So how are your games going lately? [megathread]

[ThatsOurEric]

This quickplay matchmaking really fucking sucks. I get queued against people who have been up at and beyond 3500 rating last season, some of them even at 4000. Wtf is this quickplay matchmaking?

I kind of expect this in Quick Play though. That SHOULD be a circus.

[Jessicka]

RNG caused by the nature of the system can, and does, cause short term problems, but you can play through them if you just play. I came back from a 20 match loss streak to finish 320SR higher than I placed, and 570SR higher than my season low. I absolutely get that they are frustrating and it feels like setback after setback, and, it is.

I have no illusions about playing Diamond, or even High Platinum; I've played against players there and I know damn well it's not where I belong (one of my great frustrations about QP is just that), but I've also played people in and around 2300-2600 and it feels 'about right' to me. Down in 1700-1900, I could and would carry matches, comfortably, that got harder as I climbed but it still happened up to around 2150. Above there, matches feel okay, I wouldn't say I carried but I wasn't being carried either, and overall I've been on an upward trajectory if I won as much as I lost in an evening. Can be pretty slow, painstaking, and frustrating, but you get boosts when you chain a few wins together too.

The problem I did notice, when I lost a lot of SR very quickly is that the system "lost certainty", and it took a few matches to re-adjust to accept I shouldn't be where I'd fallen to - my SR gains diminished, even though I was playing no differently, and my losses stopped diminishing too. So, I went from gaining 25-30SR and losing ~15 at 2100, to gaining 21-25 at 1800 and losing as much; because I'd dropped so hard, it took a couple dozen games for that to re-adjust back and allow me to climb.

______

Anywho, Season 7 is almost upon us. I want to add some Tracer to my pool this time around.

[ThatsOurEric]

in the end it is your own performance that matters.

Yes, but only YOU can go so far. Eventually, you will only go as far as the team you are playing with
can go. If you can go higher but they can't, I got news for you, you're going to have a hard time
moving up then.

When you're in the largest cesspool of players, your chances are essentially RNG whether or not you
will get very lucky and go far early or at some point during the season, or your RNG (like mine), can
suck big floppy donkey dick and you will progress only so far before you are just bogged down by
lesser skilled teammates, but mostly the garbage players (that being one-tricks, trolls, etc.)

There was a time when I was being placed in Silver.
Now I'm in Platinum consistently. Why? I got better, and kept playing, and
my rank reflected my improved performance over time.

For Seasons 2-4, I was Platinum. I was *almost* Platinum again in S5 (literally four
fucking points away from 2500), but was under attack from shitty games and teams
non-stop, dropping as low as the near 1800s before climbing back up (and painfully
so.)

I know I've gotten better since the first day I played Overwatch, but I am not skilled
enough to carry and solo 6 players. And I shouldn't be able to, I SHOULD be on a
team that can at least function together, which is the point of the game to begin with.

The ranking system is not a progression system. You aren't meant to "climb ranks", at all. The majority of players will not. It's meant to put you at a rank appropriate to your performance, so that when it matches you with other players at that rank, you get relatively competitive matches rather than curbstombs that are weighted one way or the other, outside of the obvious "someone's throwing/left" stuff.

I disagree.

If you're in Gold and play constantly and can't climb out of Gold, it's almost certainly because you should be in Gold.

Speaking for myself, no, I personally don't believe I belong in Gold. I'm not megalomaniacal and think
I'm a Grandmaster or anything of the sort, but compared to the drek I've had the misfortune of being
paired with in Gold, I know for damn sure I am not where I "belong."

And I've been paired with equally skilled, and even better skilled players who are also in Gold, and yet
they have also been "stuck" there as well. Being in Platinum before, I can tell you the skill difference
isn't THAT substantial from Gold. So your example doesn't work. People can get "stuck" in spots that
don't reflect their skill rating due to the results of their matches, and its not always their fault.

If you're gaining way more for wins than losses, but have a 25% win rate, figure out why, because it's not "other players". That'd affect your opponents slightly more than it would affect you, since we can assume you're one player out of your 6 who's actually trying, leaving your team 5/6 chances to draw terrible players, and your opponents 6/6 chances.

You're significantly underestimating how much a poor or troll player can affect a game, as well as the consistent
effect of having said players on a team (as well as multiple poor/trolls, not only just one).

Those are your four possible answers to why you're not climbing.

Or there's a 5th answer : In a team-based game, the performance of your team overall affects everyone altogether.
If someone leaves, you're in an impossible 5 v 6, and you lose. Doesn't matter how well you did, you're still going to
lose 30-40 SR. Now imagine that happening 3 times in a row. Now imagine the next 3 are from players never swapping
when they are being hard countered. Now you are forced to babysit said player, leaving your team at a further
disadvantage.

When the team works together, they have a 50/50 chance of winning. When they all play with at least the most basic
understanding of the game, they have a 50/50 chance of winning. If ONE PERSON has neither, and then it multiples
from there (say, 2 people), your team's chances of winning drop SIGNIFICANTLY. And since the win/losing SR are
not equal, it becomes very very VERY hard to make any progress when losing two games = the same as winning 4.

[Explicit Teemo Nudes]

The denial is strong in this one.

[kaamila]

Winning in comp is a coin toss; You're either on the side of the good players, or the side of the worse players. It's almost always a steamroll by either team. There's pretty much no middle ground.

[Eapoe]

Plan for next season: no support play, ever. Roughly 80-90% of every game I played the previous season I was on support, this season I plan on ending it with no support time at all. Already getting a feel for most heroes in Mystery arcade, and know which ones I'm going to focus on.
What this means is I will be instalocking my picks, and when people complain we have no support I'm going to tell them they better learn fast. Even if I have to go tank, I will pick q more damage oriented one such as Hog or DVa, and treat them as such. If people threaten to report me for no teamwork, I will threaten right back. The only support I will even touch next season will be Zen, and even then he works as a damage dealer.

[Endus]

I disagree.

Then you're just definitively wrong about how the system works, and that's the root of your flawed perception of it.

Among other comments on the subject, this post is pretty clear;

We've actually done some tuning since launch so it takes several more wins or losses in a row to trigger full expansion of the uncertainty due to streaks. It's been tricky to tune. We don't want to have your SR seesawing wildly due to natural variance in wins and losses, but but we do want it to be meaningful enough so if someone's MMR is incorrect (a new account, someone trying to smurf, etc.) we get them to their "proper" MMR quickly so they're playing against the players who they should be playing.

https://us.battle.net/forums/en/over...page=2#post-38

The system is weighting your results to line up your current SR with your internal MMR. That's why a short win streak tends to result in you winning less and less, and then losing big when the tide turns; you've left your MMR behind, and the system is pushing you back there. The two numbers are not the same thing, and the internal MMR doesn't swing as wildly as SR. It CAN be improved, through solidly improved gameplay, but the important thing to remember there is that the entire player base is getting better, with practice. If you're an average player, playing an average amount, then your normal improvement over time only maintains your MMR, it doesn't improve it, because it's a relative comparison to all other players. Who are all improving, just like you are.

[ThatsOurEric]

The denial is strong in this one.

More like your ignorance is much stronger.

[Fenzha]

Opened about 25 boxes since this event started and received 1 legendary. The reaper one from last year...

[ThatsOurEric]

Opened about 25 boxes since this event started and received 1 legendary. The reaper one from last year...

At least you got the good one. I got the "Vampire" skin, which is honestly, very very
lackluster in design in comparison to the previous one.

[Jessicka]

At least you got the good one. I got the "Vampire" skin, which is honestly, very very
lackluster in design in comparison to the previous one.

I have everything but that and Zen's, opened about the same number of boxes. Zen's is nice, but agree on the Reaper one. Might buy Zen's tomorrow.

[Explicit Teemo Nudes]

It's like people lose 95% of their brain and get 95% more rude as soon as they play Genji and Hanzo.

[RobertoCarlos]

It's like people lose 95% of their brain and get 95% more rude as soon as they play Genji and Hanzo.

teenage boy hormones are a hell of a thing.

[epLe]

The skill rating adjustment system is so flawed, matchmaking, griefers and similar affect your adjustments way more than your own performance.
Defending the system is just displaying your own stupidity.

easy example
A) 1 loss - you lose 5-10 skill rating thanks to poor teammates, -Here the personal performance decide if its -5 or -10.
B) 1 win - you gain 5-10 skill rating thanks to teammates capable of very basics. - Here the personal performance decide if its +5 or +10.

So in both examples your personal performance have a minor impact on the adjustment (1-5).
But the difference from winning or losing, decided by MM, griefers or just braindeads is up to 20 points.

This makes the MM system 4 times as significant compared to your own performance.

[Jessicka]

So Jeff talked some in this thread: https://us.battle.net/forums/en/over...240215?page=21 says Ana is getting a DPS buff. Settles it on my getting her golden gun next.

Talked about other stuff like Genji and Mercy too.

[ThatsOurEric]

I have everything but that and Zen's, opened about the same number of boxes. Zen's is nice, but agree on the Reaper one. Might buy Zen's tomorrow.

I got Reaper's crappy "Vampire" & Ana's Pirate Costume for the new legendary skins, much to my
eternal sadness. The other ones I received are all of last years Legendary/Epic Halloween skins,
which is still nice, but damn if I didn't want, like everyone else, Symmetra's and Zenyatta's skins.

Oh well, at least I got Mei's Chinese Ghost & McCree's Vampire Hunter.

It's like people lose 95% of their brain and get 95% more rude as soon as they play Genji and Hanzo.

I suppose if you look at it in one way, these players probably get yelled, insulted, or asked constantly
(guaranteed the second they even make the selection) to swap the character, and thus, they've grown
quite tired of hearing it, so it made them snippy little shits.

Its inexcusable, but it does make sense in a way. Hanzo & Genji are easily one of the most popular of the
Overwatch characters, but unfortunately, they are both (debatable which one) some of the more demanding
of high skill in order to be effective.

Which more often than not, said players don't have, but hey, fuck the team. I want to play what I want
to play and that's that.

Bottom video sums up Hanzo players in a comedic (and also accurate) nutshell.

[Eapoe]

3 placements in, get called a trash Tracer, teammate instalocks her so I can't pick her again, gets 3 kills over the whole of round 2. Glad the season is off to such a great start.
This is going against the 17 kills I got over 5 mins on round 1, but since I wasn't targeting the characters he wanted me to, I'm complete trash.

[ThatsOurEric]

6 wins, 3 losses, 1 draw.

Two of the three losses were unbelievably bad. One was my team losing
to a 5-man. The enemy team's Reaper was carrying them like Atlas
carrying the goddamn sky. All it took was for the team to be aware of
their surroundings so that he doesn't constantly port and kill Supports.

I even called it out several times where he was. Still lost. The lack of
awareness on their part was just mind-boggling.

The other one was just bad all over the place. Very shitty players, but
worse than that was the chat. They weren't being toxic, but several of
my teammates just talked about nonsensical, unimportant bullshit.
They didn't take it the least bit seriously, and we lost so badly as a
result.

In the end, got placed 2240. Here's hoping (in vain) that I don't get as
much bullshit as the game has been giving me so far.

[Eapoe]

6 wins, 3 losses, 1 draw.

Two of the three losses were unbelievably bad. One was my team losing
to a 5-man. The enemy team's Reaper was carrying them like Atlas
carrying the goddamn sky. All it took was for the team to be aware of
their surroundings so that he doesn't constantly port and kill Supports.

I even called it out several times where he was. Still lost. The lack of
awareness on their part was just mind-boggling.

The other one was just bad all over the place. Very shitty players, but
worse than that was the chat. They weren't being toxic, but several of
my teammates just talked about nonsensical, unimportant bullshit.
They didn't take it the least bit seriously, and we lost so badly as a
result.

In the end, got placed 2240. Here's hoping (in vain) that I don't get as
much bullshit as the game has been giving me so far.

4 wins/6 losses, 1 leaver, placed 2597. Placements seem to mean nothing and you are more affected by where you ended the last season. So FUN!

[ThatsOurEric]

4 wins/6 losses, 1 leaver, placed 2597. Placements seem to mean nothing and you are more affected by where you ended the last season. So FUN!

Great. Just great.