I’m silver 1-3 on the three roles, and apart from having to deal with leavers, throwers, bots and Hanzo, Cassidy and Widow smurfs / aimbots at least every other game, the matchmaking makes me ride a rollercoaster, from enemy teams in high bronze in one game, to a full plat enemy team the next.
This has been confirmed by Blizzard, and that they adjusted it the last patch, but clearly not enough.
I’m not writing this to QQ or to discuss whether “Loser’s queue” exists, which is directly related to the Elo Hell discussion. Because Loser’s queue exists.
Quotes:
"Overwatch 2 Server Engineer Morgan Maddren explained that while most OW2 matches appear balanced to the matchmaker, some games still heavily favor one team. Previously, the matchmaker did not account for streaks, resulting in players who had just lost several games being placed in highly unfavorable matches that would just continue their losing streak. "
This just felt like a bad match for us to be making. It seems less likely to be a fun match. So all this change is doing is telling the matchmaker to stop making those matches, just avoiding this case we think is bad.” He clarified that the developers’ focus was on balancing, not simply eliminating the “loser’s queue".”
(copy the quotes and Google them to find the sources)
These statements confuse me a lot.
" while most OW2 matches appear balanced to the matchmaker, some games still heavily favor one team"
- Why? I guess he’s talking about smurfs making the matchmaker think that the teams are balanced? And it sounds almost like it’s a perfectly normal and acceptable scenario.
But it is NOT! And it is the single reason to why so many players are going mental over the matchmaker.
"Previously, the matchmaker did not account for streaks, resulting in players who had just lost several games being placed in highly unfavorable matches that would just continue their losing streak. "
- So, the matchmaker deliberately places players in “highly unfavorable matches”, and I wonder why? What could possibly make sense in doing that?
“So all this change is doing is telling the matchmaker to stop making those matches”
- Either Blizzard knew about “those (unfavorable) matches” the whole time, or they discovered these common scenarios quite recently, and that would make me question the competence of the developers.
Why does it have to be so ****** complicated?
Why can’t the matchmaker just match players within each rank tier? How can it be that hard?
Silver players should play against other silver players, and those who are more skilled than other players in that tier, will most likely have above 50% wins, which will make them progress to the next tier, sooner or later.
I can’t see a single reason why it would make sense to place some players in “highly unfavorable matches”. Unless it is needed to maintain a balanced population between the tiers.
Last but not least;
“He (Server Engineer Morgan Maddren) clarified that the developers’ focus was on balancing, not simply eliminating the “loser’s queue”."
Ladies and Gentlemen…“Loser’s queue” exists.
But the question remains; Why does it exist, and for what purpose?
If the reason is to maintain a balanced population between the tiers, then I’m afraid that it will remain a mystery, since Blizz never would admit that.
And for all of you who counter these discussions with “Blizzard says that there is no such thing…”, you should learn how to read between the lines and to use your own brain for thinking. After all, there are very good reasons why Blizzard would deliberately create a bad matchmaker.