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New Matchmaking & Rank Display System

Daen·11/17/2013, 8:31:01 AM·11 votes·862 views

Hey guys,

So I’ve been working on this for a while now, and am finally posting it to look for feedback. The current matchmaking system, while somewhat accurate over a huge sample size of games, doesn’t quickly register improvements/degradations in skill level or accurately display your level of play at any point in time. I’m sure you’ve all noticed games where you have a Silver 3 in the same game as Gold 4s and Silver 5s without even having premades present (as an example). Yes, it makes sense that MMR is still there, but why have a system that makes your visible rank so wildly variable? This might be a bit of a read, but there’ll be a TL;DR at the bottom for all you lazies out there!

The ELO System

Before Season 3 we had the ELO system. For those of you not familiar with it, the system had a perfectly linear progression where there was no way to ‘earn’ a spot in a Tier. Essentially, if I were 1480 ELO then won a game that got me to 1500 ELO (then Gold rank), I could lose my next game and immediately drop back down to 1480 ELO (back to high Silver).

Benefits of ELO:

  • Perfectly linear, if you were 1500 ELO you matched with people that were as close to 1500 ELO as possible.
  • Easy to get to Tiers or get back to them after falling below the threshold.

Detriments of ELO:

  • Easy to fall out of Tiers right after earning them
  • No sense of progression aside from the Tiers

The ELO system was great in accuracy and speed of response. You always matched with people as close as possible to your displayed level, and if someone was 1500 ELO it was guaranteed (well, mostly) that they played at the level of other 1500 ELO players. There was very little ladder anxiety when doing well overall due to the fact that it was so easy to progress, but going on losing streaks created a hefty amount of distress. Getting to Tiers felt great, but in the ~400 ELO between each Tier marker there was very little to distinguish yourself or gauge your performance.

The LP/MMR System

In Season 3 we were switched to the MMR/rank system. I assume everyone’s familiar with it, but if not let me give you a rundown. The metric that actually matches you with people (MMR) is invisible and you’re placed based on your LP amount and how you do in promotional series’. MMR is essentially what ELO used to be, but it’s no longer linked to how people perceive your rank.

Benefits of MMR:

  • Very strong sense of progression, the addition of Divisions allowed for much smoother transitions.
  • Once you earned a Division/Tier milestone, it was harder to drop out.

Detriments of MMR:

  • Promotional series’ create ladder anxiety.
  • MMR does not at any point hard link itself into your displayed rating, allowing for disparities in what your skill level appears to be.

The MMR system is great at giving players a strong sense of progression and the feeling that you’re really earning your position. Promotional series’, though stressful, definitely give a sense of accomplishment and allow the player to not be stressed about losing their hard-earned Division/Tier. Unfortunately these positives come with a few negatives; MMR and your actual Division/Tier placement aren’t hard linked anywhere, which means that at no point will your Division/Tier ever perfectly reflect specifically what level you play the game at. In addition, series’ cause ladder anxiety when not blazing through them due to the fact they require a higher winrate than average to succeed.

Eventually success should happen if you deserve the next level, but it’s pretty inefficient. Most players have around a 51-52% win ratio overall in Ranked, but Divisional promotional series’ require a burst win ratio of 67% while Tier promotional series’ require an instant 60% win ratio.

My Suggestion

I propose a combination of the two styles’ best qualities while ditching the negatives. The best things about ELO are its linearity and its ease of progression at a ‘normal’ win/loss ratio, and the best things about MMR are its sense of achievement and the ability to retain a rank for a period of time before losing it. If we put all four of these concepts together, we end up with a system that’s both fun to use and clear while being accurate.

Step 1: Retain LP and the Division/Tier organization, but LP will only be used at the top of each Division as a way to allow players to earn higher ranks and have some buffer for demotion.

Step 2: Bring back ELO, but only for the ‘meat’ of each Division so to speak. The bulk of the matchmaking and placement will be from the ELO system due to its accuracy and speed of accounting for changes in skill.

Let’s assume that I’ve just reached Silver 1 and wish to become Gold 5. In the ELO system I’d just have to go from 1400-1500 ELO and I’d be Gold. In the MMR system I’d have to go from 0-100 LP in Silver 1 then complete my promotional series for Gold. In the proposed system it’d be done exactly like ELO, except that upon reaching 1499 ELO (the top of Silver 1 Division) my ELO would freeze and my client would display 100 LP instead. This area of each Division would be called the ‘Promotional Bracket’, and while at the top of a Division like this your matchmaking would still be based on your ELO of 1499. Everyone in their Promotional Bracket to get into Gold 5 would be 1499 ELO, and thus more likely to be matched together. The reason this switches to LP is that the goal would be to win a certain number of games at 100 LP in order to progress to the next rank. If the player drops below 50 LP while in this Bracket, they’re switched back to ELO at whatever level they would’ve dropped to normally.

For example: I just won a game that put me at 1499 ELO. My ELO now freezes and I enter my Promotional Bracket. If I win 5 games at any point while having 100 LP, I move on to Gold 5. If during this Bracket I drop to 48 LP, I am switched back to 1448 ELO and I have to work my way back up to re-enter the Promotional Bracket.

There are two reasons I consider this superior to the current promotional system:

  • First, your MMR (ELO in this case) won’t change at all while you’re in your Promotional Bracket. This means that you will always be matched as closely as possible to players that are either about to hit that promo, are currently in it, or have just moved into the next rank.
  • Second, there is far less pressure to immediately pull a 60-67% win/loss ratio to move into the next rank. As long as you maintain a 50% win ratio you can stay in the Bracket indefinitely, but if your winrate drops for too long you have to retry it and if you maintain 51% you will eventually progress without having to do the promo again.

Upon reaching a new Division/Tier, there would be a 3/5 game buffer where you cannot drop to the previous rank while at the very bottom of your rank (e.g. 1500 ELO for Gold 5). This is relatively similar to the current system, but it would be a lot more clear and normalized in my proposal.

Each Division would need to have a total of 100 (99 due to the freeze at the top) ELO in it to be fully accurate. If based off of Gold 5 being 1500-1599 ELO, the entirety of Gold might look like this:

  • Gold 5: 1500 - 1599 ELO
  • Gold 4: 1600 - 1699 ELO
  • Gold 3: 1700 - 1799 ELO
  • Gold 2: 1800 - 1899 ELO
  • Gold 1: 1900 - 1999 ELO

This system would extend from Bronze 5 to Diamond 1, giving a total ELO range of 0 - 2999 ELO with 3000+ being Challenger.

TL;DR - The ELO system was flawed, and Riot fixed those flaws with the LP/MMR system but created some new issues. The above proposal hopes to fix the problems in LP/MMR by bringing in the good parts of ELO and removing the bad parts of LP/MMR. By bringing back ELO but keeping the concept of a promotional series/Divisions while removing ladder anxiety, this can potentially become a reality.

Thanks for reading,

~ Daen

13 Comments

Void225811/17/2013, 9:00:44 PM2 votes

I agree that this is an issue. For example when going from Bronze 1 to Silver 5, I played 9 series in a a row (win 1 to enter, win 2 lose 3 in series), dropped back to 35LP on a loss streak and then worked back up to 100 and played another 3 series to advance. In that first series I went from being matched with other high bronze-low silver players to being placed in other peoples' Silver-Gold promos. The issue with the current disconnected system is that if you get into a cycle such as I did, your MMR is STILL RISING the whole time, so the matches get progressively harder even though your visible ranking isn't moving. This in turn means you actually WANT to lose a few to pull your MMR back down, so the system punishes consistent but not streaky (or streaky at the wrong time) performance. This is contrary to how you want a ranking system to work; consistent performance should be rewarded, not punished.

Both promo series should put you in the bracket you earned with the same LP gains as if you had played the promo matches in the tier anyway, so the effort you put into the promo matches is reflected just as it is if you lose the series, which you'll notice continue to effect your LP if you lose even though they are ignored if you win. Also to mitigate ladder anxiety there should be active warning and perhaps a series for demotion too.

M0MENTUM11/17/2013, 9:08:53 AM2 votes

I like the concept a lot, my only problem with MMR/LP is the innacuracy of the system, sometimes plat 2 players pick before me and sometimes diamond 3 players pick after me, and being in diamond 5, its confusing and I can't tell where I'm legitimately placed. Think this sytem would clear that up a lot.

AotW King11/17/2013, 8:28:33 PM1 votes

Kind of complicated IMO, we talked about it for a while and I can't say its totally clear, I think that simplifying it would seriously help the idea. As far as simplifying it goes, start with making a visual example of it I think. It would certainly help me.

Kitch2611/17/2013, 11:38:06 PM1 votes

My only concern would be the disparity between LP gain and loss. I'm FAR from being experienced at playing ranked but what I've noticed is that you'll often see gains of only 10-15 LP while having losses of 20+ LP. This is what frustrates me the most about the current system because I feel like I have to constantly have a higher win rate in case I lose a single match

FieryDusk11/18/2013, 5:40:04 AM1 votes

Ahri

Fiendx11/18/2013, 3:08:11 PM1 votes

Make KDA count. When you lose that's all you got, and if you like me you can lose and still have a great game. Maybe +1 lp for kill, -1 lp for death, +.5 lp for assist. I have great games and lose, but give us something for the work we do.

Solan Stonewhip11/19/2013, 9:36:19 PM1 votes

an interesting solution, i'm not sure how i feel about it. i kind of don't like the idea of dropping tiers so easily. ionno, it doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Into The World11/28/2013, 8:35:46 AM1 votes

The system should burn in hell for putting retards in the game when i cant win a match anymore because my team doesnt understand how to play for example im top lane shen against yi doing really good havent given him a kill so im 5/0 in around mid game but then they give him a quadra kill so they blame me by feeding him in lane so now we are in a argument about how i didnt feed him so we have no communication. so this is called bronze for life and not elo hell thats shit but their is something called being stuck and cant embrace your full ability meaning my elo isnt showing how good i am. also i have taken alot of advice i dont curse in game when i do im messing around not harassing so i dont get flamed ever. I stay calm all game but we still can never function asd a team is suppose to.

eKatSS11/17/2013, 4:52:46 PM1 votes

I like the proposed system, but doesn't it make it insanely easy to boost? Unless you can drop tiers easily.