of an even match.

I mean, it’s well known that you shouldn’t even bother to form a 6 man group. Why? Handicapping. You don’t just play any old 2100’s. You play other 6 mans. That is harder, so people don’t bother. For some reason, people don’t see that as handicapping. But it is.

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This is an interesting article about the “customized” ELO system that Overwatch uses.
https://towardsdatascience.com/the-math-behind-your-competitive-overwatch-match-a5184fc5a50f

Now about handicapping:
It is difficult to find clear evidence that a game deciding handicapping takes place.
But from a rational point of view, it would make sense to control the gaming experience of all players, so I think that’s what happens in any modern game.

Do not underestimate the matchmaker.
For any development studio, it is probably much more important to keep the player base active and as large as possible, rather than leaving the gaming experience to chance.
Sessiontime analysis and psychological profiling could take place.
It is not against the law and no one has to tell you and it has a lot of advantages to do something like this.

Maybe the matchmaker at this very moment knows when and how long you will play today. And a crucial aspect is how much you win and which players you meet.

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I suggest using replay features and count all the times you threw the game yourself. I did it and I became quite humble about my rank and kinda improved. Also I’m sure u are insisting in heroes that don’t fit your play style, just like if I was playing genji 24/7 and wondering why I am so bad at the game. Also PM me, I have a deal for you. :wink:

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