Actual question about matchmaking
It's been common knowledge that in ranked, teams are supposed to have an even amount of total MMR, if not necessarily having the same MMR on each teammate. Which is decent in theory, there are worse things than each team having one or two people that have to carry the others, but in such a chaotic game I see this creating a lot of problems. I'm making this thread in the hopes that someone can correct my misconceptions, and to highlight some matchmaking issues that might actually be easily resolvable.
Without going down a rabbit hole, majority of games are my d4 border, and usually 1-2 low gold borders, and 2-3 low plat borders. I realize that borders aren't what matchmaking is based on, but this is indicative of the effect I've been noticing. Let's just say for the sake of argument that matchmaking goes "alright 1 diamond, 2 plat, 2 golds on each team, that'll be fair". And for the sake of argument I'll describe a situation where that actually is fair: -The MMR discrepancy is symmetrical across roles -Nobody role swaps -Even number of autofills, which is symmetrical across roles (autofill has been discussed thoroughly over the seasons, so I'll omit it from the rest of this)
That could potentially be an alright game. Probably wouldn't end at 15, at any rate. I'll acknowledge one more detail first: because of the population distribution of ranked, the odd one out in a team is more likely to be higher MMR than the team, instead of lower. This is because there are less players the higher MMR goes, so say if a high plat wants to find a match, matchmaking will sooner find a match with 4 low plats than with 4 low diamonds, just because there are 4 low plats. If there are 4 high plats needing a match, that's finally an acceptable queue for the low diamond that's been waiting.
Now for what actually happens in these games: -The players designated as the "carry" aren't facing each other -The opponents of these "carries" are uneven skill level, so while both lose, one loses slowly and one gives 4 kills in 7 minutes -One of the "carries" is in botlane, and thus limited by their lane partner, who is lower MMR because the system expects them to carry that player. The other "carry" is in an independent role, and can take over the game more easily. -Both "carries" can do well, but one "carry" is a class that can kill the other. (Your Jinx is doing well, but the enemy GP is so fed that his ult can 100-0 her off any cc. Your assassin is fed, but has no real recourse against a fed raidboss that's 1v5ing.)
So yeah, this is a big part of why ranked is the way it is.
I'll elaborate on botlane a bit more, because frankly I think it's insane that I'm supposed to play either role in bot and match the momentum at which the enemy midlaner can get fed off a gold border. Send me bot with 3 mediocre players and sure I'll win (playing support anyway, but I can tell adcs have this even worse) but it's just not as fast if your lane partner is holding you back. Take a totally hypothetical example that certainly didn't inspire this saltstorm: -Laning with a gold border Ashe with no skin, against a Tris and Sona (ie free food for Nautilus) -Kill the Sona early, mid laner has already died twice. We basically need to snowball harder, or Ashe is just gonna get run over by a fed Syndra -Proceed to bully enemy botlane 1v2 (Sona was at such a level disadvantage that a Naut combo did over half her health, making for free trades) -Ashe waveclears each new wave with W and runs back to tower like a classic skin Ashe does -Enemy botlane at 20% hp, freefarming under tower -"Ashe freeze the lane we can kill them" x4, nothing -"Move up we can dive them" x2, nothing -Come out of lane up only 1 kill and 30 cs, 11/0 that's been farming our midlaner steamrolls us -Genuinely lose a winnable game because adc can't stop hitting minions
Yeah, I wouldn't have wanted the enemy botlane on my team either, since they were letting me bully 1v2. But the dampening effect of a 2v2 lane makes it hard to outpace the enemy's best player, when a couple kills and a cs lead have to compare with multiple digit kills. I don't think that's a problem with the game itself, botlane SHOULD be dampened so that we don't get another meta of games being determined by which bot feeds out of their minds. Whether the other lanes should be dampened to compensate is a question I can't easily answer, but I will point out that the difference between an enemy that loses and feeds you, and an enemy that loses and just decides to never cs instead of feeding you, is HUGE in terms of what power you can bring to the other lanes, and this decides games more than the relative skill of the players who win.
Solution? Tune up matchmaking. I'd be happy to wait a few more minutes for a game if it meant spending less hours of my life wondering why I even bothered winning botlane when enemy mid or top is waveclearing my team. Keep the best players fighting each other, not racing to farm the enemy team before they have to interact. Acknowledge the different snowballing potential between roles, if it absolutely has to be a snowball race. This would completely change the dynamic of ranked into something enjoyable.
Please correct any misconceptions I have, because the game's been a lot less fun since I noticed this. In the meantime, I'll keep watching solo laners get stomped by opponents that are much higher ranked than they are, and wondering if it's my fault for being in the queue.
