Why MM Algorithms destroy thier own purpose

PLEASE READ TLDR

First, I want to congrats Blizz for making an awesome game. It truly is amazing and probably one of my all time favs period. I’m sure its not easy to make a game this good and maybe you guys are short on money or people sometimes. I also played WOW for about 5 years and I probably have logged several hundred hours of OW play.

There is obviously a big problem with competitive ranking and matchmaking. I know some people like to deny it but its pretty obvious something is wrong with the algorithm. Let me try to keep this simple.

  1. Is all of competitive matchmaking from bronze up to GM based on a single algorithm or are their separate algorithms for each tier? I really think a single algorithm for all of competitive matchmaking would hurt the game quite a bit because each tier or maybe group of tiers should have its own unique mm algorithm that is tailored for them.

  2. We have heard from the developers that the goal of the matchmaking algorithm is NOT to get games to 50% WL. However, the goal of matchmaking is to try and have fair and close games as much as possible. Because the WL rate is around 50% it has been considered somewhat of a success. But I see a big problem here. Winners are not really rewarded and losers are not really punished in terms of moving up and down the tier system. It creates an system that is very difficult to climb for people who are playing below their actual tier because they are grouped with people who are worse to create fair matches. In other words… If the matchmaking wasn’t so intent on making fair matches… Ultimately the better players would rise faster and the worse players would fall faster automatically creating even matchups within the tiers. An algorithm that tries to create fair matches actually slows down this natural process and makes good players become extremely frustrated. Does this make sense to anyone?

Sorry I know this is terribly written but I don’t feel like spending an hour on this. Please give me some well thoughout feedback.

TLDR

MM algorithm should NOT try to create fair matches because it slows down the natural process of good players rising and bad players falling that would automatically create even tiers and fair matches in the end.

It’s like putting your dirty hands on something that doesn’t need to be touched. It’s like fusion food that doesn’t need to be fusion. It’s like adding pineapple to pizza. Anyone follow? ( I actually don’t mind Hawaiian pizza just sayin…)

My Solution: The MM system should just match people in the same tier together WITHOUT doing ANYTHING more. Ultimately, the matches will become really really fair. Much more than it is now.

4 Likes

Needs a tldr (20 ch)

“Love OW but I know it’s losing players”

Because of Fortnite and the Battle Royale craze happening right now?

Can someone please tell me where this notion of Overwatch is losing players is coming from?

WHO HAS THESE METRICS?

Everyone is saying it, nobody is citing it.

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It is the, “I am leaving, therefore everyone is leaving” mentality.

I often have that feeling about a lot of games. It’s a natural response, “I stopped enjoying this game, therefore the majority of people must as well.”

It’s a passing thought and shouldn’t be more than that.

Breaking news people. You’re allowed to not like things. It’s okay.

I don’t have any numbers … but I just say its losing players because I’m generally waiting much longer to queue up for comp and qp at all times of the day. Sure Fortnite definitely has something to do with it. More than anything… I just would like to see better MM. I really important part of competitive play that doesnt get enough attention from the devs. IMO

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it’s because they barely update the game

think about it, when is content added? during events, and then they TAKE THE CONTENT OUT OF THE GAME, why are people okay with that?

No one is responding to my TLDR please read. Does that make any sense?

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If you are referring to game modes, then it is to make sure that the queue times stay low. If you keep adding more and more game modes, then it will keep dividing the population and make queues longer.

NOTE: This is the reason given by the Devs.

I read it and I like your post.

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skins and game modes

the queue time thing wouldnt matter because they have only added in 4 new game modes so far, it wouldn’t dent it that much

also arcade has a game mode rotation, so you could put them on a rotation and boom queue time solved

Anyone willing to respond to this TLDR???

Currently the only way I can see the climb is to exploit stat-padding. If you play to win and you don’t pad your stats then you’re not likely to climb.