Mmr. handicap etc etc

[Rambo-14952]

What does it mean someone explain? I made a post earlier about me going 10-1 some day and the next day I get a 10 game lossstreak. currently went from 2606 sr dps to 2130 without changing my playstyle whatsoever. HOW?

[Kaedi-11739]

Win streaks and loss streaks are common, but are not related to your actual skill rating or MMR. Naturally of course the higher you climb the more difficult the matches will get (that is the point of a ranked ladder of any competitive game). It’s also not uncommon to ride on your emotions (get energized when you win, get tilted when you lose). Anyone who says there are “forced wins or losses” in Overwatch are fooling themselves.

Here is a handy detailed guide to matchmaking and skill rating in Competitive Overwatch.

How Competitive Matchmaking and Rating Works (Season 26)

The rating and matchmaking system is confusing, and a good overview does not appear to be available. The official overview1 is incomplete and does not answer a number of common player questions and concerns. This information below is gathered from sporadic developer posts and videos, salted with my own experience and experiments, various forum threads, and watching streams. Note that since Blizzard does not give exact algorithms, I do have to fill in some gaps, or leave some items unknown. Final…

[Rambo-14952]

thanks a lot. so theres no such thing as being handicapped?

[Kaedi-11739]

No. There is not. Your skill rating is your own.

[ReiAyanami-21616]

if the system worked a rapid 500sr swing would be a total anomaly and should get you season banned for hard throwing or smurfing/boosting. game 100% has handicapping, anyone telling you different is a gaslighting shill.

[Nano-22210]

That’s technically true. You yourself are not handicapped.

However that doesn’t mean you are not handicapped with the teammates you are given.

You would expect that, after a 10 win streak, you wouldn’t have a 10 loss streak. There should be some middle ground.

This is where the matchmaker handicap comes from. You’ll be placed with stronger or weaker teammates, with the expectation that you continue to provide value at your rated SR.

[rhainsict-1418]

Queue the rigged match making crew in 3… 2… 1…

[Nano-22210]

It’s a valid argument.

[rhainsict-1418]

I’ll give you the benefit of doubt that “some” people would not be in the ranks they were if smurfs and hackers didn’t exist but at the end of the day, the ladder works by some people being better than other people.

For YOU to go up in SR, someone else has to go down. Am I wrong? Because if I am, then we’re not talking about a competitive ladder but rather a time/achievement based system…

[Nano-22210]

In that case, it would work like any other rank system.

You earn rank by taking it.

Compared to the convoluted, deliberately obfuscated, and hopelessly confusing rank system Overwatch has - I’d say it’s an improvement.

[ReiAyanami-21616]

more like cue the shills, who i wouldn’t be surprised if they were just ai chatbots. same users every thread bleeting same responses, what do they care if someone complains, its a feedback forum, weird and pathological imo to stalk every thread looking to shill and defend the game.

[ȐĔPŐŖŦŜ-1733]

@Rambo-14952

thanks a lot. so theres no such thing as being handicapped?

@Kaedi-11739

No. There is not.

Incorrect. As per the thread you relied on:

@Kaawumba-1133

The game uses MMR to determine whether a match is fair, and attempts to match teams such that the game is fair (each team has a 50% chance of winning).

@Kaedi-11739

Your skill rating is your own.

Your hidden MMR skill rating is your own. But you’ll never see it. You’ll never know how it’s computed, where you actually stand, and how it is used for/against you. The SR gains/losses you see will be the byproducts of a rigged/handicapped system. You can still climb the ranks but realize there is active rigging and handicapping built-in.

How MMR works exactly is speculation. But we know that, by definition, it is an implement of hard-rigging and handicapping. Nothing can change the physics of it’s existence.

MMR is blatant rigging and handicapping.

See for example the basic definitions:

to-rig; rigged; rigging;

1. To manipulate or control usually by deceptive or dishonest means.
   “MMR is used to rig and Overwatch match towards a 50/50 outcome”.
2. To fix in advance for a desired result.
   “The MMR rigs the matches so they seem fair.”

to-handicap; handicapped; handicapping;

1. A match or contest in which an artificial advantage is given or disadvantage imposed on a contestant to equalize chances of winning.
   “The matchmaker handicaps players with MMR”.
2. An advantage given or disadvantage imposed usually in the form of points, weight to be carried, or distance from the target or goal.
   “The MMR handicaps good players with bad ones, making achievement more difficult.”

Look, we get it. They don’t like hearing it. It’s bad press - like your esports are a total sham kind of press. But the truth hurts, and needs to be said.

[Hero45owTTV-1360]

Stop the handicap #2021

[SYSTEM-21599]

Tbh i still don’t see how fair matches based on your performance is handicapping.

It’s literally trying to match you properly so you can improve, y’know like any competitive ladder works.

That would just make it harder for those who would be lower MMR to slowly climb up. I think the system is pretty fair as is.

[ȐĔPŐŖŦŜ-1733]

@SYSTEM-21599

It’s literally trying to match you properly so you can improve, y’know like any competitive ladder works.

The other competitive ladders have resets, placements, and seasons that matter. They don’t have tons of hidden rigging or team handicapping.

You progress up/down in rank, un-molested, based on your short-term ability to win (e.g. per season). The rungs are instantaneous reward, payoff, feedback. They are the only criteria you’re assessed on, and actually reflect your ability by % players (pdf).

This ladder is a total sham in comparison. It has no integrity, and is based on rigging. Please don’t compare it.

[ȐĔPŐŖŦŜ-1733]

@SYSTEM-21599

I think the system is pretty fair as is.

You can think that, but you would be wrong from the standpoint of ranking systems design 101.

You don’t write IQ tests to fail and and practice and learn and retry and fight your hardest and have your output score handicapped with point differentials.

You write IQ tests to get your result and cash-out.

That’s what a fair ranking system is supposed to do. Find your correct rank by scoring you by rank and rank alone. It’s merit-based, not handicapped or rigged for “fairness” - a fake notion based around the idea that close/engagement matches are somehow “fair”.

You could let that slide for unranked play, but it’s certifiably unfair in a competitive system who’s final end-all-be-all is a ranked output.

This game has had a fake esports sham going for years (just like WWE) because of this rigging.

[DeadLamb-11334]

@Rambo-14952

2606 sr dps to 2130 without changing my playstyle whatsoever. HOW?

play style might not change but your consistency will change game to game. Then keep in mind a player’s peak SR isn’t their default play level and you have 12 players in game.
So stuff can get real strange, real fast.

but that’s about all that’s going on… The learning curve of this game isn’t a line going up at a set angle. It’s like get a little better, fix some issues, get worse as you learn, then get better again.

but don’t buy into the tinfoil hat stuff about fixed match making or other things of that nature. The review code system pretty much proved all that stuff to be false. As player constantly play just like you expect their given tier to play, good or bad.

[Kimi-11826]

I don’t know why you would come into the thread and post misinformation, nobody ever said lose streaks were “forced”.

You should actually read the thread that you linked to.

[PR1SS-1830]

@Kaedi-11739

No. There is not. Your skill rating is your own.

Its your team that gets handicapped. Hidden MMR estimates your skill. In order to create matches where both teams have a 50% chance of winning mmr will match players to create a mean skill level per team. Thus, if your MMR rises, the matchmaker often time will need to find some players of a lower MMR to balance the match and create a 50/50 chance for both teams to win. This is what players are describing as handicapping.
In all other games teams are matched with an sr range to make two team of a similar sr. They do not estimate your skill in any way other than sr based on win losses(or very rarely based on an enemy players rating whom you kill). In order to climb must consistently outpace MMR expectations on a per game basis. Leading theorists Believe that MMR is on a per rank basis and that once your mmr gets high enough matches wont continue to get harder within your rank once you hit the cap.
On the forums you’ll notice that this style of match making is intensely debating amongst players on whether this type of match making is good or bad, although judging from the numerous negative threads on the competitive forums its hard to fathom that the people for this type of match making outweigh those against.

I’d Heartily invite @jeffkaplan or @scottmercer correct me if im wrong on any point here.

[Ihanin-2778]

@ȐĔPŐŖŦŜ-1733

Incorrect. As per the thread you relied on:

After seeing the complete lies at the beginning of the topic I was already ready to start writing up basically the same thing. Handicapped matchmaking does not equate to balanced matchmaking as when you handicap matches enough it’ll mean that your team has to rely on your opponents to make big enough mistakes that it’ll turn the tides of the game while your team makes non which in practise means that you might as well stay in spawn for those games and speedrun through them as they’re unwinnable “losers queue” matches

Besides the fact that the matches are rigger/handicapped, what baffles me the most is the fact that they’ve kept the system like this for such a long time. Don’t they realize that this massive flaw in the matchmaking system is literally what’s killing the game? The massive inconsistency in team averages is probably the biggest reason why players end up quitting the game and aren’t able to take it seriously, even outshining flaws like subjective hero balancing and oppressive metas like double barriers being a thing. Surely right now there’s merit to the system through lower queue times, but when you consider that those queue times were caused by the same system, just tuned a bit more down, they should’ve gotten rid off it a long time ago. It’s what killed HOTS entirely and if players weren’t as passionate about OW just like they weren’t about HOTS, the game would’ve died year or two ago already

This system is not sustainable even when we get a playerbase boost in OW2. If handicapped matchmaking is not dismantled and thrown into the garbage by the time OW2 comes out and SR/MMR systems are unified so that we have transparent matchmaking values that instantly show the tides of the matches, OW2 is going to die at a very quick pace and degenerate into players working themselves around the system through alt accounts very quickly after it’s release