Weird unfair ranked game match making system

Dracozx·Jul 21, 2018·4 votes·1,442 views

I am a poor Gold II player, however, starting from 8 days ago, when I was Gold III, the match making system has been constantly giving me at least 3 platinum players (plat V to plan III) in the enemy team. Feel free to check my match history and confirm that. I know the match making system is not strictly based on elo, however, shouldn't getting 3 plat enemies be a rare thing for a Gold II or III player?

I got rated as S-, S, or S+ in >80% of my games, however, I still lost a lot of games. It is not fun, and it is not fair. Could Riot please stop putting so many platinum players into my game? Forcing a gold player to fight against at least 3 platinum is definitely not what a normal match making system should do. I even feel that the match making system is controlling your match result or win rate by arranging different elo distributions in the two teams.

Anyone has idea why that happens to me? and does anyone know what should I do to avoid fighting against plat players when I am a Gold player?

15 Comments

DoozySlayerJul 21, 20183 votes

True! I won easily 3 matchups in a row, then I lost hardly 3 matchups in a row. The first three were like playing against Bots. The other three were painful, everybody was crazy, it was impossible to set a goal or help each other.

I think the system goes like this: if you win a lot, you must be good, so let's face stronger players then. But then the stronger ones are so much stronger you can't even make through the game.

What I do to avoid those stronger teams is playing ranked until I lose a game of 5 dummies (including me) vs 5 kinda pro players. I'm at the bottom Gold V. I get 17 pdl from an easy win and lose 21 pdl from an easy loss.

DracozxJul 21, 20182 votes

Exactly, the system is controlling your match result by select your opponent elo.

I remember in S4 S5 S6, there were a lot good games for me in which the players had similar skill levels and it was fun. However, I think the match making is broken now - it can no longer find the balance point. Just like what you said, it sometimes gives you opponents that are too weak, and sometimes gives you enemies that are too strong, but rarely put you into a match where people have similar abilities.

For me, apparently the system is trying hard to force me lose by giving me platinum enemies. Well done Riot.

DoozySlayerJul 21, 20183 votes

Yeah, you totally got what I was trying to say! I'm gonna stop playing ranked games if it doesn't change a lil bit.

DracozxJul 21, 20182 votes

the current match making system sucks

DracozxJul 21, 20182 votes

I wonder how many people suffered from the match making system. When it decides you must lose, then you must lose, to make that happen, it gives you high elo opponents.

ChargeItDownMidJul 21, 20181 votes

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DracozxJul 21, 20182 votes

Well, you did not understand my point. I think it totally normal to have different elo players in my enemies team, as you said, ranging from gold IV to plat III when I'm gold II. However, what I'm saying is that the distribution of enemy elo is not centered on Gold II. Riot constantly putting 3 or more plat players in my enemy team when I was Gold III and Gold II, do you think that's normal? Apparently, Riot wants lower my win rate, by giving me high elo opponents.

To support my argument, I collected some statistics. Here is the elo distribution of my enemies in my last 10 ranked games (8 of them were played when I was gold 3):

silver 1: 1 gold 5: 2 gold 4: 0 gold 3: 6 gold 2: 3 gold 1: 5 plat 5: 16 plat 4: 11 plat 3: 6

There were on average 4 enemy players who were higher than me, and there were on average 3.1 plat enemy players in each game for me, a gold 3-2 player. Feel free to check my match history and confirm that. Do you think what you said can explain this?

(BTW, there was a remake game that I did not count. And in that game, I was Gold 3 and all my opponents were plat (3 plat 5, 1 plat 4, 1 plat 3). Imagine how the statistics will look that if I include this remake game.)

Again, what I'm talking about is that the match making system tries to let me lose by forcing me against hight elo players.

ChargeItDownMidJul 21, 20181 votes

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DracozxJul 21, 20181 votes

10 games. Where did I say "8"?

Actually 50 opponents isn't too small statistically in this case, considering the big difference between the expected distribution (centered at gold 3 or 2) and the actual observed distribution. If you have learned statistics courses in collage or graduate school, you know what I'm saying. I can even give you P-value if I know which type of distribution Riot use to do match making, however, I don't. However, I'm sure that no matter whatever it is, the p-value will be below 0.05, which means the null hypothesis is rejected. In other words, the observed distribution of my opponent's elo is significantly different from the expected distribution, and Riot is manipulating my win rate by giving me high elo enemies.

ChargeItDownMidJul 21, 20181 votes

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DracozxJul 21, 20181 votes

First, the sample size is 50 players, instead of 10 games, because we are talking about the elo distribution of players. Second, if you have learned some statistics, you must know that sample size is not the only factor affecting whether you can get confident conclusion - the DIFFERENCE is also affecting.

Let me give you an example, let's say the average man height in the US is 5'10, and you want to test whether a group of 30 men follows the expected distribution. If the average height of the group is 5'11, then you probably cannot draw any conclusion because the samples size is not enough to give significance for such small difference. However, if the average height of the group 6'5, then the sample size of 30 is sufficient to yield significance if you do statistical test.

So, sample size matters, and the difference also matters.

Let's go back to our case. If the observed distribution is center at gold 2 when I am gold 3, or at gold 1 when I am gold 2, then I agree with you - 50 opponents is a small samples size to give any significance. However, the real case is that, I am gold 3 or 2, and the observed distribution is centered at plat 5 to 4, 3 elos higher than my elo. And now, similarly to the 6'5 example, 50 opponents is enough to give statistically significant conclusion. I really wish I knew Riot's algorithm, so I could put the distribution type they use in, do a statistical test, and show you the result.

BTW, I spend 50% my work time on doing statistics on the data I collected, so you really should believe what I said.

ChargeItDownMidJul 21, 20181 votes

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DracozxJul 21, 20181 votes

no no no, these are not specific games, these are just all last 10 ranked games that I played. These games are also not extremely difficult, as I said, I got S-, S, or S+ in 80% of them. Feel free to check my match history and confirm that.

These are just normal ranked games. And I list these numbers just to say, Riot's match making system does something dirty secretly. It puts high elo players into your enemy team when you win rate is high.

BTW, I'm actually confused why they do that. In my understanding, the perfect rank situation is that everyone get in the elo that matches his/her skill. In other words, if someone has platinum skill, he should be ranked in platinum. So, let's say, if someone in gold elo has platinum skill, the system should let this player go to plat elo as soon as possible, so that the whole rank becomes balanced. However, now Riot's match making system is slowing it down by giving this gold player a lot of plat opponents. The result is that the gold player stays in gold elo for longer and screw the rank system up for longer. What do you think?

ChargeItDownMidJul 21, 20181 votes

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DracozxJul 21, 20182 votes

well, let me do another 10 games and let's see whether the distribution is still abnormal.