MMR is Making Me Sick

Competitive Discussion
1

…Like Depression Sick.

I don’t know how the complexities of how The Matchmaker & How MMR Work but what I know is that the game will try it’s hardest to put you at 50/50 shot &, correct me if I’m wrong, if you have a decent MMR you’re going to be placed with people who have lower MMR to achieve that 50/50.

I’ve played this game for years, so many years. I really only see Competitive as the way to play the game, I want to be climbing. I’ve grown in skill and experience; I love flowing with a fight and being able to read it, sometimes things get really fun(!) and my heart could start to race…

But that’s really rare. My common gaming experience is making me sick.
I’m sick of bad players; people who can’t carry their weight; see the purpose in switching to a Winston as they tout that “Roadhog is meta”.

The workload is uneven, the ability to climb feels inexistent & exhausting, and I genuinely think that this game and the community experience I’m placed with eats at my soul. I’m not happy.

-Please fix your system.
I (We) want to be climbing, and I predict that to someone reading all this the response is easy: get good, you should focus on yourself, maybe you’re just bad.

The community I’ve experienced has me primed for all of that shade. I’d like a better community, I’d like to climb.

I recognize that my own feelings & emotions are separate from how a Computer System will determine who plays with each other.

This game has served as a great way to pass my evenings and I take it seriously. I want to experience the thrill of this game but there’s so little thrill to be had when it feels like I’m burdened by this matchmaking and community.

Blizzard:
I think your Game is doing harm to its players. There’s little reward, intense punishment and toxicity. Players are ostracized and shamed in just about Every Match I’ve experienced. The game feels worse for these things. I’d like to feel rewarded by the Game (SR) and be able to climb.

21 Likes
2

Not gonna read because it’s all the same anyway. Stop looking at your teammates look at yourself. If you are not climbing there is 2 reason for that: You are not good enough or you don’t play enough. There is multiple instance where blizzard were questions about this rigged matchmaking and they answered a few time but just stopped. Oversimplified way of explaining how the matchmaking works by Jeff Kaplan.
Take a look at @Kaawumba profile. He has archived old post from the old forums talking about the same “issue”. found the archive

5 Likes
3

Huh oh this was double posted?

lol

1 Like
4

Oh true didn’t saw lmao.

5

Thanks for sharing that legacy post… it was an interesting read. One uplifting take away was the Median SR.

The thing that I feel makes this post different from other MMR posts is that I’m focusing on the community that’s been growing around the tense competition.

I think the punishing aspects of the game is feeding into the toxicity and everyone just flaming each other; which, internet + strangers… what else should I expect right?

The climb feels impossible & stagnant, unrewarding.

And socially I, personally, feel myself going the wrong direction as I’m avoiding toxicity & chaos by not being in voice chat & considering going “full dark”. Yet I know that is the wrong direction to go socially on a team fight experience.

3 Likes
6

In my opinion, climbing shouldn’t feel rewarding. It is just a gain of sr. The number goes up and down. What should is improvement and to see that you learned something.

2 Likes
7

Years of experience man.
I’m familiar with the path, I’m in the middle of it.

I’m just getting sick of feeling like I’m going no where while I put in so much effort & work only to be shunned and verbally berated by cyberbullies.

I know where I have room for improvement. I know I need to take all this ego / experience I’m touting and join VC to tell communicate with the players that I hate, but the vicious toxic cycle has me going that “wrong direction” and I’d sooner go full dark (no VC, no match / team chat) than engage with the very loud & toxic part of this community.

2 Likes
8

Stack with people then. That’s the only way of having fun and improving for some player. I think solo queue is better for yourself to imrpove but sometimes it’s just too much.

1 Like
9

A more updated summary is here: How Competitive Matchmaking and Rating Works (Season 24)

OP, see especially the summary → summarize matchmaking, rating, and progression for me. Your understanding of MMR is not correct.

2 Likes
10

Check out the discussion on “Overwatch competitive matchmaker patent” it is sad to read/google. I have completely lost faith on matchmaking. And I also share your pain. It is depressing to see when people make same mistakes over and over again when I have shiftless keyboard 1000 levels ago :slight_smile: …Rein player btw.

But I love the game so no other option than to keep on playing until full tilt is reached and format c:

Good luck in your games!

11

Just a reminder that Kaawumba’s posts are inordinately long and organized, but still not actually supported by Blizzard or proven in any meaningful manner. He’s illustrated that it’s possible to see noise in a fair system, nothing more.

If you care to read an alternative explanation, I did a write up using what little evidence I could find(bronze to T500 climbs share a few distinct attributes that make it pretty clear something isn’t right in his explanation):

1 Like
12

Assuming that’s how the MMR actually finds matches, it still isn’t necessarily true unless you’re at the literal top of the board. Otherwise there’s always someone better than you that can be put in your games, which means, statistically, you’re the one bringing them down.

Though normally there’s enough players around you anyways that your MMR isn’t actually going to be significantly different from your teammates in the first place, so arguing “who’s dragging who down” is an ultimately meaningless gesture.

I’m not saying its bad to have a goal, but this isn’t so much a problem with the system as much as it is with player perception. Everyone seems to think they “deserve” to climb, then blame the game when they don’t and honestly shouldn’t.

This isn’t a single player, PvE game. You’re not supposed to be able to get as strong as you want and reach the “final level” just because you put time into it. You’re being compared to actual people, and because of that everyone will always hit the plateau of where they belong. If you want, you can try to improve and raise that plateau, but that will always be a long, grindy task because, again, you’re not trying to surpass some arbitrary bar set by the game, you have to surpass thousands of other real players at a time in order to see a noticeable difference. That’s just not going to happen overnight. And this isn’t just a problem with the ones who want to climb, but the ones who feel it’s appropriate to bully others for having a lot of time in the game but not being “on the top”. The game simply isn’t built to be that way.

Again, I’m not saying it’s bad to want to climb, but you also need to stay realistic about it. Just focus on the game, focus on the fun, and let the SR just change naturally. And if it is having a genuine effect on your health, stop, seriously. It’s a game, it’s not worth it. Honestly I think that Blizzard’s biggest mistake was showing the players their exact SR because it promotes this exact sort of hyper fixation on raising it instead of just letting the players play.

3 Likes
13

No it’s not meaningless when I queue with 3 other diamond players I don’t want some Gold Moira on my team who’s getting farmed by the enemy team.
Meanwhile I get treated like a Master and get jumped by 4 people in my team’s frickin backline.

2 Likes
14

MMR is a numeric representation of your actions per minute (APM) as determined by their algorithm. It measures your various stats and assigns a value to that performance.

I know that MMR is not represented the same way as SR but for discussion purposes—If you’re at 3000(MMR)/2700(SR) you’re going to get easier games than if you’re at 3000(MMR)/3300(SR). The matchmaker gives you games designed to push your SR towards your MMR. If you get multiple crushing defeats that’s a really good indication your stats are lower than they should be for your rank. Just accept it and play the game, not everyone can be an OWL player.

Your MMR isn’t determined by your k/d or gold medals. It’s your on-fire % vs your expected on-fire %. Tank/suppt aren’t expected to be on fire as often as DPS and a gold DPS isn’t expected to be on fire as often as a diamond DPS. Obj time, final blows, ult shutdowns, offensive/defensive assists, sharpshooter kills, environmental kills, etc. are what contribute to your on-fire.

3 Likes
15

I get what OP is going for here. He’s asking for competitive to feel more rewarding, and specifically to the people who take it more seriously. But that’s a very broad category, with one uncontrollable element… human nature. That was part of the goal with endorsements but it quickly fell flat.

It would be a huge undertaking, but i’m not sure it’s achievable.

There are a lot of try hards who get tilted. One day they’re amazing, then suddenly they feel like they need to try a hero they have less than 10 hours in, they get overconfident.

This game really isn’t that much different from professional sports, in that, genetically some people are just more predisposed to success at Overwatch. Or they will get better at it faster.

Temperament is a huge issue. It’s a very mental game. You can’t really go into competitive with anything less of the attitude of “I’m playing to learn how to play, and every game i play i learn, and get better.” There is always a next game. But yes try hard as well.

A combination of these elements will determine whether you’re the right type of person to reach top 500.

I suggest comparing your “damage numbers etc” vs top 500 players and see where you can improve. Just keep in mind matches tend to last longer in top 500 so numbers reflect that as well.

I’m trying to be a top 500 player as Ana, and i’m finding it quite difficult, but when i watch ML7 play for example, i realize i have SOO much room for growth.

3 Likes
16

The first half of the sentence is literally about when there isn’t a significant difference.

Complaining about the exceptions when there is sorta defeats the point.

2 Likes
17

Those exceptions are common for me there is always one guy/girls who does not belong into the lobby.
My best experience with games has been when I had to wait 10 seconds and everyone was roughly the same skill. Worst experience comes from those 10 minute queues when the Matchmaker plays tetris and gives me a local thrower.

18

I had a friend climb to masters over 1.5 years ago and he hasn’t played Overwatch since and never will again he said because the toxicity and the person he had to become to climb wasn’t worth it.

If you’re genuinely feeling upset from playing this game please STOP PLAYING THIS GAME!! I love this game!! But it’s not worth your mental health.

The community is toxic, the competitive ladder breeds frustration and everyone blames everyone (I do it too).

The climb IS the reward. Winning the games is the reward. The shinny emblem next to your battle tag is only a representation of your efforts. That’s ALL!!

The game is the same for me in Diamond as it is for other players in silver/gold/plat. We ALL deal with smurfs, we ALL deal with throwers and rage quitters, toxic know it all’s…

The only difference between being gold and being Diamond/masters/GM is how difficult you like your games. In Diamond, I die significantly faster if I make a positional mistake because there’s always a Genji or Tracer willing to gun you down.

In lower tiers you can miss 60% of your shots and still win a team fight.

Mercy can pocket tanks all game and you still won’t die often because you still have time to find a health pack…

Enjoy your place on the ladder. If you really want to climb, find a coach or a scrim team and learn the game. It’s the best way… :woman_shrugging:t2:

GLHF dude.

Remember the game really isn’t worth your mental health.

7 Likes
19

You’re missing a scintillating conversation on the post about the Reddit post :joy:

20

Where?

20characters.