Upcoming changes for Season 8

[Jessicka]

Limiting the Skill Rating variance for Teams

With the debut of the new competitive season 8 in January we’re going to be making a few matchmaking changes to increase match quality. The first change is limiting the maximum Skill Rating (SR) difference between the highest SR player on a team and the lowest SR player on the same team. This will especially help players at both the lower and higher limits of SR, where there are typically fewer players available. If a player has an SR of 4500, there are not that many other players who have a similarly high SR. The matchmaker has previously assigned players who are of a much lower SR to the same team as 4500 SR player, and hasn’t always created the best match experience possible.

We implemented the technology for this change in the 1.17.0.3 patch at the end of November, but did not aggressively tune the SR value of the limit. During the month of December we will be quietly testing the effect of more restrictive SR limits to both match quality and queue times. With the data and player feedback from testing, we’ll then come back from our holiday break on January 2 and apply a finalized set of values for Season 8.

Note that the matchmaker will still allow you to group with other players according to the current SR limits at their skill tier, which is 1000 SR for Bronze through Diamond, 500 SR for Master, and 250 for Grandmaster. We recently restricted the SR grouping limit at Grandmaster with this new Season 8 change in mind.

Removing Personal Performance Skill Rating Adjustments for Diamond tier players and above
Ok, this explanation is going to be pretty lengthy, so everyone grab some popcorn and buckle up.

When you win a competitive match of Overwatch, you gain Skill Rating, and when you lose a match you also lose Skill Rating. The amount that you gain or lose is calculated based on many different factors, and here’s a quick list of some of the most important ones:

• If you have a higher than 50% chance to win a match, you gain less for a win and lose more for a defeat. Conversely, if you were an underdog in a match than you gain more SR when you win and lose less SR when defeated.
• New players experience both higher gains and higher losses than players who have completed a lot of matches.
• You gain less SR for a win than you lose for a defeat as you more closely approach the system’s mathematical upper limit 5000 SR. (So at very high SRs you do need a greater than 50% win rate to keep your SR stable.)

There is also another factor in determining the SR change after completing a match, and that’s a measurement of how well you personally performed during the match. If you perform well than you gain more SR when you win, and lose less SR when defeated. The reverse is also true, so if you perform very poorly you gain less SR for a win and lose additional SR when defeated. The personal performance adjustments have been controversial amongst the community for quite some time, especially since the calculations for these adjustments are not at all transparent.

The adjustment does create a lot of positive system wide effects including rewarding players who make the effort to play well, punishing inactive players, and more quickly providing fairer matches for new players or those who decide to play a new hero or role. So we spent quite a lot of time examining data over multiple seasons, checking a lot of math, reading a LOT of community feedback, and then doing some deep soul searching about this. Especially at the higher levels of online competition where every point of SR matters, we want players to not be distracted and worry about how to optimize around the personal performance adjustment. They should just be trying to WIN. So after we get back from the holidays on January 2nd we’re going to turn off the personal performance SR adjustments for players in the Diamond skill tier and above.

We look forward to everyone playing matches and giving us feedback about these changes in Season 8!

Just wish this was across the board, feels like not being Diamond+ is basically being a second class player. Also would like if they could tighten up the pre-made limits too, as they're the biggest and most common reason these poor quality games with massive SR disparity happen.

[Eapoe]

Right? I like how he essentially says "the point should not be personal performance but to WIN; side note: all you fucks below diamond can suck it and keep trying to boostnumbers thru personal performance and less teamwork. Good idea, RIGHT!?"
Shouldn't the point of every SR tier be to win and play as a team, NOT trying to game the system by getting as high stats as possible with your best hero?
I also like how they admit to making a change, but did not test the change at all before making it and instead are using the current season as their guinea pig.
Lastly, I'd like to know where it determines if your team has a 50% chance to win or not. Is it simply based on the team's average SR, or is it based on the teammates it groups you with factoring in their personal performance as well as your?

[DeadmanWalking]

IT also says, “Been playing a while and finally got serious about raising out of bronze/silver/gold? Well don’t expect to go anywhere fast because you are locked into lower SR gains.

[xChurch]

Seems kind of backward to me as far as the personal performance changes go. Wouldn't person skill be a better judge in high levels and a worse judge in lower brackets? Hopefully is just where they will start from since the MM could use a fair work over.

[Eapoe]

IT also says, “Been playing a while and finally got serious about raising out of bronze/silver/gold? Well don’t expect to go anywhere fast because you are locked into lower SR gains.

Yeah, forgot to mention that.
I know it's probably not Blizzard's intention, but it really seems like they are helping high ranked players while just forgetting the average playerbase.

[DeadmanWalking]

Seems kind of backward to me as far as the personal performance changes go. Wouldn't person skill be a better judge in high levels and a worse judge in lower brackets? Hopefully is just where they will start from since the MM could use a fair work over.

The problem is that their personal skill is usually tied to one character and that player refuses to swap when obviously countered or the team needs you on a new character then that is poor teamwork in exchange for more sr. If they switch to a character they are not as good at even if they do win they can't get as much sr as if they pull out the win on their one trick.

Regardless what tier you are in you don't want a one trick genji on your team when the opposing team is Mercy, Winston, Moira, Symmetra, Mei and Zarya since he can't deflect the majority of those attacks and would get curb stomped a lot.

[Battlebeard]

The thing they should focus on is making a tool where you can find people to play with.

Forgive me for sounding like an entitled asshole, but I am a Master player stuck in Platinum atm, cause I only solo queue

[Thelxi]

I think this will do the game a lot of good. It might allow people that play heroes that can't easily pad performance rating to climb better. Ultimately winning should be the goal and this will help with that. For example as mercy back in the day I hated being punished for strategically "underperforming". I still don't go out of my way to make "plays" smack on point, I prioritize survival and the game punishes me for it. I can imagine Sombra, Symmetra and other more tactical heroes will hugely benefit from this.

It's also good that they are keeping the factor for lower ratings, as I do think that performance rating helps Overwatch have extremely accurate rating estimation. Far more so than other games. So they are not doing away with a great system, they are making it so the higher levels of play are more about actually winning than mechanical skill. I approve!

[Jessicka]

I think this will do the game a lot of good. It might allow people that play heroes that can't easily pad performance rating to climb better. Ultimately winning should be the goal and this will help with that. For example as mercy back in the day I hated being punished for strategically "underperforming". I still don't go out of my way to make "plays" smack on point, I prioritize survival and the game punishes me for it. I can imagine Sombra, Symmetra and other more tactical heroes will hugely benefit from this.

It's also good that they are keeping the factor for lower ratings, as I do think that performance rating helps Overwatch have extremely accurate rating estimation. Far more so than other games. So they are not doing away with a great system, they are making it so the higher levels of play are more about actually winning than mechanical skill. I approve!

Should be about winning at all levels. You realise I literally won't play Reinhardt, even though I know I can drag a team to a win with him, because it feels like I get punished for playing him. He's not the only hero I avoid for this reason.

[Deleted]

Yeah, forgot to mention that.
I know it's probably not Blizzard's intention, but it really seems like they are helping high ranked players while just forgetting the average playerbase.

Diamond isn't high ranked.

[Very Tired]

The first change is good. It is completely ridiculous that people were even grouped against other teams at a waaay higher level all because people whined "b-b-but my queue times!"

Second change is also good. All personal performance would do is encourage maining rather than swapping to something your team needs. Also punishes people like a Mercy who's team doesn't know how to protect her.

[Emaias]

The thing they should focus on is making a tool where you can find people to play with.

Forgive me for sounding like an entitled asshole, but I am a Master player stuck in Platinum atm, cause I only solo queue

You may THINK you're at a Masters Level but because you solo que you're only Platinum, but that is probably a very big exaggeration. I bounce between Mid Diamond and Low Masters and the difference in fundamentals is HUGE just in that 300 SR range. I play with friends from time to time thanks to the shitty 1,000 SR que gap and they're 2500 - 2750 which places us at 2800 and I can curb stomp teams in that bracket just because they lack awareness and don't know how to utilize ults.

TLDR: If you're at a rank you may be 250 +/- but don't think you're ~1,000 lower then where you should be.

[Eapoe]

Diamond isn't high ranked.

Considering it goes Bronze>Silver>Gold>Plat>Diamon>Master, and Diamond is 5 out of 7, I would consider that a higher rank. Considering the average players sit Gold to Plat, the lower ranks are considered Silver and Below with higher ranks being diamond and above.
Think it's fair to say with a little practical thinking that Diamond is technically a higher rank.

- - - Updated - - -

The first change is good. It is completely ridiculous that people were even grouped against other teams at a waaay higher level all because people whined "b-b-but my queue times!"

Second change is also good. All personal performance would do is encourage maining rather than swapping to something your team needs. Also punishes people like a Mercy who's team doesn't know how to protect her.

Agreed, but it's only effective at Diamond and above. Players below that are still judged by personal performance and encouraged to 1 trick and not play what's better for the team.

[Deleted]

Seems like balancing is something that is now gonna work.

[Ninjavitis]

Maybe this will keep the throwers and trolls at the bottom where they belong.

[Battlebeard]

Maybe this will keep the throwers and trolls at the bottom where they belong.

No? Am I reading this wrong or will this not cause the opposite?

If personal performance does NOT matter, the non trolls will get punished by the trolls as well.

If personal performance was all that mattered, then the trolls would drop in rating, while the people who do their job properly would not.

[Ninjavitis]

No? Am I reading this wrong or will this not cause the opposite?

If personal performance does NOT matter, the non trolls will get punished by the trolls as well.

If personal performance was all that mattered, then the trolls would drop in rating, while the people who do their job properly would not.

Maybe it's different from what I read somewhere else. That below diamond Personal performance matters more in determining SR gain/loss, and above diamond it's more about team performance. Throwers and trolls don't tend to have good personal performance.

[Battlebeard]

Maybe it's different from what I read somewhere else. That below diamond Personal performance matters more in determining SR gain/loss, and above diamond it's more about team performance. Throwers and trolls don't tend to have good personal performance.

Well, there can certainly be trolls in Diamond, which means that the other players in Diamond get punished regardless how good they perform.