MMR/SR Questions

I’ve been playing for awhile. I first ranked at silver, then didn’t take the game seriously at all… after years, now wanting to take it more seriously, it feels like I’m stuck.

Wondering if we can spread some knowledge here. There’s so much information out there it can be difficult to isolate a definitive answer.

First, I recently just won all 5 placement matches for support… Got POTG for 3 of them… and still ranked under 800sr (Yes gold in healing too). Should I be getting 40 elims per match or something? I’m on fire all the time.

Sorry don’t have more specific info.

Could my MMR be that low?
Am I stuck or is it all in my head?
Should I buy a new account?

It feels like I’m caught between either carrying or just goofing around…

When is MMR effected?

Should I take every single game seriously whether it’s qp, custom, or…?

I understand skill is a factor… and I’m definitely not plat… but I could beat my way out of silver with some hard practice. Problem is, I feel like I’m swimming in a sea of bronze.

Any useful insight outside of what’s already readily available out there? If my first ranking was silver, wouldn’t one be hardpressed to say I couldn’t hit silver again 2 years later?

I’m not so sure I believe in elo hell… but those around me play notably terribly. I genuinely, to the best of my observation, feel like I’m caught between two points.

  1. I either tryhard and win 5 out of 8 matches and go nowhere… or I just goof around with friends.

  2. I buy a new copy of the game and start over.

If I did decide to start over… what contributes to MMR? Everything? So I should always be competitive never goofing off?

I meed a higher rank. I’m not 750SR… I understand you should just accept it… but I genuinely feel conflicted.

This seems like a job for Kaawumba.

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I couldn’t tell much from his YT, but I’m definitely willing to listening

Placements are based on your old MMR/SR so you’re in a similar player pool as you were and you can’t raise multiple tiers by winning them all. No one knows what contributes to hidden MMR but you can assume it is performing well, getting elims, damage, healing effectively with little down time, not dying much, and of course winning. If you are taking it seriously and have an easy time winning now you should be able to pick hard carries and climb over time.

In Short: The longer you have played wrong/bad, the longer it takes to get a reasonable MMR rating again.
I am sure that MMR is not a single value, but a collection of many performance values compared to similiar players/matches over a period of time.

If you have played really badly, you have to play really well to get back to your original rating in the same time.
Or you play like a pro and you probably only need 5-10 games.

Besides, the matchmaking’s pretty broken right now. I’d like to know if Blizzard is still happy about it at the moment.

Placements depend most on previous rank, followed by win loss, followed by performance. Basically, they are normal games, with your SR hidden.

If you keep winning, you’ll rank up. If don’t play much, you won’t. I generally estimate that it takes about 150 games to find your true rank if your ability has changed or you are on a new account.

New accounts start around 2350. So you will get an instant boost. But if you are still an 800 player, and don’t get better rapidly (or change how you play), you’ll just fall down again.

Competitive MMR is separate from the other modes. There is nothing wrong with only try-harding when playing competitive.

There is no elo hell. The lower the rank, the easier the games, on average. However, also, the lower the rank, the more inconsistent the games. This means that it can take longer for a silver player to get out of bronze that it takes a masters player to get out of diamond. In both cases, though, the solution is to get better and play more.

Winning 5 out of 8 games is standard climbing speed. Do that for longer, and you’ll be a higher rank. I would suggest having a different account for goofing around with friends.

See How Competitive Matchmaking and Rating Works (Season 19) for more details.

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Then play more games, if you deserve it you will climb.

Unless you do this, if you try hard and win 5 out of 8 you will climb in no time unless you always goof with friends. I understand that you prolly want to goof with friends, its fun, but if you want to climb you cant do that. Or buy a 2nd account and play only seriously with 1 account and play with friends with the other account.

Kaawumba probably answered your questions the best out of anyone, but I want to add this: you need to accept that you are currently a low bronze player. That doesn’t mean you’ll be there forever, and you can definitely get better. I know people who used to be <500 bronze who are now pushing 3500.

It is going to take a lot of time and effort on your part, though. You need to grind, you need to run aim drills, you need to do vod reviews, etc. You need to train. This game is a skill like any other, and it takes practice to get good.