Logically, since there are SO many people on these forums defending the SR and MMR system - how can you both support smurf accounts, throwers, or the reporting / leaving system that’s in place while also claiming “You are where you belong and the SR and MMR system is working as intended” ?
So, the same people on here justifying smurfs are also claiming that the SR system is accurate. So, I’m curious. It can’t be both. If you smurf in lower ranks, you are inherently better than the players you’re playing with. So that means the system, is NOT working.
5 Likes
Its not matchmakers fault that players manipulate it. Its not a person it cant think. It looks at numbers and knows nothing about anyone. Almost every complaint i see is due to player manipulation. Leavers! Smurfs! Throwers! One tricks! Toxic bullies!
The real issue is game play experience. Its not a fun time to lose. If someone has a bad time in a game they are VERY likely to place blame often in the incorrect areas.
If it wasnt for widow we would have won and id be higher rank.
If it wasnt for the smurf widow on the other team we would have won and id be higher rank.
If it wasnt for the matchmaker id never even have “these people” on my team or in my bracket.
Regardless of player manipulation most players will be very close to the same sr on any account they play within a very short time. Provided they play the same characters (obviously if someone plays support on one account and only dps on another they will be different ranks). Thats how you can tell without manipulations it works just fine. Its actually pretty correct within a few hundred sr. It doesnt take that long to be in the correct rank if you end up severely outside of it for whatever reason.
So unless you are literally a player that is manipulating their sr in some way, your sr is correct.
6 Likes
the reason people support the system, despite having some faults, is golds play like golds and masters still play like masters.
There is a clear hierarchy of play from tier to tier and the only people who don’t seem to see it are lower SR players looking up.
Seriously, start watching more VOD reviews online done by someone who has a decent background and not just the humor based reviews.
VOD reviews straight up destroy even the idea of the “it’s the system holding me down at a lower SR!” as it’s just player and tactical/ULT/positional error after error.
1 Like
My 20 leavers on my team in 120 games says differently for a net loss of somewhere in the four hundred Sr range compared to the 1 leaver on the other team. In games that we were dominating or easily could win.
Still have a sixty percent winrate that’s not the point. I should be higher and I will get their eventually but leavers are temporarily keeping me down.
1 Like
SR is NOT your skill rating. Is it your competitive location on the ladder. When you win, you move up the ladder. When you lose, you move down the ladder. Smurfs are better than their SR and they move up the ladder. If you play better than your SR, you will also move up the ladder over time. The two ideas are absolutely compatible. Smurfs are equally unfair - they are unfair when they are on your team and unfair when they are on the opposing team. Don’t tilt and play well; you will climb.
1 Like
I don’t think people are understanding the question. Whether it’s player manipulation or not, if the SR ladder is inherently inaccurate for ANY reason that isn’t PURE PLAYER SKILL or WIN/LOSE RATIO, how can you in the same mindset say that it is accurate, and STILL defend smurfing?
I don’t think anyone is defending smurfing. Btw to clear misunderstandings, alt accounts are not necessarily smurfs. Smurfs are accounts ranked lower on purpose by throwing matches, which is a bannable offense. Players who do that should get banned.
However if you just play on an alt account and don’t throw any games, it is completely fine. You can’t forbid top 500 players to get alt accs just because the matchmaker is unable to rank that alt acc straight into top 500. This is the matchmakers fault and not smurfing because smurfing is by definition done deliberately.
As for whether the system is fair and accurate, it certainly has its issues, but if you play enough, you reach the rank you belong.
I have to admit, I smurfed last year and ranked one acc down to high bronze. I would’ve deserved a ban for that and I won’t do it again. However this account is now at low Diamond, higher than my main account. I managed to get two accs to Diamond so far and probably won’t have many problems ranking my other two accs into Diamond either.
Many people have proven it is possible to rank up, you just need the right mindset. For example I recently got tilted and as a result lost 5 games in a row. This was entirely my fault looking back at it, because I didn’t realize I was tilted and playing worse than usual.
If you have a much larger number of leavers on your team as opposed to the opposing team (five randoms on your team and six randoms on the opposing team assuming that your solo queue), the common denominator is YOU. You are more than likely creating a toxic environment that causes teammates to leave. Evaluate your attitude and encourage your teammates.
You forget that lots of Smurfs are for people to play other roles than they usually play and on which they don’t have the same skill that they do on their main role. You can have a grand master tracer with a Smurf Support account in silver because that’s where their silver skill is. Thy will climb faster because they have better gamesense and positioning than all the other silvers, but they made a Smurf because ethey know that their support play is nowhere near Grand Master
It IS accurate, because it is your place on the competitive ladder. The number changes according to YOUR wins and losses and your performance in those wins/losses (if you are competing belong diamond rank).
Are you where the number puts you? Yes.
Does your opposition come from the same place on the ladder? Yes.
Does the number go up when you win? Yes.
Does the number go down when you lose? Yes.
If you win more than you lose, will you climb? Yes.
If you lose more than you win, will you fall? Yes.
The system IS working, you are NOT happy with the assessment of your performance. Sorry, bud.
1 Like
I don’t talk nice try blaming me and when I do talk I am positive and give help. It is one hundred percent the leaver penalty system.
Then you will have the same or more leavers on the opposing team.
20 to 1 says you are wrong.
Care to offer a reason why? I’d happily take even odds.
There are only five randos on your team. There are six randos on the opposing team.
If you have a 100% completion rate for games and the other 11 competitors are at random (they are), then, mathematically, the opposing team is more likely to have leavers than your team (17% more likely). If that is not the case, then, over the case of a large number of games, the causal factor is YOU. You are doing something to cause teammates to leave at a higher than normal rate. Sorry, bud.
Chances are, you remember when you have leavers on your side much more than leavers on the opposing side. It’s called “loss aversion” in human psychology. Google it.
Good luck with your Season 10,
~Tank
2 Likes
Good luck in yours as well. I fill. Am not toxic. Never throw. Play all roles tank, healer, dps
20 to 1 being my teams leavers to theirs hence the odds. I am doing nothing wrong and the fact you try to blame others and defend the poor compettive system is just sad.
I am going to keep climbing hence my sixty percent win rate.
Post from a real account or you are fibbing ![:wink:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/wink.png?v=5" ":wink:")
1 Like
because smurfs don’t have direct impact on every single game a player will play during a season and even less impact on the plays made with in a given round.
A random smurf on say Roadhog isn’t the reason a team of gold’s doesn’t know to focus fire down a support player. A player’s wonky aim on bad guys 1 to 5 isn’t impacted by player 6 being a GM on a smurf account. Silvers pushing into the spawn at the start of an escort map (and getting wiped out) isn’t the fault of one of their team being on a smurf account so he can play with his little brother.
Team’s get smurfs who help a win games, they also get some that cost players games. It not every game and it kind of evens out in the wash.
Where as one’s own game play is the only real constant.
2 Likes
I dont think smurfs are the real problem in low elo cause it sort of is a wash in the end. I will say the skill variance in high silver right now is so comically bad that either
A: there are people that belong higher and are intentionally staying down there
or
B:) SR truly is broken and or it’s time for an sr reset.
My team just got wrecked by a tracer that literally solo carriend their team. Yesterday I had a torb that could not kill a genji that was shattered and laying on his back… that is how bad the mechanical skill varies down here and it’s REALLY starting to become a problem.
The reason for that is because new players get ranked too high. Like they basically barely need to do anything to land in Gold. New accs get matched against eachother during placements, so new players are facing eachother. They only need to go 5-5 to get placed in Gold although most of the players in these games belong into bronze.
Last year, I tried twice to rank an acc down to bronze on purpose. Of course that was wrong and I won’t do it again. However, during placements, it was harder to lose games than to win them, it was that bad. The games were usually filled with 11 low level players and none of them knew how to play the game. Sometimes there were single alt accs, but none of them was a high ranked player, so they were unable to make much of a difference.
I could win games by going attack torb on Hanamura, ulting at the choke, running through their whole team without doing anything and then building my turret on the point. I did that just4fun because I thought this was 100% going to fail. I guess I overestimated new players.
I went 3-6-1 on my first acc and placed 1850 despite playing terrible. Funny enough, the players around 1850 were miles better than the players I met during placements. On the other acc a few months later, I went 5-5 and ended 2.2k.
Afterwards on the 2.2k acc, most games were full of other low level players again. As if Blizzard puts them up against eachother after placements again. And this prolongs the process of them falling down to their real rank. This will probably only cause problems in Silver, Gold and at max low to mid Plat, so these problems don’t affect me anymore. However these problems might affect others.
Apart from this problem, I feel like the matchmaker does a pretty decent job. Despite these problems, it’s possible to climb out of any rank as long as you’re good enough.
1 Like
The SR System can’t be that bad. It’s probably 3-6% inaccurate and that’s probably a lax estimate. The real atrocity is that they don’t disclose how it works. Imaging showing up to an NFL game and asking how to get to the Super bowl, and the owners just kinda shrug.