The flawed opinion on handicapping

[Vurg-1970]

@nvme-11426

there’s literally no reason to have more than one type of rating in a competitive game, especially not the one you cannot see.

Here’s 4 reasons to have MMR separate and secret…

• SR Decay
• New Player adjustments
• Placements
• Leaver Penalties

All in the guide:
SR DECAY

@Kaawumba-1133

To prevent rank camping, at the beginning of each season, any player with an SR above 3900 will have his SR reset down to 390031. As games are played, the player will have a substantial SR buff (gain more SR from wins than he loses from loses) until he is back where he was. However, this SR buff is smaller than was the case historically with decay31. While decayed, a player’s MMR (and hence matchmaking) does not change, except through ordinary play. The decay due to inactivity is gone from the game.

NEW PLAYERS

@Kaawumba-1133

If a player has never played competitive, his initial competitive SR is around 23502,20 (and initial MMR is 0). For new players, MMR and SR have high uncertainty2. Because initial placements depend on only 5 games, initial placements have substantial random causes and are frequently inaccurate. When a player has data in one role, but not another, the data from the first role is used to inform the second (and third), and give it an initial value2. These other roles start with high uncertainty, though, to help them move more quickly to where they belong.

PLACEMENTS
HOLY CRAP EVEN SR CHANGES ARE HIDDEN!!! IT’S A CONSPIRACY MAN!!!

LEAVER PENALTY

@Kaawumba-1133

Recovery from disconnecting is identical to recovery from decay, before decay was removed from the game 19. That is, after a single disconnect a player will have an SR buff for about 12 games until his SR has caught back up to what it would have been if he’d never disconnected. Because leaver recovery is identical to decay recovery, it is likely that MMR is unaffected by leaving, just as it was unaffected by decay.

Here’s the guide summary:

@Kaawumba-1133

Let’s summarize the differences between MMR and SR:

MMR:

1. Not human readable
2. Blizzard’s best estimate of your skill
3. Only affected by what happens in a match
4. Used in matchmaking

SR:

1. Human readable
2. Chases rescaled MMR (SR gains more on a win / loses less on a defeat for MMR > SR)
3. Affected by what happens in a match and DCs
4. Capped at 3900 at season start
5. Not used in matchmaking