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Why does Normals MMR exist?!

High Noon Yåsuo··6 votes·1,223 views

Okay so this is more of a personal rant, you guys might not agree with me at all but I am very open to other points of view and if you disagree with me I'd love to know why.. Maybe I'm just wrong.

Anyways, I've recently moved to NA both geographically and in the League Server. I used to be d4 on EUW and have been playing for over 3 years now... So I'm nowhere near the best but I consider myself to be fairly experienced. As I moved into my new place... Its still a bit of a mess and I don't have working ethernet connection and I'm forced to play on wifi and my ping spikes all over the place. As a result I don't really want to play ranked and cause my team the loss as I can't play to my full potential; and I've been placed in p5 with a really high MMR (+27 win -13 loss). So naturally my next alternative was Normal queue, however in EVERY single game of Normal queue (which I used to literally never play) I'm matched with players who are significantly lower rank; I'm talking silver/bronze/unranked. And whilst I have nothing wrong with players who aren't as high of a rank it creates a very toxic and unfair game... especially for the enemy team: Nobody enjoys getting steamrolled by a Katarina who is too high of a rank to be in these games. So I looked up why this was happening and apparently discovered there is a "Normals MMR" which works similar to your ranked MMR, so the more normals I win the higher my MMR and the higher my MMR the higher the division of players I'm matched with.

Personally, I really don't see the point of this. As a competitive player at heart I hardly ever play normals; but lets say for instance I wanted to practice Kled before playing him in my ranked games; I cannot really enjoy or learn a new champion when I'm just steamrolling a team of players who is significantly less skilled than me ( not trying to brag, but its just the truth).

To maintain competitive integrity and create a fun/relaxed/fair environment I would absolutely love for Ranked MMR/Division to be implemented in Normals matchmaking, I personally would completely scrap the Normals MMR system and simply replace it with Ranked MMR however this would hurt the Hardcore-Normals players. I really believe this would allow players like me who wish to practice a new champion in a relatively competitive environment have a fun and enjoyable experience along with lower rank players to improve their skills in a also competitive environment, Let me know what you think! -anirataK Only

13 Comments

Zane Zephyr2 votes

I'm in Silver 5 and I think my last at least 10 matches have had at least one or more platinums in it

I don't mind the challenge, but it's like fuck...really?

High Noon Yåsuo1 votes

Exactly my point... I don't see why they can't just implement your ranked MMR so everyone has fair and fun Normal games.

Gary B Enkelis2 votes

I mean if normal and rank share MMR then why have both? Actually I kinda feel like we don't need normals at all. I don't know. But, uhh, don't judge people for being silver in a normal, either. It's possible they are quite good but barely play rank.

High Noon Yåsuo1 votes

Don't get me wrong I've seen quite a few silvers do really well, that wasn't really my point.. Its just that I'm not getting any players of my elo in my normal games because my ranked MMR isn't the same as my normals MMR... Which makes me ponder why on earth is there a difference.. If I have a higher MMR on Ranked I'd hope the same thing would be transferred to my Normal Queue's.

Gary B Enkelis1 votes

Yeah, I don't know. If you want to play with people of your elo then why not play rank? If the MMR was shared then you'd lose it from losing in normals? Why not stick to ranked?

And uhh maybe Normals have MMR because not everybody wants to show up on a ladder? It's basically the same as rank just invisible I imagine.... Maybe rank gives people an opportunity to start fresh since normals are where we begin the game and our MMR may be really wonky?

And uhh there's no restriction for who you can play with in Normals, unlike in Ranked. You can be Bronze playing with Challenger in Normals. Maybe the MMR is in Normals so people don't always stomp newbies? I don't know. Level 30s with 3000 games playing with level 1s doesn't seem fair and MMR seems like a way to maybe balance it?

Also maybe the Normal queue is older than the Ranked queue and they never changed the system from beta or something? I don't know.

High Noon Yåsuo1 votes

What I meant was that if I have a higher ranked MMR than a Normals MMR I would like to be queue'd with people with an equivalent MMR - be it Normals or Ranked. But if a bronze/silver plays with a challenger then it just creates an unhealthy unfair game... Hell, even I wouldn't like to play with a challenger in every single normals game.. It just loses competitive integrity. I just wish I could play normals to the point where it doesn't affect my rank/mmr but still provdes me a competitive/fun match. I think you're right tbh, the normals system is probably really old and never changed... and with worlds and all the major reworks I doubt they plan on rewriting the algorithm for the Normal Queue sadly.. it doesn't really affect me since I'll have wired connection soon and I'll be playing ranked but I thought its something I should point out, -anirataK Only

Gary B Enkelis1 votes

Maybe you can play normals and have a competitive match if you raise your MMR? It won't affect your rank because the queues are separate as you know.

I don't know.

Maybe for every ranked game you play a normal game and hope it balances? I'm kidding. I just don't know.

High Noon Yåsuo1 votes

Yea I see what you mean! Its okay, I don't know too much either.. No real stats provided by Riot. Oh well. Thanks anyways -anirataK Only

Locke Daemonfire2 votes

Do you mean that Normal games would never affect your MMR, only Ranked would, and Normal games always used Ranked MMR? Yeah, that would be rough for people who just want to play Normals. They'll eventually find themselves in the same position as you, always playing against lower skilled people because their MMR would never change.

The bigger issue would be for newer players. If their MMR in Normals never decreases, then they will forever be playing people too strong for them. Some of them won't even have a way to adjust their MMR, because they don't have enough champs to play Ranked or are not yet level 30. I guess you'd have to adjust MMR based on Normal games at least until a player unlocks Ranked.

Maybe a solution would be to allow people to sync their Normal MMR to their Ranked MMR at any given time. That way, for highly skilled people that only play Ranked, they can voluntarily boost their Normal MMR to get more fair matches. Obviously don't allow the other way around (not allowed to sync Ranked MMR to Normal MMR). Maybe also don't allow it unless the Ranked MMR is higher, to avoid people trolling Normals by making their MMR artificially lower.

High Noon Yåsuo2 votes

Yea, that's a really valid point.. There are definately flaws in what I am saying. Thanks for taking the time to reply. What I was thinking was; if a player like me for instance, who practically only plays ranked, that **if my Ranked MMR is HIGHER than my Normal's MMR **then it should take priority over my Normals MMR and matchmake me with players who are around the same as my Ranked MMR, then NOT do the same for Normals to Ranked queue ( For example if someone only grinds normals and their Normals MMR is higher than their ranked MMR and they decide to queue for a ranked Game they would still have to play with their Ranked MMR (I hope that made sense)).

However your idea of Syncing MMR sounds really unique and interesting! I actually think it would probably work better than what I'm suggesting! Sadly though I believe the maths used to calculate MMR's and such is different for Normal Queue's and Ranked Queue's so both of our ideas would probably be quite hard to pull off from Riot's side.

I really hope they do take some action on it though. Thanks for the idea's! -anirataK Only

S0NA1 votes

Same im plat and i always get matched with silver bronze and unranked in normals. Its boring, honestly.

High Noon Yåsuo1 votes

Exactly.

Malfini1 votes

Just my two cents. To show which players are boosted on ranked.

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