Ranked matchmaking is insane

General Discussion
1

ive been getting put with new players in silver who have clearly never touched mobas before. they are sometimes partied in groups of 3 or 4 and have no idea how to play the game. usually the spend the whole game never leaving lane except when forced by death (which they have every 1 or 2 min). few matches ago the enemy team had an ana who didnt even know she could heal and ended the game at 20 mins with 800 total healing done. i get the game is basically dead and its probably healthier to shorten the queue times as much as human possible but jesus christ this is just boring and rage inducing.

another thing. at this point you need to remove map lockouts in ranked too. nobody cares why you choose to do that at this point but it needs to change. the game hasnt had any meaningful update in years and youre just artificially blocking access to content for no good reason at all when balance clearly is not an issue anymore.

2

Dear Blizzard,

I’m going to be honest — this is getting really upsetting, and it feels like there’s a massive elephant in the room that you guys are just not addressing.

I’ve been playing this game for many years now. I’ve put a lot of time into it, learned pretty much every hero, and stuck with it because it used to be fun and different from other MOBAs. But right now, it just feels like everything is going downhill.

Let’s start with the report system. I’ve been banned before — that’s why I’m on a new account — and honestly, the system just doesn’t work properly. It feels like:

you chat = you risk getting banned
you report someone = they report you back
and it just becomes a loop

That’s not even the main point here, but it adds to the frustration.

The real issue is matchmaking and ranked.

I hit level 50, unlocked everything properly, and decided to try ranked for the first time. First game — completely ruined.

One player literally said in draft that he’s not going to play. And guess what? He didn’t. AFK from minute one.

Another player was just straight up not good enough for ranked — no objective play, tunnel vision in lane, zero contribution.

So what’s the point of ranked if this is what it looks like?

This also brings up another problem — blocking and reporting players does nothing. You still get matched with the same people again. Not against them — in your own team. I’ve experienced this multiple times. What’s the point of blocking/reporting if I still have to play with them?

Quick Match already has this “it’s just QM” mentality where people don’t care. Fine, whatever — that’s how it is now. But ranked should NOT feel the same. Right now, there is basically no difference.

It honestly feels like everything is failing:

matchmaking
ranked integrity
player quality control
reporting system

And on top of that — there are no proper tools to deal with ruined games:

no real vote-to-end system
no way to end a game early when someone is AFK or trolling
you’re forced to sit there for 20+ minutes wasting time
you can’t even AFK yourself or you get punished

So what are players supposed to do? Just move the hero around and wait for the game to end?

That’s not fun. That’s just wasting time.

I chose this game over other MOBAs because it used to be quick, fun, and less stressful. Now it’s just frustrating. As a solo player, it also feels impossible to go above 50% win rate — unless you queue as a group.

If this can’t be fixed, then honestly — what is the future of this game? Because right now it feels like there’s no attention or care being put into it anymore.

I can provide replay footage if needed — this isn’t just me complaining for no reason. These are real issues that happen constantly.

I’ve been here since around 2017, and I’m only writing this because I actually care. But the current experience is just not acceptable.

Something needs to change.

1 Like
3

I used to rank gold, then silver… Now since the last patch about 2 weeks ago the matches are so stacked that I got pushed to bronze and still I am facing Li-Ming, Zul’jin and Orphea smurfs that do 10-15 kills (not counting assists) every match. Based on my experience playing with friends in higher leagues, those players getting 15 kills must be at least platinum skill level. I am still playing HotS after all this time, because I like the strong characters/flavor, but getting demolished in matches where enemies keep getting 4x more kills than our team - so much that they don’t really need to lane or play objective, they can just farm hero kills and win - is just not fun. Is there really no way how to make the matches more balanced?

4

Not that HoTs matchmaking system is unique in how bad it is for solo queue players

But i do think whoever designed this matchmaking system should get some kind of award, it is quite an achievement in itself of how bad it is

As for ranked, i was playing in diamond on my 2 accounts, and i see it has no difference than quick match in the matchmaking system (for solo queue, also for duo) no point to play ranked unless you play a 5 man stack and stomp the solo teams.

You get people who go afk and give up / cry the same amount as in quick match, so why bother to play ranked as a solo player? it does not make any sense, such a time waste to first wait for picks then have a team that does not want to play

I personally dont think the other big MOBA’s, League of legends or Dota 2 is any fun mobas, HoTs is more fun i think.

It’s interesting that this game is 11 years old and still have almost instant match queues, sad that blizzard has this game in maintenance mode tough as there is clearly an interest from the community.

1 Like
5

And now servers are down EU

6

Said very good, and totally agree!!