Matchmaking [EU][gold] BROKEN UX

Competitive Discussion
1

Here is the typical response to this kind of post.

  • “You just bad” this is typically said by teenagers or young people in their early 20s with no layered concept of reality.
  • Basically just responding to troll and nothing else.
  • Don’t bother, move on, you aren’t welcome here if this is all you want to say.
  • This is a very complex issue, its not as simple as “get gud”, believe it or not.

I’ll talk about two main factors:

  1. pregame factors
  2. ingame factors

I played 10 games in a row on Saturday morning.

  • I suspect that on the weekend on this day is mostly children, who don’t stay out all night because they don’t have a 9-5 job. And it’s summer break.
  • I lost 5 in a row.
  • Then, I won a game, the enemy team did this same garbage behavior.
  • Then id go back to losing a bunch.

The main factors here based on matchmaking or pregame factors (that I can think of) are:

  • Randoms (mixed skilled solos) are being matched with veteran premade groups.
  • Smurfs (aka veteran players on new accounts) in every single game so they get matched with newer players for easier wins.
  • Vets who used to play, returning after a long break
  • Players who used to play on console now on PC
  • Every team would have a balanced mix of players but one team would have a new tank while the other would have a new DPS.
  • But since there is only one tank and two DPS, one of the DPS was not new and carried.
  • While the other team had a new tank who had no idea about timing, positioning, targeting, ect. Useless as a tank, basically just trying to kill the first thing they’d see.

Here are some notes as to why. Based on Gameplay or composition:

  • My team was always losing because people would fight until they died. No one wants to just retreat and regroup.
  • They don’t have patience for that kind of game play. So we were always staggered.
  • People out of position, sometimes it was the tank sometimes it was the support, sometimes the dps, always at least one in every game.
  • People refused to switch or didn’t know how to play what was needed.
  • The game is based on switching to counter and yet people are queuing as one hero and not knowing how to play others as needed.
  • Some heros are better than others are being “jack of all trades” other have specific strengths.
  • The enemy team didn’t do this and acted together.

I have questions!

  • How is account age being factored into matchmaking?
  • There has to be a way to separate new players from veterans?
  • Or at least manage them better?
  • I expect there are times when a vet and a noob want to play together but this team dynamic isn’t conducive to smooth gameplay?
  • There has to be a way to better manage smurfs?
  • Why does it seem like the skill disparity between players on a team varies to a significant degree?
  • I’d give anything to better understand how matchmaking works.

My hope is that Devs will see this and better understand the issues from a players perspective as it doesn’t seem like they get it currently.

Suggestions:

  • Voice chat is key to success imo… there has to be a way to mark an account as voice active and then enforce it via team vote and then some kind of moderation if flagged as inactive. And penalty for abusing vote flag system
  • Should inactive vc players be grouped with inactive vc players?
  • or should all the vc players be lumped together?
2

Sadly i don’t think the devs will see this.

The suggestion on vc is a hit or miss as it’s relatively easy to abuse people through it or just be disruptive (luckily we can report and mute that).

I used to be in vc even before i had a headset (mic) just to hear if someone pointed out flankers or had smart ideas. I find it weird that people don’t even do that since it could literally save a game if you see them too far out of position or someone lurking around them.

One doesn’t need to be “active” on voice as long as they listen and play accordingly ie don’t stagger, go with the plan.

As of right now i don’t think account age is factored into matchmaking, and even if it was it would be smarter to factor in playtime instead of account age. As some people could have 5 year old accounts but have only ever played 50 hours or so.

It would be nice to know exactly how the mmr system works, but those might be under nda for a reason or another. What could be useful is to see your mmr change, so you can keep an eye on the number and could learn to see at what point the matches get impossible so you’d have some fore warning? I don’t know how or if that would work or if it would cause people to throw to keep themselves at a desirable level.
But some form of visibility would be nice.

3

The Voice Chat thing is an idea on how to make VC “opt in” so everyone in a match is actively talking in vc. or if they opt out they get matched with people who dont want to be active in vc

4

I’d prefer if people were active in voice, doesn’t mean i want to be the one talking though (for several reasons) which is why i am in voice even if i don’t talk.

So with this system i would get reported for not talking?

I’m female so more often than not me opening my mouth causes chauvinists in the team to get disruptive and makes them focus on bad talking me instead of playing. (I’ve lost matches because i called out a flanker and suddenly i was the only one focusing on the match anymore)

Another thing is i stumble over my words in high adrenaline situations, thus making me opening my mouth more disruptive than helpful.

So i’d rather just listen and be helpful that way.