So how are your games going lately? [megathread]

[A-sayo]

Something I always had trouble with Mercy is her projectile speed. Just like Orisa, it's rather "easy" to land shots at close range, yet it's so hard to lead them from mid-long range, especially when the opponent is a weeb or a tracer...

[Eapoe]

WIsh they would change ranking loss if someone from your team leaves during a match. Lost about 20-50 rating over this. Think it was 25 points total, but something like that is a little much. Sure, we could have tried a 5v6, I've managed to pull it off before, but not when 2 more leave when the 2 mins is up.

[DeadmanWalking]

WIsh they would change ranking loss if someone from your team leaves during a match. Lost about 20-50 rating over this. Think it was 25 points total, but something like that is a little much. Sure, we could have tried a 5v6, I've managed to pull it off before, but not when 2 more leave when the 2 mins is up.

I think banning them for an hour would work, then double it each time they leave into infinity and I am not talking about log out for an hour and come back, no you have to spend an hour playing non-competitive to get back in.

[Deleted]

WIsh they would change ranking loss if someone from your team leaves during a match. Lost about 20-50 rating over this. Think it was 25 points total, but something like that is a little much. Sure, we could have tried a 5v6, I've managed to pull it off before, but not when 2 more leave when the 2 mins is up.

Yea, it's a joke. I've lost over 30 points sometimes while losing 5v6. It just doesn't make any sense that you get punished actually harder than you normally would because someone else disconnected.

[Jessicka]

I think banning them for an hour would work, then double it each time they leave into infinity and I am not talking about log out for an hour and come back, no you have to spend an hour playing non-competitive to get back in.

Banning someone for an hour isn't going to stop people disconnecting. 90% of leavers I've seen manage to log back, and last night we won a match 5v6 after a DC. And of those who do quit, they're doing so because being honest, you're not going to win anyway. Either that or the team is super salty. Either way I've actually not really blamed a lot of leavers for doing so.

I've DC'd 3-4 times from the game and only from comp, never QP. Only once did I not get back on to rejoin, and that was because it was in the first minute; the other matches, only one was lost, but we made no progress before I DC'd anyway. I took my -50 SR and 10 minute suspension without complaining: upping that to an hour would have made no difference to anyone but me.

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Yea, it's a joke. I've lost over 30 points sometimes while losing 5v6. It just doesn't make any sense that you get punished actually harder than you normally would because someone else disconnected.

And I've gained 30SR for stomping a team of leavers with no effort. If you're going to compensate the leaver team, are you also going to punish the winning team; when genuine leavers are doing so because they're being so outclassed?

[Inukashi]

I think the game should just put people together that tend to leave. So yeah.. if you leave 20% of the games you are in, you should get into a 20% leaver-rate team.. against a team with 0% leaver-rate.

And if you leave over 20% you are going into the 'special-team'. Your name in games will be replaced with a Name that shows why you are there to be anonym, so you will be in a Team with 'Screaming Rager 1', 'Screaming Rager 2', and 'Leaver 1', only guys like this and you have to stay every game until you get 5 wins.
The enemy team will see "oh, its a special team, lets kill them 3-4 times and someone of them will leave"
If you leave once during the special games the win counter will reset to 0. If you won 5 games without leaving once you will get the sign removed and can join other teams again.

[Deleted]

And I've gained 30SR for stomping a team of leavers with no effort. If you're going to compensate the leaver team, are you also going to punish the winning team; when genuine leavers are doing so because they're being so outclassed?

Yes. There really shouldn't be 30SR gains for winning a match 6vs5.

[Jessicka]

Yes. There really shouldn't be 30SR gains for winning a match 6vs5.

Right, so even if it's 6v5 because you were stomping them so hard someone left? That's just so fucking open to trolling I don't even...

[Endus]

I think the game should just put people together that tend to leave. So yeah.. if you leave 20% of the games you are in, you should get into a 20% leaver-rate team.. against a team with 0% leaver-rate.

If you leave 20% of the games you're in, you should be permabanned from Competitive entirely after a couple seasons of that. A season ban first, then a permaban the second season you pull that.

Yes. There really shouldn't be 30SR gains for winning a match 6vs5.

If you penalize the victors for their enemy having a leaver, then you give raging jerkwads and excuse to leave to not just ruin things for THEIR team, but also their opponents.

I could see mitigating the SR losses for the losing team somewhat (but not much, or you make tactical leaving a tactic), but not penalizing the winners.

[xerus]

If you leave 20% of the games you're in, you should be permabanned from Competitive entirely after a couple seasons of that. A season ban first, then a permaban the second season you pull that.

Jeff did say awhile back that they were looking to do just that.

[Endus]

Jeff did say awhile back that they were looking to do just that.

I have no idea how the progression works on that, but I'd hope it's something like;
3-hour ban
12-hour ban
24-hour ban
3-day ban
1-week ban
3-week ban
Season ban (because if you've gone through the above, you're probably half through the season anyway or more, so any step up amounts to that anyway).

Subsequent seasons should "decay" this by 3 steps or so. Levels up to the 24-hour ban should also have a separate decay level, so that a few DCs don't totally hose you forever. The idea being that an occasional leave because of technical issues, even once every couple weeks, shouldn't ever lead to much of anything. But repeated leaving will get you banned, and if you don't clean up your act the next season, you're gonna get permabanned; if you've got a prior "season ban", that stage upgrades to "permanent competitive ban".

[Freighter]

This point system is kind of fucked up. Went from 2200 to 2500 yesterday, was getting like 30-40 points per win yesterday and when I started playing now I get 9 points per win? Why?

[Tziva]

This point system is kind of fucked up. Went from 2200 to 2500 yesterday, was getting like 30-40 points per win yesterday and when I started playing now I get 9 points per win? Why?

You start getting less points for wins the more confident the system is that you are where you belong. So basically it thinks you belong at 2500 SR and is hesitant to give you more points for wins at this point so you don't shoot up to a place you don't belong and then immediately lose your way back down. They don't want huge yo-yoing of SR (frankly that's not super fun to players either imo).

That said, if you keep winning, it will readjust its confidence. The precise math/method of determination is totally opaque though. We only know the above.

[Endus]

This point system is kind of fucked up. Went from 2200 to 2500 yesterday, was getting like 30-40 points per win yesterday and when I started playing now I get 9 points per win? Why?

Your reward per win is somewhat based on personal performance, and where that performance makes the game think you should be ranked. Exceptionally good (or poor) performance will change the per-win calculations a fair bit. From what I've been tracking this season, the game seems to default to a 25-point "middle"; if you're at the right rank and performing in line with it, you should be earning/losing 25 points per win or loss.

9 points is ridiculously low, though, and I'd have to get more details on the exact context. Did the entire enemy team leave, granting you the win early, or something?

Edit: What Tziva said about the opaqueness is definitely true. I'm building my theory off A> what the devs have said in blue posts, which is pretty generic, and B> my own records of rank gains/losses for me personally this season, which I've been recording.

I started off at around 2050, winning 40-50 per win and losing ~10-15 per loss. As I got up to around 2500, that's evened out to about 25 per win or loss. I need more data at that peak level (been busy with other stuff the last couple weeks) to get more comfortable about where the system thinks I "should be", since it's hard to be firm about anything since personal performance matters and your current rank relative to your expected rank changes each match.

[Jessicka]

I have no idea how the progression works on that, but I'd hope it's something like;
3-hour ban
12-hour ban
24-hour ban
3-day ban
1-week ban
3-week ban
Season ban (because if you've gone through the above, you're probably half through the season anyway or more, so any step up amounts to that anyway).

Subsequent seasons should "decay" this by 3 steps or so. Levels up to the 24-hour ban should also have a separate decay level, so that a few DCs don't totally hose you forever. The idea being that an occasional leave because of technical issues, even once every couple weeks, shouldn't ever lead to much of anything. But repeated leaving will get you banned, and if you don't clean up your act the next season, you're gonna get permabanned; if you've got a prior "season ban", that stage upgrades to "permanent competitive ban".

Three hour a ban for a first DC which might be less than a minute and for which you can normally rejoin the game but just got unlucky because it was the first minute, the match ended or *everyone* left in that time? That's absurd.

Sure, ramp it up quickly if it gets persistent, but chucking someone off for a full night for something that might happen once in 12 months? Too much.

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Your reward per win is somewhat based on personal performance, and where that performance makes the game think you should be ranked. Exceptionally good (or poor) performance will change the per-win calculations a fair bit. From what I've been tracking this season, the game seems to default to a 25-point "middle"; if you're at the right rank and performing in line with it, you should be earning/losing 25 points per win or loss.

9 points is ridiculously low, though, and I'd have to get more details on the exact context. Did the entire enemy team leave, granting you the win early, or something?

Edit: What Tziva said about the opaqueness is definitely true. I'm building my theory off A> what the devs have said in blue posts, which is pretty generic, and B> my own records of rank gains/losses for me personally this season, which I've been recording.

I started off at around 2050, winning 40-50 per win and losing ~10-15 per loss. As I got up to around 2500, that's evened out to about 25 per win or loss. I need more data at that peak level (been busy with other stuff the last couple weeks) to get more comfortable about where the system thinks I "should be", since it's hard to be firm about anything since personal performance matters and your current rank relative to your expected rank changes each match.

The further you are from where it expects you to be, the more it diminishes. When I was down in mid silver, losing <10 SR from a loss was fairly normal. The "normal" fluctuation seems to be 15-35, middling like you say at 25.

That said, I stopped playing Reinhardt after winning a match and gaining about 13SR; it was one of those Hanamuras where the opposition basically gave up on Point B, so as Rein there wasn't a lot to be done but stand there holding right click; that was down at about 2k. Figured the game had me down as playing badly, when the opponents just didn't give me anything to do.

[Freighter]

You start getting less points for wins the more confident the system is that you are where you belong. So basically it thinks you belong at 2500 SR and is hesitant to give you more points for wins at this point so you don't shoot up to a place you don't belong and then immediately lose your way back down. They don't want huge yo-yoing of SR (frankly that's not super fun to players either imo).

That said, if you keep winning, it will readjust its confidence. The precise math/method of determination is totally opaque though. We only know the above.

How many games do I have to win for that? I won 5 games now and I went up like 50 rating while my friend went up almost 200...

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9 points is ridiculously low, though, and I'd have to get more details on the exact context. Did the entire enemy team leave, granting you the win early, or something?

We stomped some games, they had no chance of fighting back. I was playing lucio. Would I get less rating if the enemy team have no chance of winning and I can't heal much? The maps were oasis, sand temple map and the tower map.

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Three hour a ban for a first DC which might be less than a minute and for which you can normally rejoin the game but just got unlucky because it was the first minute, the match ended or *everyone* left in that time? That's absurd.

Sure, ramp it up quickly if it gets persistent, but chucking someone off for a full night for something that might happen once in 12 months? Too much.

I've quit like 3 games this season due to games dragging before we were going out. Thought I'd have time for a game of overwatch before going out but then it dragged out to the point we were up to 6-6. Have had 3 DCs too but I haven't seen any ban for playing so far. :/

[Tziva]

How many games do I have to win for that? I won 5 games now and I went up like 50 rating while my friend went up almost 200..

They haven't said and I doubt they ever will.

I only know that in one of the Kaplan videos, he specifically said that the SR you win and lose is influenced by the game's confidence in your placement. Aside from considering in the basic factors (most obviously like whether you win or lost, but also personal performance), the algorithm also uses your estimated SR. If it thinks you should be much lower or higher, your change in SR for both wins and losses will be larger than if it is very certain you are where you should be. Obviously, the more data it has, the more certain it will be. I usually get between changes between 15-30 SR with about 200 hours on record in season, assuming I'm in the SR zone that I would consider reasonable for me.

Oh, also worth mentioning that you also get increased SR gains right after placements too, to help you find your spot faster. So it could be the opposite of "the system is very confident because so much data" and be "you're brand new and we're trying to get you to the right spot quickly" that gave you increases for earlier.

[Jessicka]

I've quit like 3 games this season due to games dragging before we were going out. Thought I'd have time for a game of overwatch before going out but then it dragged out to the point we were up to 6-6. Have had 3 DCs too but I haven't seen any ban for playing so far. :/

Not quit any, and not really seen any since placements either; maybe half a dozen. Most of those came back. Only one of them was a dead cert rage quitter too, they were on my side, they were trying to play Widow, I don't know how well or badly they were doing but someone else on my team was giving them so much shit it was beyond uncalled for, I really felt bad for them. It was probably the right thing for them to do in all honesty, so don't hold it against them and tbh it sucks they got the bigger penalty.

I will question picks at start, but try to keep it general to level of DPS, mobility, and range especially with Pharah for one thing, but also to keep Reaper away now too. If people reconsider, then great, if not, it's all you can do to shut up and keep playing, focus on your own game, hope the other team aren't set to counter yours. Then if it becomes apparent something isn't working, you can mention it again down the line.

As it is for me as well, I really like a Widow, they're usually decent enough, they keep Pharah and supports dead, and a Sombra can cripple most tanks so hard it's not even funny so again I'm okay with having them on side. Yet heroes like Mei, Symmetra, and Junkrat, other people seem to be okay with, but forever seem to let me down; because they lack range and get mowed down by Pharahs and 76s, or even Hanzos and Widows without being able to fight back. Symmetra especially, people get obsessive with her, it's creepy.

[Eapoe]

Banning someone for an hour isn't going to stop people disconnecting. 90% of leavers I've seen manage to log back, and last night we won a match 5v6 after a DC. And of those who do quit, they're doing so because being honest, you're not going to win anyway. Either that or the team is super salty. Either way I've actually not really blamed a lot of leavers for doing so.

I've DC'd 3-4 times from the game and only from comp, never QP. Only once did I not get back on to rejoin, and that was because it was in the first minute; the other matches, only one was lost, but we made no progress before I DC'd anyway. I took my -50 SR and 10 minute suspension without complaining: upping that to an hour would have made no difference to anyone but me.

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And I've gained 30SR for stomping a team of leavers with no effort. If you're going to compensate the leaver team, are you also going to punish the winning team; when genuine leavers are doing so because they're being so outclassed?

I would never say 90% is from dc's. personal experience most people leave from toxicity or we lose 1 point fast and say "screw it." I also don't say we won't win based on the first round of a fight, as I've had games where we get tricked on defense and then do the same to the other team. I've also managed to 5v6 another team, but that was season 1, just to give an example of how often it happens. I try to be optimistic of dc's, but most of the time in my experience it's just do to people being toxic or feel "what's the point?"
To your 2nd part, no ones asking to punish the winning team. They can keep their normal SR gain, I just don't want to lose 20-50 points because someone else dc's or is just being a toxic/salty bastard. I'd probably be fine if it was a 10 point loss, but as the other person said, I've lost more points from a leaver than I would have if they stayed the full fight.

[A-sayo]

To your 2nd part, no ones asking to punish the winning team. They can keep their normal SR gain, I just don't want to lose 20-50 points because someone else dc's or is just being a toxic/salty bastard. I'd probably be fine if it was a 10 point loss, but as the other person said, I've lost more points from a leaver than I would have if they stayed the full fight.

Problem still stands : if there's a way to abuse the system, people will exploit it. In this case, if you lose less SR because you had a leaver on your team :
- People would bully/harass a single member to force him leaving. Leaver will have penalty (ultimately ending in a ban) while the others will be happy they lost 10 SR instead of 30. This is not fair.
- Even though you "could" guess whether a leaver left because he was pissed or his connection went potato, you (and especially the system) can't know "for sure" it is the case. The game already allows the leaver some time to come back before applying a penalty.

This problem and these points are the same kind as the Custom Game abuse people had been doing (where you afk contest a point for massive xp -> more loot box doing nothing). It sure is sad, yet Blizzard had no other choice.