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Understanding mmr and Matchmaking (ranked vs draft)

thecowley·10/14/2019, 1:29:19 AM·1 votes·1,680 views

So there have been a lot more ranged champs being played top recently, even in ranked where I use to hardly see it with a few exceptions. For reference, I'm currently ranked at Silver 2, bouncing in and out of 1 recently. I typically don't look for meta and play/winrates for champs. Instead I just play the kits I find fun. Having been bouncing in and out of silver 1 though, I've decided to try and get the skin for this season that comes with ending in gold. So I started playing Lucian top after getting my ass handed to me by one in a normal draft game. Lucian is one of the few ads I really like, and have a decent amount of playtime with.

Over the course of about 10 draft games with Lucian top, I've gotten a bunch of s ranks, and done really well. Bit of split pushing and just team fighting. Going over to ranked with the same runes and playstyle, and I hardly snowball as I did in the draft, and overall having more lackluster performance. It hasn't been terrible, or so bad that it would make me think that the strat is impossible, but it does have me thinking about matchmaking in general.

Now I know MMR is a stat that exists, and I know its measured as a number, but other than that, nothing. Is there separate MMR for draft and ranked? is it a single number? I'm wondering if the difference in MMR in the two might be a reason why I'm seeing it work better in draft then ranked, but really I have no clue.

So I was wondering if there is any knowledgable players out there willing to give me a brief rundown of what's going on with MMR, and if theres difference between ranked and draft in terms of matchmaking.

Thank you's in advance for any knowledge you can lay down on my poor little soul

Good luck and Have Fun.

2 Comments

preternatural10/14/2019, 1:59:09 AM1 votes

ranked and normals use different mmr values, yes. they are unique to each queue except blind/draft, them's are the same thing. so you could be diamond ranked in yoloq but get matched with silvers in your normal games. and then get matched with iron's in flex games. there is no tethering between mmr's although there probably really should be as far as normals are concerned, but most will argue for some purists POV or some such bullshit.

Kai Guy10/14/2019, 2:56:32 AM1 votes

Short answer. All ques use individual mmr exclusive to the que.

Extra information. MMR values only have meaning with the context of a que due to how they are built around population averages. 1200 MMR does not set any expectation for an exact measurement like say 35 pounds. 1200 May be different levels of skill in 3 years but 35 pounds is 35.

The core concept is that there are naturally occurring averages in a population. Even For the concept of skill, so you judge off the mathematics for averages. Averages get expressed as a curve. MMR style systems job is not just to "build fair games" but also have to measure out what the current average level of skill is and any single account in relation to that so it can build said fair games. As there's constant fluctuation it's a never ending job and there is an expectation for mismatched low quality games. Protections in place protect ratings not egos or "fun" for the game.