Matchmaking, Elo's, and Ranks

To whom it may concern,

Hello! I have no doubt that the people at Riot, who are in charge of Matchmaking and the Ranking system for Solo Queue (SQ) are under serious heat right now. I've been hearing a lot of high elo players (mainly YouTubers and streamers) complain about how matchmaking is seriously messed up because of the weird player matchings. To be honest, I thought that that problem was pretty non-existent, or maybe that it was only a problem that high elo players experience. Obviously because I am writing this post and talking in the past tense in my previous statement, I now think otherwise. I am Gold IV, and although that is not a high elo (or one to really brag about), I too have started to experience this weird matchmaking dilemma. I have been matched with mid-to-high ranked Bronze players for a number of games now. I feel like this is not normal considering players are not able to queue with ranks more than a full elo range away from them. So what is happening?

I typically average a positive KDA and good cs netting me a good grade in the post-game screen, but I only gain about 14 lp and lose 20 lp with the same KDA and grade. I guess my MMR is bad? It's supposedly 1640. The most recent Bronze player I played with has a calculated MMR of 1080. What does that mean though? This is a 560 point difference! How is MMR used to match players together?

I believe this invisible number causes more harm than good. Nobody really knows what MMR is, how it is calculated, nor how it's used - other than that it IS used. Because of this lack of information, this whole discrepancy between MMR and your SQ lp/Rank is quite frustrating.

I recently watched a video from NEACE discussing the current matchmaking debacle. I think he could be on to something and I hope that someone in the position to make a change takes NEACE's critiques into consideration.

A TL;DR of NEACE's points:

1. Merge Rank lp and MMR so that you are matched based on your rank, not an invisible number. MMR being a separate, invisible number is pointless.
2. Make accounts that have not been played for extensive periods of time decay. Allowing accounts to retain MMR is bad because they will not be at their previous skill level after taking long breaks.

Hopefully nobody at Riot feels attacked by this and matchmaking gets fixed soon. I understand that trying to fix matchmaking is a difficult process (looking back at the start of season 9), but I strongly believe it can be done! Please consider NEACE's critiques if you have the chance.

• MidgetTiger