Consider Frequency of Play when Matchmaking?

HalcyonDweller·Jun 20, 2017·14 votes·664 views

A thought occurred to me:

Does the current matchmaking system take into account how often a player plays, or how rusty they are, when it determines who to match them for?

For that matter, does it match you at a lower level for your first game or two if you haven't played in a while?

These are interesting possibilities, and if they are not implemented, I wonder if they might help players who play less frequently to be matched more fairly.

11 Comments

The DeckownerJun 21, 20174 votes

so you mean I can switch back and forth on 2 different accounts so I get easier games and climb easier?

HalcyonDwellerJun 21, 20171 votes

No this was addressed in another comment chain here.

{quoted}

Vanic998Jun 21, 20171 votes

Wouldn't you climb half as fast this way?

OceanicEyesJun 20, 20171 votes

This is a pretty good idea. Might get tricky sometimes though, like if a player takes a break from their main account and plays their smurf, then switches back without being rusty, for example. Otherwise this sounds like a cool thing to consider for matchmaking.

HalcyonDwellerJun 20, 20171 votes

Oooh, I see what you mean. Shoot that would make it more difficult to keep fair.

What if it tracked if the computer had been used for league recently?

OceanicEyesJun 20, 20171 votes

Honestly have no idea how that'd work, but if it works that could be a good solution. I guess for now the best option is practicing in normals then switching to ranked, but for players who can't play very often, that's a bit counter intuitive for climbing unfortunately.

OhWandererJun 20, 20171 votes

there is also the fact that people who play more often are liable to be more toxic and tilted, however it could help abate that issue if the system works as intended. If matching people based on experience instead of "skill" works as hypothetically it should then I could see it being a good idea.

HalcyonDwellerJun 20, 20173 votes

I think it would have to use both skill and experience, because not using skill as a measure could result in casual players getting matched with much better players who have the same amount of experience as them.

We see that in Normals when high level ranked players who only play ranked go to play Normals for a break. Their Normals MMR is too low so the get matched with people who they can just pubstomp.

OhWandererJun 21, 20171 votes

A very good point, that makes plenty of sense to me.