I look forward to your data. What time do you generally play? You’re in a pretty common rank as well, this really isn’t expected but I have no reason to doubt you. Do you play at really uncommon hours?
Performance Based Skill Rating (PBSR) was applied to all ranks prior to Season 8 but only below 3000 SR afterwards. According to the developers the system looks at how well you perform in terms of undisclosed statistics compared to others of your same rank playing the same hero. The stats compared are similar but not equal to the same stats that cause you to be on fire. However, being on fire is compared to your current team, not across the entire playerbase. There is a SMALL, but non-specific amount of SR gained for extraordinary performance.
Prior to Season 8 there was much consternation among the Overwatch media that it causes people to play selfishly and also overranks uncommon one-trick players (Sombra, Torb, Symmetra as contemporaneous examples) who don’t lose the SR they should since they are so much better than their hero peers. They were often able to maintain SR with a <50% win rate.
It’s a legitimate controversy and there are valid opinions on both sides. Essentially, PBSR allows faster movement that matches the steeper learning curve of the lower ranks but the concerns that affect >3kSR still affect lower ranks as well.
For more info, go to How Competitive Skill Rating Works (Season 12) and click the " Performance Modifier" section in post 1.
You should note that I really have no opinion on the subject. I just don’t have the data I feel I would need to make the determination.
Correct me if I’m misunderstanding, please, but it sounds like you are frustrated with how selfishly people play and that you think that if you were with a team that was less selfish you could rank up more?
I mean…I’m not sure what you expect the matchmaker to accomplish here. It’s only goal is to find 12 people of approximately equal skill. Yes, teamwork is one skill, but unless you build a team that is able to consistently play together and be coached (also bypassing half the matchmaker), teamwork isn’t going to outshine the mechanical skills and game sense skills that those of ranks above us have. There is PBSR, but that’s not against your teammates and you still need to win to gain rank. Winning doesn’t care if you are mechanically skilled or a great teammate so it’s the best indicator available. Though I agree with you that it would be nice if people worked together better, that’s a problem with humanity, not Overwatch.
The system can’t really find the ideal group, which is 12 people of the same MMR/SR. Given that practical impossibility, it’s always the case that one team is favored to win. Favored, not guaranteed. As long as it’s still fairly close, having the expected winner win still provides information to the system, so that’s fine.
There are some who say that they would rather know going in how much they are going to lose or win upon either outcome (I doubt people would really want this, myself, despite what they say…this is the debate over “hidden MMR”.)
The fact remains that if you win 4 games you should have won then lose 4 games you should have won, you will end up lower than you started. That’s how it has to work. Otherwise the ranking would be essentially random. I explain it a bit better in the link above, in the 3rd post (How Competitive Skill Rating Works (Season 12) - #3 by OzoneOOO-1681)
I don’t mean to say I don’t understand your position on the matter, but as much as I would like your ideal to be true…reality has a way of asserting itself. Also, this could be affected by PBSR which I’ve already covered.
If you remove the double negatives in here, you’re saying “Give them normal SR movement because they’re average on the team.” Which, I think you would tend to agree with when stated like that, or even the corollary, give bad movement to those who are worst on the team.
Yeah, I’d love for this thread to be about if PBSR should be removed for all ranks. There are threads about that, but they’re not as popular, unfortunately.
It’s hard to discuss the actual problems with the system when fake problems remove the air from the room. It sounds like you have concerns with creating good groups, the efficacy of PBSR, how fast people move through the ladder, and hidden MMR. These are not conspiracy theory concerns and none of this is what people talk about when they say “forced losses”.
If you have questions please ask, especially after you read the link I posted. It’s quite helpful.