A few thoughts on MMR and Ladder Ranks
Ghostcrawler recently answered a question on Tumblr about what is MMR, what's its purpose, and why players shouldn't have access to it.
I disagree, and maybe some of you also want to voice in.
I disagree with some of what is said here. I understand the perverse incentive Riot wants to avoid, but on the other hand, a lot of people do play to get better at League, and not just to enjoy every match for its own sake. And in order for people to “get better” and get that sense of achievement/fulfillment, they need a somewhat accurate measure of their skill, and MMR is still the best we have for that.
Ghostcrawler here is trying to sell the idea that Ladder Rank, not MMR, should be what players use to measure their “progression”. It’s important to note: he used the word “progression”, when I used the word “skill” in my previous paragraph. The implication is that players shouldn’t really try to improve their skills, it ties in with his paragraph about “it’s aspirational but in practice no one’s really going to get pro”. “MMR isn’t really something you are supposed to get better at.“
So there are 2 things to unpack here: first one, even if they really shouldn’t, a lot of people still play to improve their skills, at least in part, and not just to fill a progress bar. That makes the game more interesting, there is more at stakes, and it’s a positive attitude that feels really natural. “I want to get better“ is more self-rewarding than “I just want to chill and enjoy a few games.” (especially in a game where there are two distinct mode for “chilling” and “getting better”, Normals vs RankedQ). So, wether Riot wants it or not, wether players should or should not, it’s happening. Why not try to support it and steer it in a positive way?
The second thing is, even if your MMR isn’t supposed to drastically change over time, it’s still important to know where people stand at, even if only for social/community interactions. Once again, this can lead to some perverse incentive, it’s a tricky question and I don’t have all the answers. But if a high Plat player discuss about some new crazy off-meta build, I’m not going to react the same way as if they were a Bronze player, and it’s not just being a snob. Within all probability, even if it works for the Bronze player in Bronze, they are hindering themselves and a more meta build is objectively better. If it still works in high Plat, chances are higher that this player truly has found an innovative way to play.
You’ll note that in the previous paragraph, I informally used “Bronze” and “Plat” as a proxy for skill measurement. But, and this was the point I wanted to get at, Ladder Rank is a terrible measure of skill. Because Ladder Rank is purposefully built as a “progress bar” to expose to players, it is, almost by definition, unreliable and inaccurate. As a personal example, I finished the previous Season in Gold5. I got placed at the beginning of the new season in Bronze3. I never stopped saying that I was a low Gold player, and I have since then climbed back to Gold5, but for 3 months, people would look at my profile and think I was lying, and I can’t blame them. Were my skills actually lower for this 3 months? Of course not, but it looked like so.
TL;DR: A “progress bar” is fine, but measuring skills is also important for various reasons, and so we should have access to our official MMR.
