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Why does MMR exist?

Cross Rikkan·10/2/2014, 1:29:06 AM·6 votes·1,297 views

It makes much more sense for a player to just get matched with people in their own rank than to be getting matched with people in higher ranks and lower ranks all the time based on their past few games. Especially when everyone else is getting matched with people outside of their own rank as well making every game a mixture of all different skill levels instead of everyone being roughly the same skill level.

This makes it possible for a Gold player who is on a losing streak to be matched with a Bronze player who is on a winning streak. Do you really think they are the same skill level? Probably not.

It's seems like a good system because you can rank up really fast if you can beat people above your own skill level or get pulled down when you can't even beat people in lower ranks than you, but it completely ignores a huge factor in the situation: the players team. This game is VERY much a team oriented game and no one can 1v5. Every single player MUST work with their team or they will not win.

So lets say a Gold player wins a few games and their MMR goes up. Now they are playing with Plat players so they should have to do much better to keep up right? Well maybe, but what if there happens to be a Diamond player on their team who just had a few bad games and now has a lower MMR? The Gold player could feed and get wrek'd and the Diamond player could just carry them to victory. Then the Gold player gets a huge amount of LP for that win and maybe even skips a division when they really aren't that good.

Now I know what you are saying: "But then they will start losing a go back down and things will even out." Yeah I'm sure they will.. eventually. What if that happens multiple times in a row? What if on their way back down they get carried again? There are so many things that could result in this player getting put into games that are full of players that aren't his own skill level, due to the fact that EVERYONE is getting put into games of DIFFERENT rank than their own. All the while his actual rank is being effected by games full of players that may not even be close to the same skill level.

Lets look at the more likely scenario. A Gold player loses a few games and his MMR drops. Now he is playing Silver players so it should be really easy for him to win right? Well not if there is a low Bronze player who just went on a winning streak on his team and he feeds like crazy resulting in a loss. The Gold player now loses a ton of LP and his MMR goes down even further, which then gets him matched with even lower players. This situation would be a nightmare because once you get lower enough to be playing with all bronze players the games are so chaotic and the players are so.. (insert nice word for toxic here) that it's extremely hard to control the games.

Wouldn't it just be easier for everyone to play against people in their own division? Yeah it would take a little longer for Diamond players to rank up their smurf accounts but it seems to me like it would same a lot of players a lot of stress and annoyance. Not to mention a more accurate rank.

Let me know what you guys think. Thanks for reading! :)

9 Comments

Hyrum Graff10/2/2014, 1:35:04 AM8 votes

I think the counter-argument here is, "What about people who are *actually *better (or worse) than their current rank?" If I belong in plat, but right now I'm in gold, that's a lot of games that I'm pubstomping (and ruining other people's experience) before I get to where I belong.

Cerbearus10/2/2014, 3:16:55 AM2 votes

If I was in a game with 9 bronzies, I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter how bad my team is, I will win just by rolling my face on the keyboard. Your argument being "what if one game suddenly changes a person's ranking a ton?" Well it doesn't. To advance or go down in rank you have to either win or lose fairly consistently. Sure winning streaks means you play with higher elos, but if you get pudstomped but get carried one game, that doesn't mean that is going to happen every game. People are generally in a certain MMR for a reason.

AbodyHUN66610/2/2014, 9:43:44 AM2 votes

MMR doesn't change that fast. For a gold player to be matched with high bronzies the gold player would get the warning of being demoted to silver. I don't really think it's possible for gold players to get matched with diamonds. The frustration you get with players different skill level is just how sleepy, tired or tilted they are during that match. Some people actually belong to higher divisions, but they have a bad habit of playing rankeds while drunk.

Dreamspitter10/2/2014, 4:22:31 AM1 votes

What about the people at 1500 or so where you start out?

Matthias911910/3/2014, 1:42:30 AM1 votes

This makes it possible for a Gold player who is on a losing streak to be matched with a Bronze player who is on a winning streak.

Please show me a Ranked game where this happened and the Gold player wasn't in G5 with a horribly tanked MMR and/or duoed with a S5 or something.

If you're in Gold you would have to lose a LOT of games to have an MMR low enough to start getting matched with even low Silver players. And at that point you'd be on the edge of being demoted back to Silver anyway.

A bigger issue is that "only match you based on division" would be hugely abusable. A high-skill player on a smurf could tank their promos to get placed in Bronze and then dodge every promo game so they never promote. They'd just pubstomp over and over and over.