Elo Hell: Current System Feels So Unrewarding

Competitive Discussion
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I’ve been playing support in Overwatch for years now, and I’ve always loved the role. But lately, I’ve been feeling completely demoralized, and it’s all because of how the ranking system works. Specifically, rank deboosts for things like loss streaks, “expected victories,” or even just having a wide rank disparity on the team have turned what used to be a challenge into a frustrating grind.

Let me explain why this system is hurting players like me, and maybe some of you can relate.

Losing Streaks Feel Like a Death Sentence

If you’re a support player, you know that your impact on the game often depends on whether your teammates can capitalize on your work. I can pull off insane healing numbers, perfectly time my ultimates, and even help secure objectives—but if the DPS players can’t hit their shots or the tank charges into oblivion, the team still loses.

Now, add a deboost penalty to a losing streak on top of that. Instead of feeling motivated to improve, I feel punished for things outside of my control. It’s like the system is saying, “Oh, you lost a few games? Here’s an extra kick.”

Expected Victory Deboosts are the Worst

Sometimes the matchmaking system puts my team against players with a much lower average rank. Sure, on paper, we should win. But this doesn’t account for things like smurfs, cheaters, or even just bad luck. Losing these “expected victory” games hits harder because not only do you lose rank, but you lose extra rank due to some arbitrary calculation.

As a support, I’ve been in games where I’ve outperformed everyone—even carrying the team—and still lost. Why am I being punished when I did everything I could?

Rank Disparity in Teams Feels Like a Trap

Playing with friends is one of the best parts of competitive games, but it’s becoming less enjoyable because of penalties tied to rank differences. If I queue with a higher-ranked friend, I’m expected to “play up” and still keep the team together. If I queue with a lower-ranked friend, I get less credit for wins and harsher penalties for losses. Either way, I’m punished for trying to have fun.

As a support, my rank already doesn’t reflect my individual performance because the system is so team-focused. Adding these kinds of deboost penalties just makes me feel like I’m being set up to fail.

Support Roles Are Underappreciated in Rank Systems

I recently created a new account to try for better placement. I managed to hit Plat 1, but after the rank reset, the game casually gave me -1 division to start off, so I began in Gold 4. I calibrated to Gold 1 but then hit a losing streak. The system just kept demoting me into oblivion until I was back at Gold 4.

Now, I’m on the edge of elo hell, just like what happened on my main account. There, I climbed a few ranks, fell into a losing streak, and eventually dropped as deep as Silver 4. As a support player, it feels impossible to solo win at this point. Unless I go crazy and stop playing as a “support,” focusing on damage instead, I have no way to carry. And even then, my low-rank teammates complain about healing and threaten to report me for “inting” because I’m doing their job for them.

It’s exhausting and demoralizing to know that no matter how much effort I put in, the ranking system just doesn’t value support contributions.

Like, even from a basic game design perspective, I can see what you were trying to fix, but it’s an awful decision in terms of both user experience and metrics.

Excessive Rank Depreciation from Loss Streaks: Penalizing players for loss streaks just creates more frustration, especially when those players are consistently outperforming according to key metrics like Average Match Impact or Personal Performance Rating. By ignoring individual skill factors—like how much healing a support player provides compared to what was possible—the system ends up punishing players for things they can’t control, like their teammates’ performance. This just makes the whole ranking experience feel unfair and discouraging.

From a retention standpoint, this design is driving players away. When players feel like their efforts don’t matter and their rank doesn’t reflect their actual skill, they’re less likely to keep playing long-term. You’ll see higher churn rates, as frustrated players quit or play less often. Players who are punished for their performance during losing streaks may also be less motivated to engage with the game, reducing Average Session Length (ASL) and Daily Active Users (DAU) over time.

From a monetization perspective, this approach hurts engagement with things like in-game purchases. When players feel demoralized and not rewarded for their effort, they’re less likely to spend money on cosmetics or battle passes, as they’re not enjoying the game enough to make it feel worth it. Low engagement leads to a drop in Revenue per User (RPU) and may even impact customer lifetime value (CLV). Basically, by punishing players for factors outside their control, you’re hurting the overall game economy too.

Final Thoughts

I love this game, and I love playing support. But right now, the ranking system feels like it’s actively discouraging me from continuing. When effort and skill go unrewarded, it’s hard to stay motivated.

Thanks for reading.

— A Frustrated Support Main

1 Like
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This is a slight misunderstanding.

Both teams will be around the same average MMR. But, as you’d expect they’re not likely to be exactly the same.

That slight variation is where the “expected” and what not is coming from.

Yes.

If you play with a higher ranked friend. You’ll be in a higher average lobby than if you were solo.

The opposite applies when you play with someone lower.

If you with with that lower friend, you can’t expect to gain more for winning in a lobby that’s lower than your current rank.

The game is frustrating. Any game where you are relying on other humans to achieve something, is likely to be frustrating at times. But remember this “elo hell” isn’t an actual thing. It’s usually just the result of bouncing around where you should be and being frustrated by a perceived lack of progress.

Unless you plan to put significant time and effort into becoming a far better player. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Play with your friends, enjoy the games you play with them, and what will be will be on terms of your rank and progress.

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Exactly. We’re talking about what the system explicitly tells us and what we can clearly observe. There’s Team 1 and Team 2. Team 1 is filled with Plastic 3 players, and Team 2 has Gold 1 players. Then the game turns around and says, “Well, you should’ve won that,” and slaps you with a penalty, completely ignoring how that Plastic 3 player might have actually performed in the match.

It doesn’t matter if the system’s internal calculations are technically balancing MMR averages; what matters is how the outcome feels to the player. If the game punishes you for not winning against a team it says is weaker, it disregards the reality of performance variance and external factors (like smurfs, cheaters, or team synergy differences). It’s a terrible experience and demoralizing for the players stuck in these situations.

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Ultimately, the names are misleading .

Personally, I think telling the players about them and naming them was a bad idea. They’ve always been a thing, since they moved away from PBSR.

But, it’s not saying you should have won. It’s saying technically you had a very marginal advantage. The differences aren’t big enough to be actual skill variations. You’re talking maybe 20-30sr difference in the team average in old money.

It isn’t punishing you. But logically you don’t deserve as much credit for being lower players than yourself. That’s understandable.

Indeed. It just about winning. None of those factors are relevant to your MMR and rank (which are 1:1 now)

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I’m so glad you’ve never found yourself in the 7th circle of elo hell, but let me explain what it’s like when you do. There are games where, no matter how much effort you put in, you simply cannot win solo. Maybe your DPS doesn’t understand they need to focus the enemy support or pressure the backline, so that backline just carries the enemy team to victory. And there’s nothing you can do about it.

Now imagine hitting the 7th circle, where all your DPS fail to grasp this. On top of that, your second support isn’t healing enough or is pocketing a useless teammate. Suddenly, you’re playing for three people at once. You’re focusing targets your DPS don’t, trying to patch up the healing your co-support missed, and still dancing around to survive the enemy who’s targeting you. Meanwhile, your team doesn’t notice any of this—they think you’re trolling because you’re not hitting the “expected” numbers on the scoreboard. That’s when they start tilting and flaming you.

This doesn’t happen once or twice—it happens game after game, dragging you deeper into elo hell, where your rank falls further and further, not because of your skill, but because you’re carrying dead weight while being blamed for it. It’s demoralizing, exhausting, and a cycle that’s almost impossible to escape.

Exactly, that’s precisely what I’m talking about. First, the game already takes points away from you for losing—that’s the baseline penalty. But then it goes out of its way to emphasize, “We expected you to win,” and deducts even more than the baseline, just because of some arbitrary expectation.

In reality, the match was often close to evenly balanced, and many times it feels like you were just fighting for your life out there. The system doesn’t account for the actual experience of the match—it just slaps you with a bigger penalty for failing to meet its flawed expectations. That makes the whole experience feel unnecessarily punishing and demoralizing.

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I was low bronze, very low. What would be well into Bronze 5 these days. Climbed over a LONG period of time to touch GM.

Elo hell isn’t an actual thing. Just the sense of frustration when you aren’t progressing as fast as you think you should.

Blaming teammates, I get it, it’s easy to do. Even if it’s right, it won’t help you. So the quicker you break that habit. The better.

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And I was a daimond even before the introduction of 2-2-2, while I always played high gold - platinum, and played community tournaments, and I know the game since the OBT.

Believe me, I also know what grind is, what it is to climb out, how you have to focus on your perfomance, “you chat you lose”, I’ve been to hell and back many times during the entire Overwatch, so I know what I’m writing about when I say that it’s the most unrewarding system I’ve ever seen, and it’s almost a real challenge to climb up when you’re stuck on low ranks.

IMHO - One of the best systems was the last system with five (?) games before rank updates. Back then it was much easier to move up when you played, in my personal experience, you only got demoted if you were blatantly trolling and not keeping up.

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Yeah I didn’t mind that system either.

I get why they binned it though, we weren’t in the majority with liking it.