[ke_ivan]

I know that this has been done to death, and there's an algorithm for this (my suspicion is that it has indeed changed), but I have a theory:

Basically the theory involves matching players with similar win rates rather than by leagues.

I'm a bronze player and I suck (really, it's not even a joke). So i've been winning some games on Siege Tank + Marine timings. But I've been (continuously) matched against silver, gold and finally lost to a plat player (huh? c'mon really? i'm just bronze man...) and then it systematically put me back down to playing bronze players (phew!). It's strange I was wondering if anyone had a better theory on this weird phenomenon.

[cruxis]

It's called Matchmaking Rank (MMR). This isn't shown to you, and has no effect on bonus pool. The game places you against similar ranked people. Chances are, the plat you played was about to be de-ranked, and you're about to rank up.

[ke_ivan]

Yeah i saw his match history, it was a bunch of losses to silver and gold players. But doesn't the MMR take into consideration what league you're in? I always thought MMR placed you within leagues and in between leagues that you're about to be promoted to, like eg bronze to silver. Also i think bnet places you against players that are on at the time (i know, obvious fact). So let's say i have a nice win rate against bronze players, but at the time there are a ton of gold players playing, would i be placed against gold players?

[cruxis]

MRR just places you against other players with similar MMR's. You can skip entire divisions if your MMR increases enough, for example, going Bronze to Gold. Once you reach the requirement to be promoted/demoted, it'll put you into the new division.

[ke_ivan]

Thanks for the reply. It put me in a frame of mind that I'll be facing tougher next time. (I actually was playing everyone like I was just playing bronze players and that I'd be stuck in bronze forever lol.)

[Next_rim]

But doesn't the MMR take into consideration what league you're in?

They way blizz explains this is pretty much as follows:

There is match-making rating (MMR), which is calculated a lot like chess handicap. It not only depends on your win/loss ration, but on what's your opponent MMR.

There is also confidence rating. This is basically +/- from your MMR in a certain range. The more you play, the lower the range, and the greater chances that you will face equal MMR. If you consistently win higher MMR players, your MMR is leveled fairly slowly, but uncertainty rating jumps up and down a lot.

Now, here comes the tricky part. When you click "quick match", the system first browses your league for available players. Chances are high that there will be 0 - many people won't be online, or will be in a game already. Then the system extends search to other bronze leagues AND widens your confidence rating, so you can be potentially matched with a bigger pool of players.

Now, not all bronze leagues are equal. There are three to five types of bronze leagues. Top bronze has about same MMR as medium silver or low gold (for example). This is done to widen the pool of potential opponents so that looking for a game doesn't take long, and promotion doesn't take forever.

If there are no players available yet, the system further increases your confidence rating, tapping in players from high gold and low plat. You get a plat opponent, lose, your mmr goes down A LITTLE, and process starts over again.

The biggest gain of MMR happen when you beat opponents of your own MMR level.

Your MMR won't adjust too fast if you win a lot of games. The more you win streak is, the higher the uncertainty range for you. If you are in bronze, win 15 games in a row, get matched with a master, win again, then master won't lose too much because of your uncertainty range. The system supposed you were a master, matched you with another master, and you won. Means your opp was playing supposedly equal, but for you, MMR went up as for an non-equal match (which isn't much).

Cheesers are really fun to watch ladder-wise. They can cheese up 20 games in a row, face a well-aware master, lose, then face a well-aware diamond, lose. They get their confidence interwal shrinked to plat, then they face 5 plat in a row, cheese again, then get to play top diamond again, lose 10 in a row, and end up in mid-plat.

In contrast, a normal player progression would like this: 2 wins, match a higher mmr, 2 losses, match same mmr, 2 wins, match higher mmr, 1 win 1 losss, match even higher mmr, 1 win 1 loss. Increase MMR, rince and repeat.

[ke_ivan]

wow, that's a pretty detailed explanation! Thanks! Question: So basically you'll only be promoted to a respective league if your uncertainty rating stabilizes? If that's the case, it kinda sounds fair. Stops people from catapulting into a different league all of a sudden from like bronze to masters and then back down again, since it'd actually take time to stabilize. nice. Thanks again!

[Next_rim]

To add, the points system doesn't affect your placement at all. It is 100% psychological. For example, you make it to #1 diamond with 1000 points. Your mmr is around mid-diamond atm. You progress and get your MMR up to top diamond. You are still #1 diamond, but with 1500 points. Now you start getting matched with low masters. You lose to all masters, but keep winning all diamonds. Your points go up since you don't lose as much points to masters, but your MMR (read - skill) is not progressing.

What you actually see is #1 in ladder and points growing, which makes your e-peen bigger and encourages you to play more. Same reason Blizz hid losses, since if you see your win/loss ration, points stop to matter to you.

[ke_ivan]

I get what you mean now. I'm getting matched to low-gold and high-silver players all the time now, but I'm not losing as many points as I should (the point gap is narrowing), but I feel like I've reached a plateau (or slump). I'm losing games and winning games at the same rate (like 50-50) which is frustrating. And I'm only at 700 pts lol (wth? where are my easy, peasy lemon-squeezy, febreezy games?). Thanks again for all your answers!

[cruxis]

The game always tries to place you against those of your skill level. While you may not appear to be improving, you probably are.

[Makra]

Also be aware that recently the ladders were locked by Blizz due to some bug. That might have been why you were facing gold/plat players without a promotion.

[CHoBo(kice)]

yeah if you were versing higher players and winning you have great chane of promotion.

today i played 3 games.

I was stuck in silver for about 3 weeks, however beating Master/GM players while it showed I was favoured.

After hotfix today. 1 win(high master) = diamond, loss(GM) = Master, win (high master). Tried one more game to see if it would promote to GM. Maybe one day haha :P

[crAzerk]

you were beating Master/GMs when you were in silver? what the hell were you doing in silver in the first place

[CHoBo(kice)]

got stuck there on initial placement for this season, was gold last... then ladder got stuck lol

[FvRelimzkE]

Ladder is unlocked guys. Got promoted in 1v1 today after a win (SEA)