Why do some 4000+ players play ranked past midnight?

General Discussion
1

Something I’ve noticed is that pros with smaller streams tend to start their streams past midnight.

Do games in 4000+ improve in certain parts of the day?

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2

That’s when a lot of people have free time, especially around the weekends.

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3

Yep; the casuals all go to sleep, leaving only the more serious players.

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4

yes, only queue after 2 pm est or matchmaking will mess up

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5

better quality matches, I play in gm and I can tell you on the weekends I don’t play comp till 1 am at the earliest, the ques are trash before that

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6

Don’t know if it’s still true but, I believe the matchmaker used to expand the range from which players were matched when it could not find players.

As a result, by playing when less people were on to match with they’d get matched against lower rank players whom they could stomp.

With that said, some people may also do it to evade younger players whom they may not like to play with.

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7

Think that’s the right answer. Stream slaves love seeing their idols strut around untouched while they simper for the camera as the fool money pours in.

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8

This feels rather true sadly. It feels like when you have commitments you will not be staying up super late into the evening. However, when you lack them you sort of function whenever and sleep whenever and it leads to odd hours up.

9

I feel old. I start getting tired around 8pm.

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10

Haha. Well, I am by no means a professional streamer, but I always finish my homework at around 11:30 pm, and if it’s been a stressful day, I like to mess about in Overwatch :sweat_smile:

11

I wasn’t aware that people weren’t allowed to play past midnight.

12

It’s because when you play during low population hours, the matchmaker loosens up, letting you get into matches with people ranked much lower than you normally would get matched with and get easier games.

It works even better if you do premades like that. Cause then you are almost guaranteed to get into matches that are easy wins.

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13

Honestly I haven’t ever really noticed a difference in quality of games, but the player pool is significantly smaller later at night, and once you reach about 4200+ everyone kinda knows each other, so it’s easier to control/predict who you’re getting in your matches.

Also, a lot of high ranked players also play for or coach a team, and teams typically scrim around 8-12pm. Then people will go into comp after they’re done with their scrims.

14

It’s usually a mistake doing that though, because Masters at that time will know that and want to get carried to GM by GMS that’s why you see much much more masters midnight than GMS but sometimes it’s good when you know you can carry your team against a team most likely full with masters too for easier points.

15

Just to check. Are you from the same time zone as said people? If not, that’s probably why.

16

This is true all the way down to silver. I assume it has to do with a lot of drunks.

17

Quality of games. Doesn’t necessarily mean the games are better, just generally easier. Also I’m pretty sure the trend of this really began about a year ago when there was a story about a 6 stack getting high into top 500 by queuing late at night like that. They just stomped the enemy teams because they were usually all Masters, sometimes diamonds.

18

I just play in the morning on weekends on the american server cause people are mostly drunk and it’s fun hearing them argue.

19

Lower player pool -> higher chances to get matched against ppl of lower level -> ez win

There was even an article about a team that got to top 500 just by playing in times when barely anyone is online.

20

It’s just the best time to climb.