Is this fair?

ZehPandah·Nov 8, 2014·1 votes·572 views

I've just started recently, only level 15 right now. Is it fair to be going against people that are lvl 30? Over the past 2 weeks or so, I've played against several people who where lvl 30 and some are ranked ranging from silver-plat. Won a few, but lost the majority of the games where it had people who were ranked. It's always fun to have a challenge and I do learn quite a bit from those games. However, it does get quite frustrating after a while and makes me not really want to play.

I know they're usually in a duo, but shouldn't there be a system in place to prevent this or limit the duoing with higher lvl/ranked?

6 Comments

No flash no lifeNov 8, 20141 votes

Up to this date I still don't get why this duo/trio system works as it is. If a high level is willing to duo or trio with low level(s), it means that low level player is good enough for the high level player to want to play with him/her, hence they should be matched with players about as good as the high level player, not the other way around.

I remember back when I wasn't 30 yet, I kept running into silver~plat ppl on the other team and their response @post game lobby when ppl raged was "we're duo que". Like, does it make sense to you to assume the high level player most likely performs as bad as the low level player(s) so they should be matched with other low levels?

Matthias9119Nov 8, 20141 votes

Up to this date I still don't get why this duo/trio system works as it is. If a high level is willing to duo or trio with low level(s), it means that low level player is good enough for the high level player to want to play with him/her, hence they should be matched with players about as good as the high level player, not the other way around.

I remember back when I wasn't 30 yet, I kept running into silver~plat ppl on the other team and their response @post game lobby when ppl raged was "we're duo que". Like, does it make sense to you to assume the high level player most likely performs as bad as the low level player(s) so they should be matched with other low levels?

If you have a premade team with a large MMR difference (which does take summoner level and games played into account as well in Normals) it does lean somewhat towards the higher-skill player already, plus there is an adjustment for being in a premade. So if you had a duo with, say, one player at 2000 MMR and another at 1000 (which is like Plat and Bronze), the average MMR for the duo might be considered something like 1600-1700 (high Gold?). Then it will look for other groups or single players around that MMR to fill in with. Riot has a LOT of data about winrates for groups with various MMR disparities, and they have tried to adjust it so that grouped players still maintain a ~50% winrate.

I've played on teams with large skill disparities, and it usually finds matchups that feel reasonable. When it doesn't it's likely to be from factors like the high-skill player not having an accurate MMR in Normal matches, or the low-skill player being a smurf that hasn't played enough games to be properly rated.

Edit:

and like the other guy above mentioned, if you came in doing really well because you're an experienced RTS and/or MOBA player, it can adjust your MMR upwards very quickly so you're not just stomping people game after game.

67chromeNov 8, 20141 votes

Are you duo-queueing with a high level friend?

Matchmaking checks your level before Elo from everything I've seen.

Only other reason you might be matched in that bracket is if you checked the box for having a lot of MOBA experience when you created the account. Generally speaking, every friend I've introduced any game to will immediately skip the beginner/easy difficulty setting and go straight into intermediate bots. You might have felt like a skillfull boss when creating your account, and checked the largest pre-account Elo separate option, tossing you into an Elo bracket with nothing but smurfs and alt accounts that do require a fairly solid level of skill to go up against. Could be really hard to tell that's the case if you shotgunned your early levels with co op vs. AI games.

Sailor MintNov 8, 20141 votes

Are you duoing yourself?

Considering ranked was switched to +/- 1 tier for duoing. Probably. But it would also mean people making even more smurfs to play with their lowbie friends.

ZehPandahNov 9, 20141 votes

I'm not doing any sort of duo with a higher elo. This is my first moba, haven't played anything like this before. I'm not sure what "MMR" is, but I assume it has to do with your win rate? I'm at about 54%-56% win rate ish. Though, as of right now I'm sort of on tilt with like 5 defeats in a row.

No flash no lifeNov 9, 20141 votes

Reasonable explanation made and - though it does not seem to me that's how it's working - I hope that's what the matchmaker actually does.

And I don't know what MMR is either, but rather than win rate I assume it's something that represents your performance in game, including but not limited to your score, $, cs (minion slain count), objectives achieved, etc etc.