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Not Playing Ranked/Normals Until Matchmaking Is Fixed

CandiedYams·3/27/2018, 7:40:41 PM·56 votes·3,699 views

Last month, Riot claimed that "most teams have an expected win rate of 50 +/-1%" (https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2018/02/dev-matchmaking-real-talk/). But anyone who has been playing this game on a regular basis since the start of this season knows that their statement is a bunch of bullshit. All season, my match history has had a reoccurring pattern of 5-7 wins in a row then 5-7 losses in a row. Sometimes, the pattern would be interrupted by a couple of lucky or unlucky games or the streaks would be a little longer or shorter but my point is, Riot's algorithm is a lie.

Rarely do my games seem like either team could win. It was usually clear which team was going to win during the first 5-10 minutes of the game. Whether it was solo/duo ranked, flex, or normal, most games were either easy wins or easy losses. Winning and losing like this, without feeling any sense of challenge or hope, is just not fun. Comebacks shouldn't be so rare, snowballing shouldn't be so common, and teams shouldn't always seem imbalanced.

Last week, I was on a 14-game winning streak, which I think is the longest streak that I've ever had. Most of the games were pretty damn easy so I thought that either I've been extremely lucky for the past couple of days or that Riot's matchmaking algorithm was setting me up for a very long losing streak. After this lucky streak, the typical winning and losing streaks came back. But about a week later, I found myself on a very unlucky 12-game losing streak. If Riot's algorithm works then how could my match history be mostly blue (wins) one week, and then 16/20 red (losses) the next week? That doesn't seem like a "win rate of 50 +/-1%" to me. Sure, a few of the losses were due to afks/leavers on my team and/or toxic players who were clearly throwing the game but why would I have to deal with all of that during the losing streak and none during the winning streak?

The current matchmaking algorithm makes wins boring and losses frustrating, so I am not playing another ranked or normal game until it is fixed. I wanted to completely quit but a few league friends talked me out of it so I decided to uninstall until any rotating game modes that I like are out. I figure that since many players don't take those modes seriously, the matchmaking algorithm shouldn't affect them too much.

If anyone has heard any news about Riot fixing matchmaking, please let me know.

129 Comments

xPhantomDancerX3/27/2018, 8:01:07 PM13 votes

It's been 8 seasons. Do you honestly think they're going to get it fix anytime soon?

Mreeshai3/27/2018, 9:45:47 PM8 votes

Streaks are part of true randomness. Your mental condition also affects how you play, so that may also contribute towards win/loss streaks happening.

Davaken3/28/2018, 4:35:58 AM8 votes

People still believe in this conspiracy theory... sigh

SakuraSammi3/28/2018, 11:04:47 AM5 votes

Your match history says you have a 50% winrate, whats the issue? http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=Just+Brie

Looks like its working as intended.

130x3/31/2018, 1:14:28 PM2 votes

Riot really needs to fix this, above all else this single issue could end this game due to both senior and new people just saying fuck it i'm done. They keep ignoring it, not even commenting on any matchmaking thread for years. They are on thin ice with this one.

Nea1043/28/2018, 12:39:25 PM2 votes

A forced 50% win ratio is way easier that trying to balance every game :) 1 year ago was the same thing and only a few noticed it, glad that finally the out-of-control snowballing made it clear to anyone :D

GripaAviara3/28/2018, 1:55:26 PM2 votes

What people don't realise here if the system is truly 50% balanced, a 6 game streak (winning or losing) has a wooping 1.6% chance of happening. That means at 1000 games, it should happen once or twice. Now ponder and see how many streaks like this happened in 100, 200 , 300 games.

The 50% is anyway not true, if the rate would be 50% this means almost nobody would climb.

Saezio3/28/2018, 7:54:55 PM1 votes

If this was the truth then it would mean your collective MMR in those wins was higher than the collective MMR of the enemy team and vice versa for losses. Was that the case? If you go into such trouble to make this post and actually quit, maybe you should have just gathered proof (you can check ranked match histories from friends instead of just basing this on your own experience, also expanding your sample size). If you had a sample of like 500 games where like 80% of wins were coming from significantly higher MMR teams maybe you would get some attention. To be clear i am not asking you to do this, infact the best advice i have after playing league since season 1 is to not start it or quit it. I have only (well 95% or so) played aram for the past year or so because you don't get worked up, and you can pop for 1 game per day and almost never get flamed whereas we all know how ranked just consumes about 30% of your effective life at a minimum if you take it seriously and makes you start smoking if you don't /mute all at game start.