New player, unfair and unfun matchmaking

General Discussion
1

So with this sale I was bought a copy by a friend, and I cannot remember last I had so little fun getting introduced to a game. We assumed there’d be a wave of newer players who we could be confused with learning abilities and ultimates…

… but instead we’re facing people, whom I understand from a google search on their portraits, are several HUNDRED levels higher and absolutely demolish our teams. We’ve played against several silver portraits and plenty of stars ( 1 star = 100 levels up to x5 around the portrait?)

In any case, this has been as far from entertaining as it can and we don’t really want to play anymore. What gives? Why are we put up against people with so much more knowledge about heroes, ultimates and the maps? Up to a hundred I guess is fine, but several hundred levels vs level 1 - 10’s? :confused:

2

Because you can’t get better playing against people equal to you.

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3

Playing for a long time doesn’t automatically equal playing well…

I myself started playing against bots for a long while, because that’s where you really have the chance to get to know all abilities and test heroes and get to know all maps. Once you immediately think about the right map once you see its name, you can step into games against other players.

Thing is though, if you play well, you will get matched up with players that have been around longer, but generally that doesn’t mean much (see my first line).

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4

I see no good reason as to why someone who is level 400 for instance, or however much higher silver portraits are, should be put in a game versus someone who’s done 10 or less pvp matches in total.

I of course expect a certain amount of elitism.

There is a great difference in between meeting challenging matchups and enemy players, versus fighting players who’ve 50 - 100 hours under their belt when you’ve 2 - 3 yourself. As mentioned but completely disregarded in this reply, up to a 100 is probably fine, but in the several hundreds? It’s going to keep new people away. Thankfully it was a sale. :slight_smile:

An argument you see everywhere, but it disregards experience. Sure, you may be a bad player, but you have been in more situations and been exposed to certain abilities more than newcomers that’s for sure, and will be far more able to act accordingly. I don’t know how many hours it takes to get a few bronze stars(?) let alone silver portraits, but it must be 30+.

This just isn’t fun nor fair, especially when there are multiple high level players in their level hundreds+ stomping in players who’ve barely reached level 10. In one of the worst matches, we fought enemy players with 4 - 5 bronze stars, and 2 silvers, versus our team that consisted of players all below 100, and far below. :confused:

5

I regularly play against people with silver, gold and even platinum borders (level 600, 1200 and 1800 respectively) while I myself am only at level 500. Clearly the amount of time played is not an issue.

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6

What I felt like initially with OW, was that the games were all over the place and the match quality was far from consistent or consistent fun. But it does smoothen and even out as you do more and more, I feel like my current games are mostly enjoyable regardless if I win or lose, it usually feels like it’s not stupid.

I am bronze something XP wise and I get silvers and gold XP people in my games but they don’t seem OP or anything, they’ve just played a lot but aren’t that much better overall if at all.

I think the only thing you can do is bite your lip and get a decent amount of games under your belt and at some point things settle. I’m talking QP here.

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7

It’s pretty well known that QP mm is quite vast, meaning you might get brand new players in a game, along with masters or GM ranked players. Kinda silly imo.

Being bang smack in the middle myself, a plat player, I actually don’t mind this as I’ve always enjoyed playing with better players than myself, it’s an easy way to learn faster and find out fast what you’re doing wrong.

8

Welcome to EA gam… I mean present blizzard, where balance is somewhere out there… somewhere far af

9

Welcome to Overwatch. Don’t go to competitive, its a smurf territory. Pretends to be level 20 at 1800 skill raiting. But plays like he just came from Overwatch World Cup.

10

yet, better keep playing hero training range with 0 teamplay, which QP is.
Nice advice for long term success in this game.

11

Most likely your friend is a sesoned OW player, so when you play with them, you’re matched with/vs seasoned players as well.
Try to play solo, you should be matched with true low levels …

My thoughts exactly, but Blizzard doesn’t agree with it.

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12

The op just needs to play more, so the system can put you in place.

The bigger issue are players with over 900h and still stuck in low elo, they getting the hate. (loool lvl 1740 and still bronze haha) and they buy new accounts just to hide theyr playtime. To get rid of the hate.

Ps: does anyone know if the new diamond borders are the new cap?

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As brand new to the game as me.

It makes no sense to place people with less than five hours up against people over 30 and I dread to imagine how much higher it actually is, given how slow leveling seems.

14

This may scare some but just try as hard as possible and completly and i mean completly ignore your stats dont even pay attention to how often you die until after match, do try avoid death dont just feed but avoid death to much and it may impact your performance to kill something else or to be better healer or tank, so try play a more high risk high reward playstyle, heroes that have tools to escape use them to get in and out of battle quickly, however always try hard to perform if it means you die don’t worry matchmaker will learn you soon enough, it will find out your strength and weaknesses and find you team mates that are suited to help you out.

If played quite passively for a long time and it was’t until i started playing overly pushy and aggressive that i realized how much easy’r things become, so easy in fact that i am now masters, getting the high value often requires you to take risks, taking risks makes you learn your limits, learning your limits can teach you how to adjust quickly, however always try test your limits every now and then you may have gotten better and be able to take more risks, this is how you improve at the game, the faster you pickup such playstyle the faster it put you in a rank where you can improve.

This does’t have to be in masters diamond or plat and can even be in gold, in case you do end up lower brackets don’t be afraid to play just learn to think faster react faster aim faster and do as much as possible in as little amount of time as possible in that order, paying attention to sounds can tell you where enemy is, however it can make you pay less attention to other stuff try not to tunnel vision and try not to rely to much on just sound as it is delayed, try and look around as much as possible to.

And if you do need to outrun something and you are not in there range turn around don’t look back move forward instead of backpedaling which is slower.

15

Not just that, you’re also being faced against smurfs.
People with a main account that are stuck on gold-plat and have to take out their frustration on newbies, as their only means of being able to win something.

The matchmaking is broken especially for QP

16

Well, then … we know they do match groups with other groups. If there are no “new players only” groups around at that time you get matched vs groups of players who have played before. It’s very rare that on one side is a group of players, and on other not.

17

It depends. If your friend is a good player and he teams up with you, it wouldnt be fair/fun to other new players if your friend would only face them. Even if you are teamed up with him.
Now i agree to an extent that it can be annoying. I bought the game for a friend of mine too, and we had the same problem. He was not having fun because the games we had were mostly against far more experienced players than him.

So i guess its all up to the players character. I personally never minded getting rekt by skilled players in a game. It means I had something to aim for, and the better the players you play against are, the faster you will grow.
Now i understand not everyone wants that out of a game, but you cant blame the MM when your friend has hundreds of hours himself and matches you up with some resemblance of the average skill of you two

18

if you go solo, you will get matched with players of your level. group queues are a different story

19

What I want to know is who did I make mad at blizzard for always putting me in teams with new players in comp that are just learning a hero

20

I know it can be frustrating and unfair at start as you don’t know the abilities nor the maps. I would like to see new comers play with other new comers until a certain level maybe.

What I would suggest to you is to select a few heroes with high team value which are quite straightforward (Reinhardt, Soldier 76, Lucio, Reaper, Orisa or Mercy for instance). Maybe learn their abilities on the practice range or few games with bots to know them better.

Then, start to play against real players and stick with your team with these “easy” heroes. After some games, you will see that you get more confident and have more global knowledge. Then you can try other heroes out and start having real fun. :slight_smile:

If you guys want further info or help, you can add me in game!