Why are you surprised matchmaking is "bad"?

General Discussion
1

Its a rhetorical question really since i know people just dont understand what its actually doing…

but honestly is it really that confusing? lets just look at what its trying to do:

its trying to define you (the player) with a number…a number that is somehow supposed to represent:

  • your aim/skill
  • how well you communicate/listen
  • your game sense
  • success rate (win/lose)
  • determine how good/bad a day youre having
  • that youre not going to be throwing
  • you will be playing things youre good at
  • and ignores the fact that you havent played in a few days/weeks and youre not say getting the rust out in your first game back

so lets just say you believe that to be possible…

this number is also supposed to somehow accurately equate heroes to each other (3500 soldier is somehow “equal” to a 3500 genji for ex)…nay…entire roles…3500 tank is somehow the same as 3500 dps

note - those are SR numbers which are not the same as MMR…but do factor into it

then it takes that entirely accurate number and combines it with 5 other people…finds a “matching” 6 enemy numbers and throw you into a game with each other…cause thats considered “fair”

it ALSO has to do this while somehow working in groups (which come with their own set of advantages that a MMR cannot really account for)…not that “big” a deal when in comp since it has further restrictions on who can group (that is of course if you accept that it can actually do all the prior things i mentioned accurately)…but a laughable exercise in any other game mode (good luck finding a good match for that masters/silver duo)…

and then on top of all that it has to do its chief job which is actually make matches in a reasonable amount of time…which for most people seems to mean manifesting 12 people of “equal” strength in less than 5 minutes even when there just arent 12 people of “equal” strength available because theyre in a low pop rank, region, currently in games and not grouped with others that dont allow them to be considered, or simply grouped (and we dont want the game to put us against groups cause thats “unfair”)…

So…how the heck does it fail to make good matches right??? do BETTER blizz…this should be easy to do…

/s :man_facepalming:

in all honesty, im HAPPY we get anything that resembles a decent match as often as we do…cause what its ACTUALLY trying to do seems rather impossible when you really think about it

8 Likes
2

What if we get rid of the skill-based matchmaking and just have… Matchmaking?

This way if people want to keep winning without relying on luck they should team up.

I think for a lot of people the pushing for a 50% win rate thing is what annoys them.

For others there is a feeling, a nagging suspicion that their games are being rigged.

Being completely transparent with what the matchmaker does might help with this. Maybe even publish the algorithm.

As you said, it’s trying to do something that simply is not possible. So maybe it just shouldn’t try.

Shooters I have played in the past have utilised a very simple matchmaking system. I believe team fortress two did not have skill-based matchmaking before.

Incentivising grouping would do wonders for matchmaking quality. There needs to be a shifting expectation of the playerbase for this to work that they should set up their own team for better match quality rather than have an algorithm do it for them.

3 Likes
3

I can’t help but feel you are attirbuting more to the MMR system than it actually does…

It doesn’t take all those things into account, surely? I’ve seen people with insane aim but they have no idea what they are doing. I’ve seen people with great gamesense that can’t shoot a building door, all in gold. Stats don’t make the player. I could get 50 kills in a bronze game, but that’s because the enemy team are stood still in the open trying to aim. It’s not because I belong in diamond.

All the MMR does is track your win/loss rate and whether it’s going up or down in a general direction, and follows this to attempt to identify where you should be over time. You are then matched with 11 other people who have the same MMR number… I don’t see how that could be fairer…

Groups obviously are more difficult but even then it takes the MMR of the teams and balances them out by adding other players who fit in.

Communication, throwing, playing your main, your general mood or getting over ‘rust’ is completely irrelevant and only in control of the player. If you win more, your MMR goes up, that’s it as far as i’m aware.

4

From what I know, the match maker groups weak players with strong players which in itself is a handicap.

It should be just strong players vs weaker players so weaker players can drop and stronger players can actually play at their level to improve.

This is why every game is either you steam roll or get rolled yourself.

5

oh it does way more…i didnt go into specifics…it doesnt take 2 years (how long jeff said it took to make the matchmaker) to come up with a way to track wins and losses

and thats my whole point about the “number” thing…you (the player) are defined by a LOT of things…the MM has to try to quantify that somehow even though its a fools task to actually do so…and yet it has to try…ultimately you end up getting defined in some fashion (the best the devs could come up with)…it is almost certainly not going to be a very accurate representation…and yet it then takes that not so accurate number…matches it with 11 others…and people expect that to somehow be fair and accurate…

and of course its not going to be that…

its a miracle we get anything close to fair

6

it can asses your skill.
all factors outside your control are randomized, i.e over the longterm statistically you are just as likely to win as many games as you are to lose due to outside factors, so the result is net zero, the remainder then are games where your skill was the determining factor in the outcome.

7

This is literally the worst idea. Now you are rigging a team that has almost no chance of winning. For what? What’s the point of creating a team that’s destined to lose

8

1

Y E A R

L A T E R

2 Likes
9

Personally, what really feels like “rigged” is when you lose a lot more SR than what you gain when you win.
So at a 50% win rate and you played 10 matches, you would be actually at a lower SR than what you originally started with.

10

It’s always funny when you see a notification that someone replied….and then seeing what thread was actually replied to….”that one? It’s like a year old”

Then again it is a topic that will never go away :sweat_smile: