In general, tampering with any competitive scene is unethical.
A system designed to match players based on chance % of winning, rather than by actual skill, is questionable to say the least.
Nefarious? By all means, what transparent aspect of the matchmaker isn’t nefarious?
Handicapping is the accurate terminology for what the match maker does though.
Instead of making teams from 12 players of roughly the same skill. It mashes up teams of players with roughly the same skill, plus has a +3 on each team, canceling out the win that one of them should rightly have in order to move out of that tier… and also seeds -3s to even things out… keeping dumpster tier players “floating” instead of falling as they should… because some guy in marketing realized you could get a higher player retention rate if you keep boosting players with the matchmaker.
The end result is an uncompetitive system that irritates most everyone who plays it more than 5 games per season.
This is clearly flawed logic. If you give an unearned win to 6 players, you give an unearned loss to 6 others. Having a system that wasn’t trying as hard as it could to create fair matches would not create a benefit for anyone. Every person you made happy would be countered by someone you made angry.
“Zero-sum games are a specific example of constant sum games where the sum of each outcome is always zero. Such games are distributive, not integrative; the pie cannot be enlarged by good negotiation.” - Wikipedia
Season 15 - ended at 889 SR Open Queue
Season 16 - climbed to end at 1340
Season 17 - Worked my butt off and got to 2113 peak.
The system works. I got better, my SR rose. I played less, my SR stopped rising.
In the last couple seasons I’ve been working on getting my Tank and Support SR up into Gold as well. On Open Queue I was focusing on Mei, I one-tricked to climb to gold, and even though it’s dipped slightly into silver, it’s still above 1900 consistently even though I don’t usually want to wait for the longer queues for DPS.
The system is not rigged. The system is not perfect. The system is just putting forth a best effort attempt at creating fair matches for everyone as fast as it can.
I think groups are making the job of the matchmaker harder, and invite abuse by individuals, so I advocate for changing Role Queue to also be Solo Queue only: Competitive Suggestion - Solo Queue
The logic is you play, you place, and you stay there.
The more you play, the more the system keeps you there.
If you don’t like it, buy a new account.
You don’t understand the point of it.
They dump new accounts in the middle. A very large chunk of those new players do not belong there. The matchmaker actively slows down their decent or rise to where they belong via handicapping matches.
The reason for that is not to hold back overperforming players… that is just a by-product. The intent is to improve the gaming experience of underperforming players so that they don’t quit the game early on due to massive losing streaks.
If you ever toyed with the matchmaker, which is easy to test if you have multiple accounts. You can see it happening.
It doesn’t stop people from climbing or falling in the long run… but it makes the process much longer and creates some real @$%^y games along the way.
Hey, be super careful on these forums. Mods will ban anyone that accidentally sneezes a grunt that sounds like profanity.
Except they’ve said the opposite. The reason they use MMR is to move it FASTER than they can move SR, especially on new accounts where there is high uncertainty.
It’s all in the guide. How Competitive Matchmaking and Ranking Works (Season 28+)
Give it a read.
Yes, new accounts with no history start in the middle, around 2350 SR, and SR is not used for matchmaking. They start at 0 MMR, with a high uncertainty, because there is no data for their skill. Please, just read the guide.
he isn’t wrong to be honest. 
blizzard wanted everyone and their momma to play overwatch no matter their skill or gaming level is/was. I also think grouping should be restricted on all new accounts till AFTER placements but blizz wont even do that… lmao