just lost my second game in a row which was a volatile loss. Got -32%. Now it is evident that it is the volatile modifier that is specifically the root of all matchmaker issues and what has been happening in all my games the past year
6 Likes
Yup I keep just bouncing up and down 2 divisions in rank because of these “volatile” matches that don’t make sense.
The divisions of an “even 100” SR are utterly meaningless. I’m not sure why Blizzard assigned meaning to them. You don’t need to be “tested” when you cross the threshold of an even 100. You should just get a fair match at that skill rating…
I notice the volatile matches so far have really wide skill distributions. Like six divisions or more, for example Gold 4 to Plat 2. And it seems like the test is to see if you can carry a bunch of players from the bottom of the range. Then the other matches are much tighter, like 1-2 divisions wide only.
I’m also wondering if they changed something with stacks, because as tank I keep getting matched with 4 stacks. These matches aren’t fun because it’s a 4 or 5 stack on the enemy team as well, and it just comes down to which stack is coordinated and trying versus which one is just casually playing with friends.
8 Likes
This dev team will literally try to fix everything but 5v5 if it means not owning up to the mistake of 5 v 5. It took 9 seasons for them to even attempt the rank fix that is once again another disappointment. How many more trial and errors will it take?
4 Likes
I also noticed this. It’s frustrating when the other team has more synergy than the team with 3 ppl not in chat…
1 Like
I had a teammate leave and I still got hit with a “volatile” loss… legit lost like 70% of my progression or something like that because of it too
6 Likes
Now that they’re showing us what happens under the hood it’s clear that the people complaining that this broken and rigged matchmaker made it impossible to climb had a lot of truth to their words.
When a loss can take away the gain from 2, 3, or more wins, and what’s more you don’t get an upside bonus for winning these “volatile” matches it’s clear that the system is unfair and is making it artificially difficult to climb.
You need what, like a 70% or higher win rate to consistently overcome occasionally losing one of these “volatile” matches and still climb? No wonder the skill disparity in ranks feels so high. People with a 50% win rate and ranked where they belong, are getting matched with those with 55%, 60%, 65% win rates that should be several divisions higher but can’t climb out due to this rigged matchmaking.
I’m glad they showed us what was going on under the hood because it validated all my suspicions and confirmed that competitive ladder isn’t worth wasting time on.
13 Likes
In the defense of volatile, yes it sucks and should never occur and yadda….
Here’s what’s happening, you lose below a division but it keeps the division icon, but you only -9. If you lose again, it’s “volatile” and -31, but if you add the other -9 it’s only -40 (-20) per loss which is what I get.
I do find post volatile matches hard the hardest matches.
What I’m upset about the most - uphills have me less gains than a regular win.
And 8 game win streak have me a +5 difference than a normal win, on the 8th win, and took 5 wins to start the win streak.
And overall if my 64 games, I got 6-8 modifiers when every game has an underdog. EVERY GAME.
1 Like
Then how did Sneb lose -70 for a volatile? And I saw -52 for a volatile loss.
Something does not add up.
I know when the previous match ended early due to everyone leaving the update will be delayed until your next completed game. But that’s not what happened in my case at least.
4 Likes
Yea that doesn’t make sense, only thing I can think of 1. Same thing happens on a “below rank”, and 2. You and other dude played less games, more uncertainty, bigger swings in sr, so everything is compounded. That’s my GUESS I have no clue and agree this thing is weak cause.
1 Like
The math aint mathin, if someone has a 55% and higher winrate they will climb no matter what.
Town idiot ignores everything posted in the thread as to why this is not the case, thinks self intelligent for being a contrarian.
Aside from the ridiculous spin on ML7’s stream, what Volatile really means is… once you rank up, your rank is Unstable and susceptible to large change. So, why are we being penalized for ranking up is the question…Obviously, when you climb you’re more likely to lose. Losing more near peak rank is NORMAL so why magnify the impact of just those losing games?
The Answer: It makes you take you longer to get to your rank, just like decay on active accts. Time played = more money for blizzard and less money for other games they compete with.
The solution:
As i’ve posted twice, Remove ALL modifiers. Win = 0.5% more than Loss so playing more matters ensuring reliabiliy and meta understanding.
Add a counter to volatile that gives you an equal boost if you win after ranking up, call it rising phoenix
2 Likes
Very good points in this thread. While I understamd that in ELO system you gain more more for the win with higher ranked player something feels of with players MMR itself. People are not where they supposed to be and the MM trust on this too much. At this point it is really possible that system +1 for the win -1 for the loss would work better than their current implementation.
For me something is off and I didn’t get that feeling in OW1. People claims that games in Silver and Diamond looks the same for example which should never be the case and never was from what I remember. Yet Blizzard still trust their system so much to the point they are blind to any critique.
Not all of us, MM doubters, are frustrated low elo players blaming their team only and never actively working on own improvement
2 Likes
5th alt account, queuing roles, never saw any ANY of those adjustment, calibrating, lost or win too many, nothing Sorry but this patch is ethereal.
No they don’t. Losing the rank up game drops me 31 to 39%
I have to win 2x to make that up and those games have to be games i wasn’t favored to win.
If you lose a game after losing a rank up match you’ll be in a down streak. That down Streak will continue to make you lose 31 to 39% each loss. On the flip side. Being in a win streak I was only getting 25-28%. Its not working correctly.
1 Like
I think you’ve misunderstood it.
Volatile is part of the demotion protection, in effect it works the other way around than what you’re describing:
Your are not penalized for ranking up. You are protected from ranking down for one match if you have just ranked up. If you then do lose another match, you will get the screen where you lose SR for the two matches combined with the “volatile” indicator.
Anyway, they’ve done bad job at describing it and the ui bugs occur with it, so it’s understandable people misunderstand it.
The main point for the demotion protection (when the volatile modifier occurs) is to prevent a “ping pong” effect of you gaining rank, losing rank, gaining rank if you win-lose-win-lose on a threshold of two ranks.
1 Like
You’re right, this volatile nonsense has been around since OW1. Play too well and you’re given potatoes to carry to “prove” you deserve your rank. Except it doesn’t work because one person can’t carry 4 others, not unless you’re way below the rank you’re supposed to be, and even then it’s not guaranteed.
You could try throwing a game if you’re winning too much. So win three in a row and throw the 4th. It would be better than triggering hard mode and losing 2-3 along with 5 games worth of rank.
2 Likes
Its simple basic math. All your response did was tell me your not good enough to climb
Nope, volatile is a new concept since this season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iphKc7uSr5Y&t=20369s
1 Like
It isn’t. It’s been around. It was very evident that the “new” ranked system was purely cosmetic. The purpose, to be more transparent. Transparency gave us proof that we needed to confirm why we hate the Ranked system.
This game can be fun, but this ranked system is dog poo