As title. Competitive SR calculations are clearly still very much bugged this season. My most recent comp SR was placed on Monday, or early Tuesday morning (past midnight EST) on Jun 17 or 18 (before the end of last season, season 10). I did not do anymore comp matches after placements, 5 of which were done in a widegroup, other 5 solo queued. Despite winning 7 out of 10 matchs, many against Plat groups and tanks, my placed rank did not change at all from previous Season 5’s old rank of Silver 2.
Tonight after I’ve just played my first competitive match of Season 11, grouped with someone who’s also yet to complete their placements (last rank from season 7 at Gold 4). It was counted as wide group and the Team Matchmaking was listed as S2~Plat 1 or 4 (don’t remember exactly what Plat rank).
We lost it despite a close game and it told me I lost 28% right after the match and placed me in Silver 2. Besides losing an abnormal amount of rank progression in a wide match of Silver against Plat, how exactly did I place after just a single match of the season?? Meanwhile, the friend I grouped with reported seeing no progression for their placements, like normal.
I have a bit of a unique background to my account and will list it here in case it has any bearing on these bugs. And use the opportunity to hopefully be heard about my long term, ongoing gameplay experience issue.
I have a very old SR from Season 2 of Overwatch 8 years ago, back before there was even Role queue, that’s been carried over for many years. I have not played competitive except once or twice years later, due to not having the energy or time to deal with the various comp issues of toxicity, cheating, throwing, smurfing and botting.
Over the years, my skill has grown considerably higher than my ages old SR, but I’ve come to realize that the matchmaking for ALL of my games outside of comp uses my 8 year old SR as basis. I am forever locked to a certain matchup of teammates and opponents that are much lower than my actual level. Win or lose, it’s a boring game. I don’t get challenged except in terms of how hard I can carry worse teammates or backfill losing games two thirds done, which is what often I get saddled with when the game detects I’m winning too many games in a row. Again, win or lose, I don’t have fun.
I’ve noticed this trend somewhat alleviated in recent months due to the engagement matchmaking in non-comp modes, but on the whole, things have not changed fundamentally. (I will see Diamond teammates and opponents from time to time solo queuing, and then turn around and be put into a Bronze match. I can and have won both of those kinds of matches, but I enjoy the Bronze win considerably less. Call me crazy, but I don’t enjoy stomping 1v5 and dying to the last 2 people left alive because I ran out of cooldowns and self heal, while the other 4 of my teammates stand back doing godknowswhat. Sure, I still win once they break out of their daze and realize I’ve only left them with 2 nearly dead opponents, but it’s not the kind of win I enjoy.)
I realized a while back that I needed to be forced to play competitive and change my SR or the game will never fully give me the games I want, unless I queued full time with Masters or higher friends, but in qp modes, that still has its limitations because the game will still match part of the teammates and opponents based on my lower SR most of the time.
Some people will say at this point it’s easier to just start a new account. I know multiple friends with similar issues who’ve done so, even back in Ow1, and easily got placed several ranks higher, from the Silver or Bronze in their old accounts they couldn’t get out of, into Plat. I didn’t want to lose my account’s cosmetics and long friends list, so I stuck with it.
I have tried a few times over the years to do comp again, but internet/computer problems, health issues, etc. and a general lack of energy and time meant I just didn’t have the extra sanity required to play for more than a handful of comp games at a time. Worst yet, because my SR is from pre-role queue, it was carried over as an estimated rank that dropped me lower and applied it to all 3 ranks as well as my open queue, even though I technically never had a rank played in the prior. This means I have 3 historic SRs to grind out of.
I decided to start with tank role queue in the end, and I’ve managed to go from high bronze to high silver after around 15 games (back in Ow1), gaining mote than 100 points per win (went up 1k SR after 10 wins), but was stalled hard at the gold border. The game seems determined to lock me below it, giving far less per win than deduction per loss. Factor in the sheer amounts of smurf accounts and new players starting comp at that level, and it’s almost as bad a place to play in as bronze. I’ve only briefly managed to breach the border once, after a particularly long season duoing with the help of a friend. But was immediately dropped down by a loss right after. Since then I’ve not had the chance to really play, have been hard locked below the border. I didn’t have time to do much more than 10 matches per season and only rarely did comp at that.
Last season I finally had some energy to attempt again, with some friends and the results are as stated, equally disappointing. 7 out of 10 placements won, despite being matched much higher than my historic game rated SR. But still no upwards movement. But perhaps worse yet is this season, where the bugs are more obvious than ever and I can actually see how they being calculated. Devs, do you realize how devastating and costly your bugs are, especially when they extend even to competitive rank calculations? Can you consider giving rank resets to people like me who’re unfairly affected by these issues?