50/50 matchmaking

My sr is around 2k and i feel like half the matches i play are either not winnable even if i play the best game of my career or not losable even if i go afk in spawn. Its based on luck about which team has more smurfs. I usually check these players profile after the match and although they are all private profile nowadays level of their acc. kinda gives me an idea compared to their skill level and game knowledge. This gets even worse at late hours where there arent many players. I dont mind losing the match as long as it is well played but these games are just sad loss of time seriously… Also number of leavers are exceptional these days.

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If the teams are balanced correctly, and the matchmaker is working you should always have a 50% chance of winning.

So 50/50 matchmaking is about right

That’s the 40/40/20 “rule”. It’s not a hard rule per se of course, but more from experience: 40% of matches you will lose no matter what you do, 40% you will win no matter what, and in 20% of matches you are the deciding factor.

Just play your game, and do your best every time, and you will win more than 50% and will eventually climb.

And what do you do with that information, besides potentially getting tilted? Do you stop trying if they have 3 low level players? They might be smurfs, or they might be new players whose skill is comparable with yours. And if they’re smurfs, they also play with a skill comparable to yours. If they were dominating, they would’ve climbed quickly.

BTW, you’d notice a “real” smurf (say Master or GM) at 2k easily, because you guys would never make it out of spawn, despite everybody doing his/her best. Low rank players really underestimate the skill gap between the lower and the master ranks. I know because I was one of them. Trust me, even a 3.2k would absolutely wipe the floor with you.

So, please stop worrying about your teammates or the enemy. Worry about the only thing you have control over: your own performance. If you consistently play better than your current rank, you will climb, but it can take a while (don’t expect to gain 300SR in 5h, a rule of thumb is 2-10 SR gain per hour on average)

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My point is one sided matches are not enjoyable. I dont mind if my sr doesnt go up as long as i have good matches. I just dont like being target practice for people i shouldnt be playing with or against.

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There is a difference between having a 50/50 winrate because you are at your proper SR and having it because the matchmaker enforces this rate:

In the first case, you will have close matches with 100% to ~95% cap rates and 3:2 losses and wins. In the second case, you will steamroll and be steamrolled.

Matchmaking randomly and purely by SR will produce close matches as in the first case, occasionally interrupted by smurfs, leavers and throwers. These are mostly fun games and many people even don’t mind losing a close but fair match. Smurfs, leavers and throwers will cancel each other out and you will eventually reach your proper SR.

Matchmaking by MMR, on the other hand, uses certain obscure perfomance indicators that may be weighed or not and that certainly do not include timing, strategic contribution, shotcalling etc. It produces unfun games as in the second case and forces you to remain in the SR that the matchmaker determines by your statistics.

OP’s experience is mine also. But Blizzard will not get rid of their matchmaker: In their circular logic, the 50/50 winrate they designed the matchmaker to produce they see as proof that it is working. Not only that, for them it seems to be a point of (imho undeserved) pride.

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I´ve been thinking and noticing this a lot… with thousands of hours in overwatch I can confirm there is a VERY clear pattern of win and lose streaks. And most of the times for me at least it something like this. I feel like I am consistent… Don´t play overly tired or hyped up with stimulants. Have the same strategy thinking and around the same counterpicking cooperability… So I think I play pretty good (even that is not really relevant in this scenario I´m thinking about), rarely die first no matter the position, get cards more games then not and so on. But it is so strange that you can go up 300sr in a row… basicly 1 or 2 evenings and really have all good games… Kind of like it´s described above… You can sit on the sideline almost if you wanted too. And then 10+ games in a row there is basicly impossible to win… you go tryhard x2 and have 60+% acc on cree or whatever in gold/plat… always die last, gold dmg, gold kills, high finish blows, many times have the opening elim… Or similar things for tank or sup. Basicly you are the same player as all those 300sr up when you owned… And now because it´s a team game you could have the best 10 games in your life and it is certain losses. I think matchmaking is not fair if it always try to do even games… Random with only SR as factor would be more fair in the long run. And at least you would effect team balance positive or negative due to your skill… With team balance they just put an equal player in the other team and you are both stuck? winning every other game in average? I got nothing against being stuck if it reflects my SR… That is the way it is supposed to be… If you do not get better or comminty gets equal better as you get better… You are were you are… But the obvious streaks when you are put in a category… "Look this guy won a lot… lets have his hidden mmr make him match with throwheirts, 3 solo grav and die instantly zaryas and so on in 10+ games until he´s low enough to be put with better players again can start winning…

I have 2000-3000 hours on Overwatch and that is the pattern… Sometimes you have some streaks of only 1-3 wins or losses in a row… (More in group then solo) But it happens so often you can not convince me all those hundreds of streaks up and down I played are random.

And that bugs the hell out of me… The only reason I can come up with is that it engages people to continue playing. Like gambling addicts. It triggers the same kind of stuff.
I guess Blizzard would never confirm this because that is some dark evil *** couldnt write the poop word xD seriously *** for profit.
But yeah…
Any thoughts on this and do other people experience the same thing?

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That is literally the definition of fair matchmaking and the goal of every matchmaking system.

If you play well, you will get harder games, because you will play against and with better players. If you play badly, you will get easier games.

I don’t think it would be fair if the game “rewards” you for playing well by giving you easier games.

With no new content coming for OW, even more content creators do “unranked to GM” challenges. Watch them, they will lose some games, but in the long run, they win more than they lose and they climb to GM without problem. Every single time.

You’re a funny and weird guy.

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Will do Nightwing / BattleCattle / RodimusPrime

He still won’t learn lol.

Still seems to think BattleCattle and RodiumPrime are 2 different accounts… even after going for the name change himself.

Lmao you make it so obvious, please stop, you ain’t fooling anyone with your weirdness.

Hey… come on now. Play nice.

I think you misunderstand what i mean. It is of course possible to rank up if you are better then what your hidden MMR or whatever it is called is. But let´s say you are exacly so good as your hidden mmr is but the hidden does not match the shown SR.
Perhaps it could be possible for someone to have a hidden rank of 2000 but be ranked 2500 SR. And someone is ranked hidden 2000 but has 1500SR… When matchmaking is trying to have the fair game they put those against each other (except maybe not as extreme as a 1000sr dif)… But you should get the idea. So games will always be even and 50% win/loose in the long run. You will only rank up if blizzard does not have enough data on you. So lets say a master super duper elite player gets thrown into a lower ranked game… The other team will have enough counter balance to even the game with another pro or just some of the with the better avarage. So the super pro still has a 50% win rate even he is clearly way better then the others. So that is why i wonder how it actually works behind the scenes. I feel no difference in how hard the games are at 2200 or 3000. no difference at all… I just either have win streak… or loose streak.

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That’s the RNG plague of solo comp caused by Blizzard not curating competitive mode properly. Basically, you have so many casual “I don’t care to win/play properly” noobs in it that every other game is full of people who don’t even understand game basics, or flat out admit to playing like it’s just another QP.

Literally yesterday I’ve spent 5 min on teaching a new player in comp why Rein isn’t a good choice against high ground Bastion. The other tank actually did listen, and switched to Sigma, which made a big difference, while our stubborn Rein newbie kept switching from Rein to Winston, and kept getting wrecked. His whole game was one big respawn death loop, lol

Blizzard mismanaged OW, and Competitive to the point where Comp is now just Quick Play 2.0, and the only way to get good experience is to create full pre-made.

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You spent 5 minutes telling someone what they could play… Did they ask, or was this unsolicited.

If they didn’t ask that is a pretty toxic and poor thing to be doing.

If you chill in ranked, you will just be a bit lower than if you sweat over it. I wouldn’t be too worried about people playing chill.

If you are try harding and annoyed at your chill team mates… question yourself as to how they are your rank without even trying. Maybe they aren’t the issue.

If I only have that sr,I would be happy (is not sarcasm,am serious)

Meybe tired,it happening when u play to much and trying to much winning solo,haven’t seen smurfs since Jeff left ,I kinda agree what u say,based on luck,bcs,if enemy team have someone who will lead team to the victory then will be very hard for you to win,but u can be that one as well in your team,did u try it?

Haven’t seen leavers for a long time tbh,meybe,since December previous year,but they are not often,but yea,dc can happend to everyone,alot people trying to play the game trought WI-FI tbh and that’s big issue.

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Leavers was a thing 2020 when this thread is from and still is a thing, I played 3 matches today and had people leave either when they got killed or when there was 1 min left and they were losing.

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i agree… i have 2 accs, one gold frame and a fresh one. on the gold frame my tank sr is around ~2k w ~2.2k peak, on the fresh its ~2.4k, ~2.5k peak. im playing the same heroes with the same settings, basically the only difference is that im getting a bit higher skill teams and i stuck on the gold frame cuz it doesnt matter if i have a win streak, the matchmaking will ruin it right after with a lose streak. most of my games are unbalanced, either we win supremely or lose supremely (rarely balanced) and i can predict the result at the start w 80% accuracy…

so i feel like the only 2 ways to climb up in solo q are buying an alt or i have to invest hundreds of hours just to get a few hundred sr…

That isn’t the game deciding to make you lose.

You are just at your level, so if you win enough games you’ll suddenly be playing with better players… At which point you just won’t be as good and will be losing more than you win.

Almost like skill based matchmaking works… and the need for constant improvement is what pushes you higher.

Im not saying that the game deciding to make me lose. Im saying that the 50/50 winrate statement is a complete bs. Most of the time the chances are not equal and not 60-40%, i have literally no impact on the outcome no matter how good im playing, no matter which hero im picking (and im playing ow for a long, long time, i know all the counterpicks, etc). The only way you can win these games if your real rank is like 2 ranks higher than the rank you playing in. If your real rank high gold and you stuck in low gold, you cant win these games unless the enemy have a leaver (and a few times the enemy won 5v6). So you cant say that the matchmaking is balanced when its only balanced in 20% of all games. And for me playing ow is not even about climbing, i just wanna have fun. Its almost like youre an amateur boxer and you have to fight 80% of your matches against kids in wheelchairs or against pros… Its just not fun and not balanced…