After a very long talk on saturday at least 5 hours in the restaurant with the team we discussed all the things we tested and shared it with each other so we did made a list.
Our list is in the description what we agreed on when we had the meeting with the team.
First of all me and my coworkers in our company like to play this game after work we had this problem with ranking up on competitive and we talking about hunders of hours here.
So we was thinking let’s check it out where is the problem after all we are working with an IT based company all of us are programmers and database developers.
Before we started testing we did the first check on our skills and rank and asked players from every rank to help us test our skills against them
Bronze/Silver/Gold/Plat/Diamond/Master/Grand Master/Top 500
We did this with test against every Rank as 1 vs 1 and 6 vs 6 as well with all of our players included (14)
We did a lot of test :
1; Test our skills and go against players from every rank in competitive 1vs 1 and 6 vs 6
2; We bought each of us 5 Accounts and Leveled up to where you can join to Competitive Play and see what rank we will get with each of the different accounts.
3; Tested Smurfing as well how the players react to it
4; We tested the report system on competitive
Results:
1; What we discovered abour our ranks was shocking. All of our ranks was false not even close what the system give us when we did the first 10 placement match on Competitive.
We realize the system can’t measure your rank at all it will give you your rank based on what teams you get when you do the 10 placement match.
How could the system measure your skills and witch rank is equal with your skills do it with basically almost with zero Data this is why this sytem is missleading people and let them belive their skills are bad and they deserve their rank this is not true at all.
This system will never work the players need to start from bronze and LVL UP their rank just like every other competitive game on the market.
Puting players in random ranks every 10 match we had only 2 Match where players at least was the rank where their skills matched their rank the other 8 from 10 was not even close their rank should be 1 or 2 rank below where their skills match their rank and they should be lower.
Problem is with the system and how BLIZZARD handel the new players who join to the Competitive game play and get their Rank after their first 10 match and how they determine players rank and not let them rank up even if they put in 12 hours a day and 99% of players don’t have 12 hours to play to get their 200 sr lost back and be on the same rank or 100+ sr.
2; All of us had all his 5 Acc on tottaly different rank.
We Realize the first 10 placement match is nothing to do with your rank is FULLY Random.
It depends on your luck, what kind of players you get: trolls, throwers, beginners who don’t know wich hero what is it for and how to play with it how to use the heros skills, or players who don’t know what Counter plays mean etc.
3; Smurfing is affects more the competitive play experience and players games then BLIZZARD willing to admit it way more if you ask us.
It is a horrible experience what we experinced with my coworkers.
We experinced it first hand this issue as well a lot and ruin the whole game for us.
Some of the smurfing issue is coming from the matchmaking system problem
An example me wo was only 50 sr from Platinum with my Widowmaker on
1 of my account.
Then i get reported for cheating and i was streaming on that time so i was laughting but then the sytem only gives me trolls, hard throwers, toxic flamers who don’t like wich hero in play so after a few days i was in silver.
Funny part is I started in bronze with that Account and Leveled up to the point where i was almost Platinum only 50 sr missing to be Plat ( but the other account where i played DPS i was started from GOLD when i did the 10 placement match as i said earlier the rank you get is totally random ) .
In every match i had gold elims but they flaming throwing etc so just lost hundreds of sr so this is a classic example for smurfing because i am in silver and they saying i am smurfing because the report system is broken and derank you on purpose.
My coworkers had same issues as well get out from Diamon or Platinum others get out from Gold etc exactly like me becaue they get reported hilarious reasons and the get marked on tat account and the system put them in matches where only trolls, throwers and toxic flamers who don’t want to play seriously at all.
4; Report system has made us belive after we all experienced the report on our account made buy our coworkers when we reported each other that players who gets report on competitive play will be put a mark in the system next to your account and try to derank you as hard as possible on purpose.
This will put you in games where you get all the trolls, hard throwers, beginners with no experience at all in your team so the sytem makes you lose the match.
Why is that you ask because the matchmaking put 4 or 5 players in the enemy team who are much more experienced.
Difference their team and our with each players 500 to 1000+ lvl diffence while you get only low level inexperienced beginners between lvl 40 to 200 players.
So your chance of winning is almost ZERO if this is not enought you will get players who trolling, throwing, only know how to feed never change their hero even if they countered with 2 heros and he is feeding.
Don’t forget the toxic flaming throwers as well thanks to the system that marked you so you going to lose even if you play with 3 to 5 of you together.
If you go solo than you will lose for sure 100%
Conclusion
After a very long talk on saturday at least 5 hours in the restaurant with the team we discussed all the things we tested.
Our conclusion was that the first thing that Blizzard need to do after they did the 2-2-2 to fix the Ranking problem what we have now.
First of all need to delete this 10 placement system and let the players start from ZERO SR and let them LVL UP their SR and Their Rank don’t put players in a rank wher their skills not match with their rank.
Based on 10 match that you did and totally depends on how lucky you are and what kind of players will you get.
If BLIZZARD truly want to have a competitive system the players need to start from ZERO not from 2000+ SR or even higher based on luck.
This is messing up the whole Ranking System and players who Earned their rank and started from Bronze and Ranked Up to Gold/Platinum/Diamond or even higher don’t wan’t to play with others who only get their ranks BASED ON LUCK AND NOTHING TO DO WITH THEIR SKILLS.
No one want to lost hundreds of sr because get players who get their rank buy luck and no skill at all and their skills not mathing with their rank at all.
Smurfing is a huge problem to the community as well.
To fix this issue first the ranking system need to be fixed then it can be seen instantly in the system whos Smurfing.
Right now the database of the system is a mess because the ranking system messing up the players rank with every new account joining to the Competitive game.
Last but not least the report system is a total mess don’t mark the players and derank them on purpose with the system because they get reported.
80% of the reports coming form players who are FRUSTRATED because they get players who are not deserved their rank and got their rank buy luck and don’t have the slightest clue how to play their hero.
This is why most of the toxicity come from players who want to rank up and we totally agreed with the team the Competitive system should be transparent not a mess what is it now.
Let players Rank UP their SR don’t give them random SR when they start after 10 match.
Players want to feel that they covered against FALSE rankers and if they earned their rank with their skills wanna be sure they play with other players who have the same skill LVL.
Right now this is not TRUE at all in Competitive games.
With that they don’t have to worry when the match start players have no clue how to play agaisnt the enemy heros and when they need to switch off from a hero when they feeding because the enemy counters them with multiple heros.
Suggestion
Try to implement the system where is no placement match in comtetitive when you start so then the level don’t need to be higher then 25.
To make it work all the players below Master or Diamond their SR need to be deleted and give them ZERO SR.
It will help the community to gain their confidence their rank is based on their skills and not on their LUCK and they don’t need to be afraid they play every second match with False Rankers whos skills not match their rank.
It whould be nice to start a new season with this after 1 season the matchmakig will give the SR and Rank to players what is matching with their skills and in the long run help Nulify most of the Toxicity in competitive games.
If this is done the next step should be solving the smurfing problem.
When this system is implemented then the data you have then show you who si rankig up faster then average and who is deranking faster then average
Example if some one is lost more then 400 sr in 1 day after playing 6 hours and only had DEFEAT Matches and no Winning is considered to deranking and try to get in to lower Rank so he/she can smurfing.
Same goes to ranking up if some one is only Winning and no lost match is considered to be High LVL player from Diamond or Master or even Higher it will be his second or thrid account but it can be a hacker as well.
So about the accounts if some one doing this kind of things block their account and send an eamil that the comapny is investigating the Account because it is suspicious.
To prevent multiple accounts doing the same all of the accounts should be registered by phone number but if some one want multiple accounts let them have it but all of the account need to be registered with the same Phone.
About the reporting system if some one is reported don’t mark them in the system like now, the only issue is with this that the will be put in matches where they forced to play with throwers trolls and toxic players.
Not nice to force players to play with this kind of players and most of the time when some one is reported is not even true we got so many false reported because players don’t like the hero you play or they don’t want to switch and feeding only and flaming the others.
This is the reason why players have some many accounts because they forced to play on their other accounts after they reported because the system puts them in matches that they have no chance of winning.
Hope our team can help to make OW a great competitive game we belive our tests will lead to future changes in Competitive game play and make new ideas to BLIZZARD DEVELOPERS.