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Could someone explain matchmaking to me a bit? Cause I don't get it.

Ramen N00dlez·2/24/2020, 6:55:15 AM·1 votes·3,150 views

The title kind of speaks for itself. I've put a lot of time and hours into this game. I have never really been a big fan of ranked and have always sat around a silver ranked elo because I simply don't care to put time into climbing. I don't like the idea of if I want to be viewed as "better", I better hope my team isn't terrible where every lane loses hard besides my own if I'm playing well.

But anyhow, not the point. So in normal games I have approximately 6.5k games played give or take a few. I often feel the quality of my normal games are bad. In particular, I've been playing some top lane just to change it up and I swear I have to give one of my kidneys just to have a quality game. I don't need to totally dump on my matchup. I just want the rest of my team not to lose for me by soft inting making it miserable to play out the match.

Now what I'm trying to get at is the teams more often than not feel unbalanced and unfair. So how exactly does the matchmaking algorithm work? I've noticed much higher elo players in my games, and quite honestly I don't want them there. I want to play with players my skill level. My previous game in particular there was a one trick Fiora with 1mil+ mastery points who was D3 last season (something along the lines of plat now). Obviously far beyond my perceived skill level. And that is kind of the root to this question. At the bare minimum how come I did not have a random somewhere on my team with the same perceived skill level to balance the equation? Long story short, this Fiora proceeded to absolutely dumpster my team (for the most part) creating quite the non-fun experience.

Why was this Fiora in my game? It doesn't matter who they were playing, it's just an example and refers more to the "skill difference". Shouldn't they be matched with others like them in terms of skill? Perhaps because I have so many games played? Someone please explain. And obviously I assume they were pre-made with someone on the enemy team, but at the minimum why didn't I have more "skill" on my team to compensate?

Please keep in mind this isn't to debate my rank or skill. It's an honest question and applies whether you're in high diamond or iron. I'm just here for a fun experience. Not to get all sweaty. I'm not a superstar every game I play. And I'd post a bunch of screenshots so you could see my performance in recent games versus the rest of my teams' to further push my rant here but I feel most of you have experienced the same and its not necessary. Do it on your own time if you want.

17 Comments

WillSummon4Food2/24/2020, 8:01:12 AM2 votes

I was Silver 3 in promos for silver 2 I got a completely unranked player on my team who had to lane against a gold 4 player, and another unranked player who had to go against a silver 1 player. I had to jungle against a gold 4 player, and my botlane went against what I'm guessing was Smurfs because they ran Janna Zilean bot were unranked and beat two silver 2 players. Great matchmaking riot, its been such a great year so far. (By Unranked they were completely new accounts no games any other seasons except the two unranked on my team. One which was level 32 and told us he was brand new and another who mostly played aram for the last two years. Its a toss up man.

Sintama2/24/2020, 8:51:35 AM2 votes

I've asked this question many times. Here's what I've been told: Ranked matchmaking is based off of a hidden number and the average expected skill of your team vs the average expected skill of the enemy team. Normals matchmaking is based off of a combination of games played, average skill of players, and time you queued up. Example: 4 gold, 2 silver, 2 plat, 1 diamond, and 1 master queue at the same time. The teams will be like this: Team 1 Gold Gold Gold Plat Gold

Team 2 Plat Diamond Silver Master Silver

Riot's matchmaking considers this to be a balanced game, even though it is extremely likely the Diamond, Plat, and Master will work together and run away with the game. The less normal games you have played = the less likely you are going to face high ELO players. You'll fight smurfs no matter what you do, but if you have a lot of normal games on a single account, you're screwed.

Kai Guy2/24/2020, 9:06:53 AM2 votes

The theory is covered fairly well here.

Let me know if that helps or you have questions.

Edit. If its just whats diff between normal and Ranked.

The allowed Range by MM. Ranked is built off ideas on what would not be acceptiable odds between player gaps. How weak can the worst player be vs the best player. Normals will attempt to MM in a range but premades for anything are allowed.

Also a lot of normal ranks skew due to the folks who use it to try test and learn new things bumping into "Tryhards" If you only play your best picks and play to win your normal stand to inflate over a lot of games.

Darkdemon6532/24/2020, 11:35:54 AM2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Ramen N00dlez,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=PhGAoGvz,comment-id=,timestamp=2020-02-24T06:55:15.529+0000)

The title kind of speaks for itself. I've put a lot of time and hours into this game. I have never really been a big fan of ranked and have always sat around a silver ranked elo because I simply don't care to put time into climbing. I don't like the idea of if I want to be viewed as "better", I better hope my team isn't terrible where every lane loses hard besides my own if I'm playing well.

But anyhow, not the point. So in normal games I have approximately 6.5k games played give or take a few. I often feel the quality of my normal games are bad. In particular, I've been playing some top lane just to change it up and I swear I have to give one of my kidneys just to have a quality game. I don't need to totally dump on my matchup. I just want the rest of my team not to lose for me by soft inting making it miserable to play out the match.

Now what I'm trying to get at is the teams more often than not feel unbalanced and unfair. So how exactly does the matchmaking algorithm work? I've noticed much higher elo players in my games, and quite honestly I don't want them there. I want to play with players my skill level. My previous game in particular there was a one trick Fiora with 1mil+ mastery points who was D3 last season (something along the lines of plat now). Obviously far beyond my perceived skill level. And that is kind of the root to this question. At the bare minimum how come I did not have a random somewhere on my team with the same perceived skill level to balance the equation? Long story short, this Fiora proceeded to absolutely dumpster my team (for the most part) creating quite the non-fun experience.

Why was this Fiora in my game? It doesn't matter who they were playing, it's just an example and refers more to the "skill difference". Shouldn't they be matched with others like them in terms of skill? Perhaps because I have so many games played? Someone please explain. And obviously I assume they were pre-made with someone on the enemy team, but at the minimum why didn't I have more "skill" on my team to compensate?

Please keep in mind this isn't to debate my rank or skill. It's an honest question and applies whether you're in high diamond or iron. I'm just here for a fun experience. Not to get all sweaty. I'm not a superstar every game I play. And I'd post a bunch of screenshots so you could see my performance in recent games versus the rest of my teams' to further push my rant here but I feel most of you have experienced the same and its not necessary. Do it on your own time if you want.

Matchmaking for ranked games uses people's ranked MMRs and matchmaking for normal games uses people's normal MMRs. These values are completely separate and do not influence each other.

Deprecious2/24/2020, 2:27:49 PM1 votes

If i see that fcking argument with "each queue has different MMR" i think i'm just gonna cut my internet cable

Y'all so fcking ignorant it's baffling, first of all, a player with diamond MMR at ranked, will have a MMR close to diamond in the span of 20 games, so take your argument and shove it up your arse

It is obvious they let the team MMR composition brackets more loose in order to reduce queue time, here is what i mean by that :

Gold 2 game from 4 years ago : Gold 4, Gold 1, Gold 2, Gold 2, Gold 3 ( This would take longer to find ) Gold 2 game now : Silver 2, Silver 2, Gold 2, Platinum 2, Platinum 2 ( This would take less time to find )

Now when it comes to ranked games, the proof is in the pudding, since Riot themselves admitted to rigging games in order to make players grind for their desired ranks for longer

GoldsmithSmarty2/25/2020, 10:31:37 PM1 votes

I’m hard stuck silver , 14/20 lp win lose respectively. I tried way too many random/cheese tactics so my MMR became abysmal. My skill level, on the other hand, is way above silver. When I play my mains, enemy laner usually has nothing to offer.

My issue is opposite to yours, I struggle with unskilled players rather. I don’t care when my team feeds as long as they at least know how to play their champs. Unfortunately, a lot of the time they don’t.

To the point when I type in chat and beg my Ashe to use her arrow in the middle of the team fight. Imagine that)

15/0 Lucian doesn’t scare me at all, I know that he will expose himself at some point and we will kill him.

What scares me is when people have zero idea how team fights operate and they panic immediately and don’t use their abilities or focus the right target. No matter how good you are, if you can’t close the game in time, opposite team will catch up.

Very very rarely I get a strong opponent in top lane. We sit there trading blows, maybe 1 or 2 kills at extreme. Usually none. Meanwhile our teams make dozens of kills by 10 min mark. Neither me nor my opponent has any say in that. Whichever team wins 4v4 early usually decides the game, since the losing guy has to Carry his team while the winning guy just complements his.

Botttom line, your MMR is high so you get strong allies/enemies. My MMR is shit, I get weaker. Just sometimes enemy team has more strong players than yours.

I would like if they made some ranked changes. Like Queue Gold players with other Gold players regardless of their MMR. Strong/smurfs will climb faster, actual Gold players will remain in Gold.