[Guide] Match Making Rating (MMR)

[Bobzor]

Since there has been so much fuzz and confusion among new players i will try to explain the system at the best of my ability.

What does it do?
Match Making Rating(MMR) also known as "Hidden Rating" is essentially a system to keep higher ranked people with new teams from running over lower ranked players.

History
MMR was implented in season 5 due to the constant whining in TBC over high rated players creating new teams and destroying every team up to the rating where they belonged.

How does it work?
The MMR system will match you up against others as close to your MMR as possible. In a perfect world you would be fighting teams on exactly your own MMR.
Using that scenario playing 50/50 with a team on 1500 rating would cause you to remain on the same rating. While playing lets say 80/20 and you would see a major increase of your rating. And 20/80 would make you lose rating.

When you start a new team your team- and personal rating will be on 0. But lets say you have played on 2000 rating before. Then the MMR system will match you up against others on 2000 rating and winning a game would give you a drastic increase of rating while losing one wouldn't affect your rating at all.
The MMR system will keep on doing this until you get closer to 2000 rating.
The MMR system will always try to drag your team rating as close to your MMR as possible.
See below for further explanation of the arena rating system.

Explanation of arena rating system:

Team A's Current score: 1500pt
Team B's Current score: 1580pt
Team A's Chance of Winning: 1 / (1+10(1580 - 1500)/400) = 0.38686
Team B's Chance of Winning: 1 / (1+10(1500 - 1580)/400) = 0.61314
Now Let's say Team A won the battle then
Team A's New score: 1500 + 24*(1 - 0.38686) = 1500 + 14.71 = 1514.71
Team B's New Score: 1580 + 24*(0 - 0.61314) = 1580 + (-14.71) = 1565.29
Now Let's say Team B won the battle then
Team A's New Score: 1500 + 24*(0 - 0.38686) = 1500 + (-9.28) = 1490.72
Team B's New Score: 1580 + 24*(1 - 0.61314) = 1580 + 9.28 = 1589.28

24 is the max rating gained/lost.

Blue Posts

Let’s turn the question around first. Why is my record 50/50? If your record is 50/50, that means your match-making rating (MMR) is almost exactly correct for you. It means we are finding teams that as near as possible match the ability of your team. It means that you are being matched as fairly as possible. If we matched 1300 teams at 1500 instead, they would only win 30% of their matches. We would rather those teams win half their matches.

But I’m 70/30, what about that?
If you are 70/30 and we think you are 1300, your MMR will climb to roughly 1533. You will then be matched with 1500+ teams, and your record should decrease to 50/50.

Yeah, so why is my rating still going down then?
The team rating will drop until it reaches the average match-making rating of the teams you beat 50% of the time. For example, if we are matching you against 1200-rated teams, and you are winning half the time, it will drop to 1200. If you are winning 70% of the time against 1200-rated teams, then your MMR and TR should move up to 1433.

But I’m not matching 1200-rated teams, I looked these teams up and most are near 1500.
It is likely that those teams have an MMR of 1200, even though their TR is 1500. This means that even though they look like 1500 or 1400-rated teams, they have been playing more like 1200-rated teams this season.

No matter what I do, my rating gets stuck on 1300
If your team rating keeps getting stuck on 1300 while you win 50% of your matches, then you are winning matches against 1300 players.
Being 1300 means:
-- You go 50/50 vs 1300 teams
-- You are better than 25% of all teams
It means that the teams we are matching you against have average MMRs well under 1500.

How will I get to 1650?
-- The definition of a 1650 team in both the new and old system is “Better than 68% of all teams on this BG in this bracket”
-- To be 1650, your team needs to be better than 68% of all teams
-- This means you will beat a team with an MMR of 1500 63 out of 100 matches, and go 50/50 vs. a team with an MMR of 1650

Wait, why 63%? Shouldn’t it be 68% then?
-- Smart question! The reason it’s not 68% is because a 1650-rated team does not always perform exactly at 1650. We take this into account.

But I’m stuck at 1300, I never get to play those higher-rated teams:
-- A 1650 player will win about 4 of 5 matches against a 1300 player
-- If you are at 1300 but belong at 1650, you should be winning 4 of every 5 matches
-- If you do that, your MMR will go up steadily, and you will face harder and harder opponents
-- Once you move your MMR to 1650, your TR will follow

How long will this take?
-- This depends on how much evidence we have that you *were* a 1300 team
-- If your team *Really* is a 1650 team, average case is 40 games
-- But it can go higher and lower. Great luck = 16, Terrible luck = 150

•1. Personal Ratings will now always trend toward Team Ratings (instead of the internal matchmaking rating). This should eliminate the odd behavior players noticed of seeing their PR change in ways that seemed bizzare. It also eliminates the possibility that you can play every game with your team, yet be ineligible to get items when the team qualifies for them (or ineligible to receive full points).
•2. You will now gain or lose around 12 points when winning or losing to teams of roughly equivalent matchmaking rating to your own team (previously this number was 8 ).
•3. The rating scale has been extended to a range of 240 to about 2800 to more accurately reflect what was possible under the old system. This means that most players over 1500 will experience some slightly easier than expected rating gain as their team adjusts upward to the new scale.
•4. Players with less than 1500 rating will still get the same number of points as players at 1500.

It is now easier to get higher ratings
It is easier to get higher ratings due to the scale adjustment. However, I'd still expect a very small percentage of the population to get the arena master achievement, by no means would I call it trivialized.

Q&A
Is hidden rating wiped on character transfer?
No

What determines hidden rating besides win/loss? Resilience, damage, healing?
Only winning/losing determines the rating

What is the min/max amount of points able to be lost/won now?
24


Is any of the rating affected by your gear?
None of the rating systems have the slightest clue or are in any way affected by what gear you have.

Quick summary of ratings

Teamrating
* Visible.
* Required for rewards.
* Reset when a new team is created or at the beginning of a new season.
* Not used for matchmaking.
* Primarily represents the team's standing relative to other teams.
* Moves towards the Matchmaker Rating over time. The larger the discrepancy, the faster the Team Rating will move.
* Looks like a new team will start with a rating of 0 from now on, rather than starting at 1500. This makes Arena less depressing for a below-average team, and allows Blizzard to stratify gear even in the below-average zone. For example, if a piece of gear requires 1300 rating, a low-ranked team can work to achieve that rating, rather than simply restarting the team or playing very few games in order to minimize rating loss.

Personal Rating
* Visible.
* Required for rewards.
* Reset at the beginning of a new season.
* Not used for matchmaking.
* Is primarily a control on Team Rating, trying to prevent players from leeching off a high-ranked team.

Match making Rating
* Only shown after an arena has ended.
* Not required for rewards.
* Does not reset.
* Used to match teams against each other.


If there's something else on this matter you wonder about feel free to ask questions in this thread. I'm sure me and many people on these forums would love to help you.

[Deleted]

Bobby is srs bsnss

[Ormula]

Sticky sticky sticky!

[Pally_Power]

Very comprehensive post, Arena Master Bobzor of the Horde! Enjoy being the PvP forums first sticky!

[Bobzor]

Yay ;D

[Galith]

I'm glad that someone did in fact decide to make a sticky for this question. =D I was afraid that my cry for a sticky would go unheard :O

[Deleted]

The "new" matchmaking system is broken as hell. Gief the old one back so we can do real pvp.

[Ormula]

The "new" matchmaking system is broken as hell. Gief the old one back so we can do real pvp.

Seems to work fine for me. o_O

[Phaild0rf]

I have a question: If your team is sitting at say 1950 rating , and your PR is 1950 too, do you lose personal rating while other members lose some games while you're not around?

[Galith]

I have a question: If your team is sitting at say 1950 rating , and your PR is 1950 too, do you lose personal rating while other members lose some games while you're not around?

Your personal rating will remain unchanged just like if they win games without you. Their PR will move up/down as well as the team rating, but your personal will not change.

[Sea Beast]

Oh, hey look somthing got stickied in pvp forums.

[Darunis]

Can someone tell me how to lower my MMR? I left all of my arena teams, stopped playing for like a week. Found a Hpally to do some 2's with, he had deadly gear :S. And we kept on versing 1800+ teams. Someone help plz.

[Phaild0rf]

Your personal rating will remain unchanged just like if they win games without you. Their PR will move up/down as well as the team rating, but your personal will not change.

awesome, thanks.

[Bobzor]

Can someone tell me how to lower my MMR? I left all of my arena teams, stopped playing for like a week. Found a Hpally to do some 2's with, he had deadly gear :S. And we kept on versing 1800+ teams. Someone help plz.

you have to lose a lot or just lose vs. bad teams or play with some1 at much lower mmr than yours.

[Haggis]

MRR is crap.

I see people playing 30-70 with 2k rating.
Cause they had 2.7k MMR when this season started.
And my wrathful geared warrior started at 1.3k rating. Pretty much played 10-1 until ~2k bracket.

[Haggis]

Can someone tell me how to lower my MMR? I left all of my arena teams, stopped playing for like a week. Found a Hpally to do some 2's with, he had deadly gear :S. And we kept on versing 1800+ teams. Someone help plz.

Lose alot -> remake team -> tadaa

[Pally_Power]

An easy way to grind a team is to:

1) Enter an arena match with your partner
2) Leave the match as soon as you can
3) Repeat

After about 50 leaves your MMR should be around 1200 or lower, and you can then proceed to farm up to wherever you please.

If you do not feel like having all those losses on a team though, you can remake the team with no consequence.

[Merlinsback]

So I got into 5s seriously for the first time this week. Started 2 new teams on my lock and holy pally. My locks team MMR was around 1700, we played 15 games and ended up going 4-11, with 8 of the losses being vs 2k+ teams. We faced a 2.3k rated team twice, a 2.2k rated team twice, and the others were right at 2k. On my holy pally we just did 10 games, the teams MMR was 1550, yes 1550. We went 2-8. We faced a 1975 team 3x (which we did well against, but still lost all 3), a 2.2k team twice, and that SAME 2.3k rated team once (know it was the same team because I know one of the guys on it). How on god's green earth is it fair to match a 1550 mmr against a 2333 mmr? I know what you're gonna say: "Nobody else was queing at that time", but still, I'd rather wait 10 min for a que and be against someone within 200 mmr of us (from what I understand that's how it's supposed to be) then wait 2 min in que and face someone 800 mmr higher than us, in what way does that system think we even stand a chance?

[Bobzor]

So I got into 5s seriously for the first time this week. Started 2 new teams on my lock and holy pally. My locks team MMR was around 1700, we played 15 games and ended up going 4-11, with 8 of the losses being vs 2k+ teams. We faced a 2.3k rated team twice, a 2.2k rated team twice, and the others were right at 2k. On my holy pally we just did 10 games, the teams MMR was 1550, yes 1550. We went 2-8. We faced a 1975 team 3x (which we did well against, but still lost all 3), a 2.2k team twice, and that SAME 2.3k rated team once (know it was the same team because I know one of the guys on it). How on god's green earth is it fair to match a 1550 mmr against a 2333 mmr? I know what you're gonna say: "Nobody else was queing at that time", but still, I'd rather wait 10 min for a que and be against someone within 200 mmr of us (from what I understand that's how it's supposed to be) then wait 2 min in que and face someone 800 mmr higher than us, in what way does that system think we even stand a chance?

I've experiencing the exact opposite =] Often we're fighting teams with less than 1000mmr and gain 0 points for a win. This is due to the 5s bracket not being very populated so since there arent any other etams to match you up against it will match you with a highrated one. You will notice this on the long queue times.
Might not be fair and we do cry a bit when we lose 24 points but i prefer it over fighting no one at all.

[TyralisUH]

The "new" matchmaking system is broken as hell. Gief the old one back so we can do real pvp.

<

No It's not. It's the best change about arena. Helps a lot to lvl a new team when you're not a 1200rating player :P