SR Doesn't Mean What you Think it Means

SR is supposed to be a measure of your skill, right?
Wrong as the day is long. It’s an average measure of the skill of everyone you’ve teamed with.

People who blame their teams are looked upon as crybabies with a bad case of denial. If your SR is so much in your control, then explain this.

I have two accounts on PSN. One where I group with friends, and the other where I solo queue only. It’s partially for studying the matchmaker, and partially to practice comp when I can’t team.

Here are how placements went for season 9:
Group queue placed: 2315 (5-4-1)
Solo queue placed: 1888 (2-8)
A 427 SR difference!

Since on my main I’ve been mid-gold to low plat with various different teammates for 9 seasons, I feel confident that’s where I really belong. However, if you look at my alt, it stays high silver to low gold.

Clearly, my SR is at the mercy of whoever I’m teamed with. My only deficiency in skill is that I’m not good enough to carry 3-5 other people when the matchmaker puts me with those who are playing well below their SR.

Basically, if you solo queue, then your SR is almost a full tier below where you really should be.

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The sample sizes are too low.

You can’t flip a coin 20 times and accurately state the number of times it should land on heads based on data.

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  1. Just placements? That doesn’t mean much.

  2. Looks like your group is carrying up your accounts SR for you.

You are kind of right. After 50 games you’ve had 250 teammates, each impacting one game. Also in those 50 games, you’ve counted 50 times. So literally 50x the impact of any other random player, and that number just keeps growing the more you play.

Also, the impact of all those random teammates averages out over time. But every game, your impact is still there, a constant factor. This isn’t hard math.

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That mostly shows that your group is much better than you, thus you get carried when you play with your group. Thus when you play solo, clearly you’re tad below that.

While I do believe that the current system is heavily luck based, seeing how there’s no system support for the required roles in creating a successful team comp; it’s a bit of a wild west when it comes to match making.

That being said, if you play enough games, your SR should increase if you are indeed better than your teammates and opponents. Especially at the lower elo, where you are at. Question on luck is just how many games would it take, in the case of unlucky players, they could take a lot more games.

If you literally can’t climb to save your mother’s life, perhaps it’s not the game or your team but you. You are the problem. Have you taken a second to look at what you can do to improve your game?

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Or, your group is carrying you. That’s one reason why some people prefer solo-Q, because that’s how you can avoid an awkward SR drop once you don’t play with your group anymore.

Can’t link a Kotaku article here, because posting links isn’t allowed. However, look for “Blizzard Explains How Overwatch’s Skill Rating Works” on Kotaku.

Don’t blame your team, if you want to improve and climb. Solo-Q is your “true” rank. Obviously, your SR will be much higher if you join a much better team – let’s say you play alongside 5 OWL players in your regular competitive.

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Sure you can…it’s statistics. If you flip a coin 20 times it SHOULD come up heads 10 times. That might not be what actually happens, but 50% for a coin flip is “expected”

If I flipped a coin only 20 times and it came up heads exactly 10 I’d freak out at the luck.

That’s not normal on that small of a sample size.

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It’ll do that more often than you think. Don’t be freaked out.

Flip a lot of coins in your spare time, do ya?

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Eh, in between OW matches.

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+/-500SR is common.

https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20758807010

for more information about MMR/MM see:

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/how-competitive-skill-rating-works-season-9/14009
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apparently it is, because that isn’t how it works at all. impact doesn’t stack game to game, so your whole 50x more is completely wrong. yes, you are in each of your games, and the guy you played that game with a month ago that one time in band camp is not. that doesn’t mean there isn’t still 5 other random people on your team every time. you can have an above average impact and just as easily have it cancelled out by a below average impact by this random just as much as the last random. it can also be cancelled out by factors beyond your control. lastly, your teammates don’t average out over time. there is nothing saying oh you got bad teammates before, so here are some good ones.

or there is actual teamwork in stacks, the kind you’re lucky to find in solo que.

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This is more than one season’s placements. I’ve played 8 seasons on my main and 3 on my alt. There’s always been some separation, but this season you can really see the differences between team and solo queues. Also, I’ve rarely been able to play in a full six-stack. I got my career high season 7 teamed with only 1-2 others at a time. So, they wouldn’t just have been carrying me, but 3-4 other people. That would make them almost master level, but they were just in plat. Your carry argument doesn’t hold.

Thank Jetpack Cat! Someone actually understands. For all the knee-jerk responders, I sure was “carried”.

“Carried” by people who were my same SR, same skill level, and were not:
Smurfs
Throwers
Griefers
One-tricks who refuse to switch
Leavers
Toxic
Playing on boosted accounts
Refusing to use a mic or even be in team chat

Amazing how much a competent team improves performance. I love to be “carried” by people who are nice and willing to use actual teamwork.

Just because it’s “common” doesn’t mean the system is working correctly. Really, would you accept ~20% drop in your wage or grades just because it’s happening to other people?

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I’m not real sure why people are saying this is wrong, but um, that is exactly how it works. There is a key point your missing though.

Everyone that solo Qs is also having their SR affected by the people they get Q’ed with. Since everyone is exeriencing the same environment, the fact that SR is affected like that is nulled.

If one solo Q player climbs to plat, and another only climbs to silver it means that the plat player dealt with the same situation but obtained better results. So, they are that much SR better than the silver playet.

It just doesn’t compare directly between stacking and solo Q’ing. You basically have two SR ranks that are both equally true. One is you solo rank and one is you stacked rank.

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No need to be rude. There are lots of ways to get that point across without coming so condescending.

edit Not trying to imply you were being rude on purpose, just saying try to be mindful of the way you word things

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There’s already plenty of posts here that try to give the OP the message indirectly, yet he is completely oblivious to this. He needs to know.

Then walk away and leave it be. Offending the OP even more isn’t probably going to help either lol

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What do I have to lose offending him? Why don’t you walk away and leave it?

There has been a pretty big push to lower toxicity in overwatch. Coming off rude, and clearly not caring, isn’t going to accomplish that whether it seemed justified or not. There are plenty of ways to suggest he just isn’t skilled enough yet to rank up, without being rude. That’s why I edited my first response to you, because realized it kind of implied you were be being rude on purpose and I had no reason to assume that.

Now, I am going to walk away. I can’t make my point anymore clear to you. I said what I wanted say to the OP. So, have a nice day and feel free to call me out if you see me doing something that I should be aware off.

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How can SR in anyway accurately reflect a persons skill if it does not factor in the leavers, trolls and griefers that are rampant - particularly in the lower ranks? I play a game with a leaver and I lose SR. Because of the leaver. Not because I didn’t try my damn hardest. What’s more, the team on the other side are awarded SR…for an unbalanced game that was in their favour.

What’s sad is that my stats on my hero pool have improved drastically since I started playing comp in S8, yet my SR has plummeted because I have been so freaking unlucky.

SR is fundamentally flawed because of the amount of trolls in competitive. They undermine it entirely.

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