(I worked hard on this, so anyone who takes the time to read it, comment on it, please know that I very, very much appreciate it)
Dear Blizz,
Matching So Far
First of all, I wanted to say that matching in the lower ranks is 100x better this season already, compared to last season. Night and day difference, it’s unreal how incredibly different it is. Last season, teams of smurfs were being stacked onto the same team in at least half of my matches, which meant the other team consisted of 5 legit lower ranked players who would just get stomped into oblivion.
The Nightmare of Season 4
Season 4 had to be the worst matching in the history gaming.
Here is what it was like for me, your everyday, average Silver player, compared to the other seasons of Comp.
Season 36 (OW1) Comp - Comp 63 wins 57 losses
After a full year of QP & practice, I finally climbed out of Bronze and into Silver, despite the insane amount of smurfs & misery.
Season 1 Comp - 119 wins 94 losses
Almost climbed to Gold but didn’t make it. Worked my butt off trying to get better.
Season 2 Comp - 42 wins 31 losses
Climbed to Gold for the first time just as the end of the season. I was thrilled. Played a ton of QP this season bc I had a rough start but hit Gold on last day of season.
Season 3 Comp - 31 wins 37 losses
Not a great record but hey, it happens. I can deal with a reasonably bad season. Got rank decayed down to Silver and finally climbed back up to Gold at the end of the season, so I can’t complain. Last season of rank decay, right??? Right??? Wrong.
Season 4 Comp - 37 wins 66 losses 
Rank decayed back down to Silver. They just flat out lied. And then experienced the worst matching in the history of mankind.
This is when matching just turned into a nightmare, as my W/L record shows. The entire season was a total joke. Nonstop smurfs, stacked on the same team, CONSTANT STOMPS. Worst matching ever.
It goes without saying, I dropped down to Bronze in two roles and Silver 5 for DPS.
Season 5 - So, So, So Much Better, but still a broken system
Season 5 Comp - I’m 6-3 so far, but TRUST ME, it’s so clear that it’s already 100x better than last season. Back to at least somewhat normal matches. Still a ton of smurfs, but the fact that they aren’t all stacked on the same team helps a lot. Unfortunately, still a lot of win-trading going on as well. Overall, fewer smurfs, but that’s also possibly because there tend to be fewer earlier in the season.
Just in the first 9 matches I’ve played, my 3 losses were to:
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A pair of smurfs that were very open about the fact they were smurfing… I mean, it was obvious anyway, but they were both admitted Diamond smurfs.
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A smurf Ana that I also got to admit he was smurfing, and of course, as toxic as you can imagine. Used the n-word over and over. Yet dominated our team.
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A win-trader leaver. The person on my team was initially trying to lowkey throw, but my team was still winning, even with them trying to throw. Once it became evident we were going to win, he quit the match to ensure we would lose. He even came back at the very end to laugh at us because we lost after he quit. How did he know how to time it and come back at the end? Well, he’s win-trading, so the cheater on the other team told him when.
The point to all of this is that now that the matching is back to “normal”, it means comp is back to the way it was up until S4, so S3 and before. So even with the ENORMOUSLY improved matching from last season to this season in the lower ranks, there are still so many smurfs, win-traders, etc., that it’s really not “legitimate” to call Bronze or Silver “Comp” or “Ranked”. The majority of matches are compromised with cheaters/smurfs (same thing, because smurfing IS cheating).
Solutions to the Rampant Cheating Smurf Problem
In my opinion, Blizzard should do away with “Comp” altogether for Bronze and Silver. It’s just not legitimate.
However, I don’t see that ever being a realistic consideration. So instead of just complaining, I’m also proposing solutions.
Here are a few ideas, with the last one being in relation to the title of this post (MMR Reset). But a few others first:
Solution Idea 1)
Require a phone # for ALL accounts, no exceptions. But ALLOW multiple accounts to be tied to the same phone #. So, if people have multiple accounts, alt accounts, that’s totally fine. The difference is, they are all tied to a single phone #.
What this will allow for is for Blizzard to calibrate MMR much faster by using the MMR of the main account to immediately calibrate the alt accounts.
So, a fresh alt account for a person that has another GM account, will then already have an MMR of a GM or maybe one tier below, like a Master MMR… something closer to their actual legit MMR. No need to allow that alt account into a match with Silver players at all, ever.
Yes, they still need to “climb” in order to rank up using that alt account, BUT, they have to climb against people at their own skill level. Perfect solution. It won’t eliminate smurfing but it will reduce it tremendously and would be rather easy to implement.
Solution Idea 2)
Force all accounts that have less than 80 Total Hours of Time Played and/or fewer than 600 Total Matches Played to start off their first 5 matches for calibration against Plats/Diamonds/Masters.
As of right now, these “new” or “fresh” accounts start off those first 5 matches in Silver comp matches. That’s precisely why there are so many smurfs in Silver and therefore Silver comp is always compromised with a never-ending influx of uncalibrated accounts.
So what I’m saying is, let those uncalibrated accounts screw up Plat/Diamond/Master matches. Since those are the actual players doing the smurfing, let the smurfs screw over their own eloes and leave Silver and Bronze comp matches out of it.
The funny thing about this is that I PROMISE, the moment the change was made, people would go nuts. People in these higher ranks don’t give a flying ___ when it doesn’t ruin their season, but the moment you mix in 3 to 5 uncalibrated accounts into OVER HALF OF THEIR COMP MATCHES FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON, lololol trust me, all of a sudden they would care.
So perfect, let those eloes suffer and stop punishing Silver and Bronze for the problems that are actually STEMMING from their eloes. Move “calibration” matches OUT of Silver.
Solution Idea 3)
Do an MMR Reset for Bronze/Silver accounts that have played no less than 1000 Total Hours of Time Played and no less than 7500 Total Matches Played.
In other words, accounts that are clearly legit “main” accounts with a long play history, but that are stuck playing in eloes where smurfs compromise at least 50% of their matches every season.
Give those that have endured smurfs for YEARS a chance to start fresh with an MMR that is reset, instead of an MMR that has been tainted by literally years of illegitimate, compromised matches.
What would this hurt? It’s not an MMR reset for the entire playerbase, it’s just the lower ranked non-smurf accounts. If those players find they climb faster with the new reset without an old tainted MMR holding them back, great, they climb to where they should be. If they don’t climb and still remain in Bronze/Silver, great, they won’t climb and will remain in Bronze/Silver, no prob.
What harm would this do? Zero. But what benefits would it serve? It would give hundreds of thousands of players a chance to climb out of elo hell, IF they indeed, do belong in a higher elo.
Conclusion
The thing about smurfing is that it’s not JUST cheating, and it’s not JUST selfish, and it’s not JUST ruining the play experience for other people… It’s all of those things on TOP of ruining the MMR for other people over time. In other words, it’s not JUST bad for the people getting smurfed WHILE it’s happening. It also LINGERS for YEARS and YEARS. It taints your MMR forever.
But it won’t go away, there are way to many people without a conscious. So many people simply don’t care about anyone else but themselves, they aren’t capable of empathy, they don’t care about being fair, or ethical or moral, or even simply “good” people. Thank god it’s not everyone, but there are still SO many like this that smurfing won’t go away.
So, Blizzard, either you take action, or it’ll never get better.
And I’ve outline 3 idea’s above that would all work independently of each other. Choose one! Stick up for your earnest players in the bottom ranks. Stop siding with the bullies by doing nothing.
Thanks for reading and any consideration you will give this issue.