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Why MMR based Matchmaking is Flawed

Shaco Psycho·4/3/2017, 7:12:14 PM·6 votes·1,005 views

There seems to be a misconception that when you get matched you are matched with team mates and enemies of the same MMR and thus matchmaking must be fair.

However, that only exists in an ideal scenario. You can't be that naive to think that every game has two teams of exactly equal average MMR with each team member also having exactly equal MMR. Not to mention the flaws with the system where you could have high variance MMR teams vs clustered MMR teams. Take the following example:

Team 1: Member A: MMR = 3 Member B: MMR = 6 Member C: MMR = 9 Member D: MMR = 12 Member E: MMR = 15 Avg MMR = 9

Team 2: Member A: MMR = 7 Member B: MMR = 8 Member C: MMR = 9 Member D: MMR = 9 Member E: MMR = 12 Avg MMR = 9

Member A in Team 1 is definitely experiencing a problem. Why is he matched in a game with MMR's and ranks higher than him?

Member E in Team 1 is experiencing an opposite problem where he's questioning why he's put on a team with 2 shitty players (Member A&B) vs. a team with solid players.

I'm not going to discuss every member's point of view, but just because you have MMR X does not mean your teams average MMR is also X.

In this scenario Team 2 should win the game. They should have 2 easy matchups, 1 maybe 2 even matchups, and 1 hard matchup. And yet, both teams have the exact same average MMR. Here lies the problem.

Additional notes: What if Member 1E gets autofilled to a position they only play at a 9 MMR level.

10 Comments

Psybicilin4/3/2017, 7:37:20 PM5 votes

I think they should prioritize better matched games over shorter q times. Also the way autofill prioritizes after there's a dodge is really messed up. Like there are people queue'd for support/mid that get mid after there's a dodge. The least contested role should NEVER be filled to mid secondary, the most contested role. Yet I've had this happen multiple times. Riot really needs to fix the way the queue works.

GankedByWindows4/3/2017, 7:18:11 PM3 votes

There are limits to prevent that scenario. The matchmaking system searches for other players within a certain range of MMR and only goes to extremes like in your example with very long queue times. It isn't solely based on average team MMR.

freeloader254/3/2017, 8:32:49 PM2 votes

there are 2 problems i have with current matchmaking:

  1. game where one team is 1-2 divisions higher than the enemy team on every position (division 5 excluded, div5 just doesnt count when it comes to matchmaking discussions) -> happens far too often, i actually dont know why.

  2. in promotional matches i would prefer a system that ONLY matches you with and against players from your division or the division youre trying to promote to

in general i dont like what informations we can see regarding rank and mmr. i actually feel like games are not matched that unbalanced most of the time, but why is the league system so unflexible? why is it so hard to promote/demote to the rank your mmr is at? ive played 3 seasons where for close to the entire duration of my ranked season my mmr always was about 2 divisions above my current rank. it should be possible to rank up way faster and lose rank faster aswell. why do g5, p5, d5 players have to play an entire tier below their ranking to get demoted?

all we can see is the ranking and in way too many cases the ranking is not even close to the mmr. the problem is not the mmr value but the league system. if you ask me, the league system should be removed entirely and the mmr should be the only value that matters. either this or make the league system more fluid.

if they keep the league system they should get rid of 1) and 2). If you have to use leagues, then use them for matchmaking aswell.. if you balance out the mmr you have to balance out the league ranks aswell imo.