Boards›[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous

So how is ranked matchmaking efficient?

Ice Cold Waz·3/20/2015, 4:52:28 AM·1 votes·737 views

So I'm confused by how ranked works. I know about MMR and how if you're MMR is higher than your ranking you earn more points for wins and less points per loss. What I am confused about is how matchmaking works. For instance below is an example of two of my most recent ranked games that I have played.

My team was a Silver 3, Sliver 4, Silver 3, Silver 5(myself), and a Silver 4.

The opposing team was a Silver 4, Silver 4, Silver 4 ,Gold 5, and Silver 4.

This next match I played was a Silver 3, Silver 4, Silver 4, Silver 5(myself), and Silver 5.

The other team was Bronze 5, Silver 3, Silver 3, Silver 2, and Silver 4.

In both of those I was the lowest player in the first match and in the second one I was the bottom three in terms of rank. My question then is does this mean that my MMR is higher and that's why I fight against stronger opponents? Because if the only way to raise your rank is by versing players that are stronger than you in rank that doesn't make any sense.

The other problem I had with this match is that the first match(the one with the Gold 5) had the Gold 5 and Silver 4 on the other team smurfing and playing together. I know this because they told me in the post lobby and both added me as friends who I played a game with after.(both of them were pretty cool and I enjoyed playing on their team) So even though it was all lower silver players against lower silvers with a gold they still got the duo in matchmaking? I thought that being a duo meant you got tougher opponents, not easier ones.

This isn't a QQ I should be in a better elo, I just don't get why as a silver V I never actually play against any other silver 5s.

1 Comments

Matthias91193/20/2015, 5:04:14 AM1 votes

It matches based on MMR, which is fluctuating as you win and lose. While most players in the same division are fairly close in MMR, a few things can throw this off:

  1. Win and loss streaks. MMR adjusts more slowly than LP/"rank", so it's easy to go up or down a division -- maybe even two -- due to a run of good or bad matches.

  2. Players in a "V" division who have lost a lot of games, but not enough to be demoted down between tiers. A Gold V, for example, won't get demoted until their MMR gets down to the Silver V range.

  3. Duo queues. They get a bonus to effective MMR to compensate for the assumed better coordination and communication. Also it skews towards the higher-ranked player's rating. So if, for example, a Gold 1 and a Silver V group up, they'll probably be placed in matches around Gold 3-4.

Also, the longer you are in queue the less picky it gets about who to put in your game. But if you are against a stronger team you lose less and gain more LP/MMR (and vice versa if you are favored).