Ranked Matchmaking is Beyond Broken

(hawkeyeguy99) #1

I just played the most unbalanced game of DB I have ever played… in ranked of all places where supposedly we are matched by skill. I’m currently sitting at Silver Specialist rank and have played decent matches with occasionally getting matched with complete idiots who don’t know what they’re doing in-game. At least they are usually handy in a firefight, even if they have no idea what an EV is. But this evening I encountered something so incredibly frustrating I have to ask how the fuck this even happened. All the names have been scribbled out to avoid “naming and shaming”.

Here’s the end of the match:
http://imgur.com/2dZE5Q7

Here’s mid match:
http://imgur.com/kywbq5v

And here’s my “team” of supposedly balanced and ranked players:
http://imgur.com/wGpoX2I
http://imgur.com/mAz5opJ
http://imgur.com/aPIS4NX
http://imgur.com/DBz7Ae5

And here’s our enemy team:
http://imgur.com/E6vSzbE
http://imgur.com/viRb8ed
http://imgur.com/QEuZntK
http://imgur.com/lsfwz2G
http://imgur.com/u7JLv66
They ranged from silver recruit to silver officer in rank.

Only TWO of my team members were even ranked! What the actual fuck? How in the world does this happen? I solo qued so it’s not like I got paired against a 5 man team. I just have no clue how this could possibly be considered “balanced” in any way, shape, or form. Heck, it shouldn’t even be counted as a legitimate match. 3 of my 4 team members were all running default load outs of either Aura, Sky hammer, Thunder, or Proxy (all of which are free right now btw).

Can someone please explain to me how this happened? If this is supposed to be a fore runner to CMM count me out. I’ll be long gone before that happens.

(GatoCommodore) #2

we just got an injection of new players these couple of weeks

at least if they tried out ranked match, they will get used to it more than filthy pubber like me

people trying out new stuff is pretty common

(K1X455) #3

Would you believe that I played with a team that was winning in 6 minutes in underground, 1 of them accidentally invoked a “surrender” and 2 of them voted yes, with less than 2 seconds to detonate the bomb.

How much rage can you dish out in that situation?

(GatoCommodore) #4

[quote=“K1X455;c-224017”]Would you believe that I played with a team that was winning in 6 minutes in underground, 1 of them accidentally invoked a “surrender” and 2 of them voted yes, with less than 2 seconds to detonate the bomb.

How much rage can you dish out in that situation?[/quote]

im currently not playing ranked for next few weeks, or even ever again since people will just vote surrender when they cant push or when they cant defend

im too sad to play on ranked again

(n-x) #5

For me the main problem is, that you hardly have a chance to get out of the silver area if you are not way above the average skill level. So you basically have to be able to carry teams until you cant be matched against absolute beginners anymore.

I was away for two weeks and all my friends still have the rank they had when I left or even a lower one. This wouldnt be a problem if after over 200 games played they wouldnt still be matched against unranked players who basically just reached level 7 and decided to try to get one of those ranked skins. The silver area is just a god damn lottery. Queue and get 1 or two experienced players in your team, chances are you are going to win. Queue and get only level 7-10 in your team, hello demotion.

As nice as it is to have so many new players trying out ranked due to the skin rewards, but it draws players to ranked who are not interested in playing competitive, but just dont want to miss out on this “event” to get loadout cards.

I think the mistake made this season is to give out participation rewards in a competitive scenario and for queue as solo and duo. I really had hoped prior to season two that you only get rewards when you queue as a lobby of 5 and according to your performance or at least have a hugely increased chance for the reward/better reward if you do good as a lobby of 5.

This way players wanting rewards would be forced to play as teams and you would play against teams with a homogenous skill level and not teams that theoratically can have members from low bronze to mid gold.

(JonBongNoJovi) #6

Placement matches need to be in there own group not silver as a base , silver rank bracket is totally broken i agree , 2 games today a quitter in each , its not fun at all to try and advance because you will always be fucked over .

(watsyurdeal) #7

What exactly do you guys expect to happen with such a small community?

Look, so far my experiences with Ranked have been both good and bad, but broken? No, hardly, everything that has happened in my experiences come down to a few key things.

  1. Lack of communication
  2. Trickling in instead of pushing together as a team
  3. Bad team composition
  4. Really bad DM

DM is not just about how many kills you get, but how well you do on a consistent basis. But despite that, that is literally the only thing that can be judged by a metric system. The rest of the stuff is the people playing the game, and it’s not something Splash Damage can realisitcally fix. WE as a community have to fix it, so, with that in mind.

  1. Stop bitching about your team, instead focus on what you are doing wrong first then look at your team.
  2. Do not talk down to your team, communicate what you need done and do it in a positive matter.
  3. When you have success, give praise “good job guys, nice defuse, sick plant, holy crap that multi kill”.
  4. Stick TOGETHER, do not try to go on your own, you will die, even if you are playing Fragger and have top DM, you still need to plant or defuse and you will simply not last long enough to kill the whole team and do the objective.
  5. Have better merc composition, know what your strengths are and pick mercs based on those. Are you a good DM player? Carry Fragger, Skyhammer, or Stoker, are you good at support? Bring a Sawbonez or Sparks, are you heavy on objectives? Get Fletcher or Bushwacka. And most importantly, do your job. Do not try to do too many roles at once.

Sorry to sound like a broken record but…honestly sometimes you people piss me off. The problems you are talking about can NOT BE FIXED with matchmaking and metrics, it’s the exact same issues in Counter Strike, a game with a larger community and similar match making. The issue is the PLAYERS them selves and how they are doing. Take it seriously instead of only wanting to play if it allows you do what you want.

(hawkeyeguy99) #8

@watsyurdeal except for the fact that this situation could have and should have been avoided. I’m not mad that I was paired with newbies, I’m mad that all three of the unranked players were placed on ONE team. How is that remotely balanced or fair? That’s obvious team stacking towards one side. I’m all for encouraging others and helping others getting better by coordinating as a team, but the teams should at least be in the realm of being balanced to begin with.

If DB is going to count this as a competitive mode, the matchmaking should be looked at to avoid situations like this. If you were a betting man, which team would you bet on? Because I bet no one would even bet on my team in their right mind. It just shouldn’t be considered a “ranked/competitive” mode if some matches are inherently one-sided.

(watsyurdeal) #9

[quote=“hawkeyeguy99;c-224055”]@watsyurdeal except for the fact that this situation could have and should have been avoided. I’m not mad that I was paired with newbies, I’m mad that all three of the unranked players were placed on ONE team. How is that remotely balanced or fair? That’s obvious team stacking towards one side. I’m all for encouraging others and helping others getting better by coordinating as a team, but the teams should at least be in the realm of being balanced to begin with.

If DB is going to count this as a competitive mode, the matchmaking should be looked at to avoid situations like this. If you were a betting man, which team would you bet on? Because I bet no one would even bet on my team in their right mind. It just shouldn’t be considered a “ranked/competitive” mode if some matches are inherently one-sided.[/quote]

Again, what exactly do you expect with such a small community? Those were likely all that were available for matchmaking.

(hawkeyeguy99) #10

[quote=“watsyurdeal;c-224056”][quote=“hawkeyeguy99;c-224055”]@watsyurdeal except for the fact that this situation could have and should have been avoided. I’m not mad that I was paired with newbies, I’m mad that all three of the unranked players were placed on ONE team. How is that remotely balanced or fair? That’s obvious team stacking towards one side. I’m all for encouraging others and helping others getting better by coordinating as a team, but the teams should at least be in the realm of being balanced to begin with.

If DB is going to count this as a competitive mode, the matchmaking should be looked at to avoid situations like this. If you were a betting man, which team would you bet on? Because I bet no one would even bet on my team in their right mind. It just shouldn’t be considered a “ranked/competitive” mode if some matches are inherently one-sided.[/quote]

Again, what exactly do you expect with such a small community? Those were likely all that were available for matchmaking.[/quote]

You’re missing the point. I get that the community is small and we have to take what we can get. But why were all three unranked players placed on one team? Why were they not distributed? Why was one of them not placed on the other team? It doesn’t make any sense to fill one team with players with hundreds of hours of experience and place the other team at a disadvantage and give them all the inexperienced players. That has nothing to do with a small player base, but a bad matchmaking system.

(watsyurdeal) #11

[quote=“hawkeyeguy99;c-224057”][quote=“watsyurdeal;c-224056”][quote=“hawkeyeguy99;c-224055”]@watsyurdeal except for the fact that this situation could have and should have been avoided. I’m not mad that I was paired with newbies, I’m mad that all three of the unranked players were placed on ONE team. How is that remotely balanced or fair? That’s obvious team stacking towards one side. I’m all for encouraging others and helping others getting better by coordinating as a team, but the teams should at least be in the realm of being balanced to begin with.

If DB is going to count this as a competitive mode, the matchmaking should be looked at to avoid situations like this. If you were a betting man, which team would you bet on? Because I bet no one would even bet on my team in their right mind. It just shouldn’t be considered a “ranked/competitive” mode if some matches are inherently one-sided.[/quote]

Again, what exactly do you expect with such a small community? Those were likely all that were available for matchmaking.[/quote]

You’re missing the point. I get that the community is small and we have to take what we can get. But why were all three unranked players placed on one team? Why were they not distributed? Why was one of them not placed on the other team? It doesn’t make any sense to fill one team with players with hundreds of hours of experience and place the other team at a disadvantage and give them all the inexperienced players. That has nothing to do with a small player base, but a bad matchmaking system.[/quote]

Look at your images, not a single player with a ranking, we’re supposed to take what you say at face value.

And even then, the system does not take just rank into account, but rather looks at one’s stats and places them based on that. To be honest it really shouldn’t matter, you should take the hand your dealt and do what you can. Not every match is going to go perfectly for you, and even a well balanced game can be an absolute stomp.

(Cgz27) #12

Just wanna put this out there.

You know if you consider that actual good players (who are supposed to be in higher ranked games) can lose games due to immature leavers who think its over if they lose only the first objective (out of 2 or 3) quickly or won’t even acknowledge the possibility of their team winning the 2nd round… Then…

Don’t you think its unfair to completely blame matchmaking?
I’m not sure if leavers get their (mmr/internal ranking) changed after leaving but I’m sure that they skew the system regardless and make it impossible for us to fully realize whether the system is actually bad or not.

For example, good players who lose in this case are then forced to win more games against weaker ranked opponents who then complain that the other team is too stacked.

And then cycle f**in continues.

(Just posting cus this one guy literally left our defense after losing a quick 1st obj bridge after saying in voice chat (“you guys suck im leaving”). We were then left with a 4v5 and we still all had positive scores (kd) in the end while the other team only had 2 ppl doing well (just ok). We were able to shoot evenly with the other team and it rly did leave a salty taste in my mouth cus i knew we could win but even then another one of my teammates was ticked off and started teamkilling us for fun while we were returnin the objective to the room lmao)

(Cgz27) #13

To add, I checked the guy’s steam profile afterwards and it said he was currently playing “Golf With Your Friends”. …

This stuff occurs in many games as well not just DB.
It worse for DB since we still have a smaller player base than other big competitive games.
Matchmaking compares skill.
It does not account for a baby’s mentality.

(Press E) #14

This is why I really wish ranked was based more on personal performance than how your team performs. Yes, I know the idea behind it is team communication, but no amount of communication will help a terrible team. As it is now, your current rank is largely based on how lucky you got in your team’s composition.

I’m not saying winning and losing shouldn’t affect it, but I’d like to see this changed. Because until matchmaking is no longer an issue, having your team doom you is extremely annoying.

(Noir) #15

I am just wondering why was every one placed in Silver ? I had 9 wins and 1 loss and I was placed silver (not even higher silver rank). My friend had 6 wins and 4 losses and was ranked exactly the same.
Now, Ranked is a pain for me as Silver. I either can carry the game is opposition is not too strong or get completly destroyed.

I’ll give it a last try this week end, tryharding it and see if I can beat RNG, but yeah, it hurts :frowning:

(blonk) #16

Just you wait next time I DM you’re totally getting trapdoor’d into a pit of horny minotaurs

(watsyurdeal) #17

[quote=“blonk;c-224095”][quote=“watsyurdeal;c-224051”]
4. Really bad DM
[/quote]

Just you wait next time I DM you’re totally getting trapdoor’d into a pit of horny minotaurs[/quote]

(doxjq) #18

[quote=“STARRYSOCK;c-224092”]This is why I really wish ranked was based more on personal performance than how your team performs. Yes, I know the idea behind it is team communication, but no amount of communication will help a terrible team. As it is now, your current rank is largely based on how lucky you got in your team’s composition.

I’m not saying winning and losing shouldn’t affect it, but I’d like to see this changed. Because until matchmaking is no longer an issue, having your team doom you is extremely annoying.[/quote]

Agreed.

Had a game in the first week where I went something stupid like 108/24, and lost because it was a 4v5 game. One of our team mates quit in the first minute of the first half, and surprisingly it was actually a really close game.

At the time I was gold officer, and I lost nearly 50% of my rank for that game because the enemies were all silver. Didn’t really seem fair, since I had 3 times more kills than everyone in the game as well as triple the XP of everyone in the game too.

(Mc1412013) #19

5 v 2 (5 player side being my team) by the time half time hit only reason there was a 2nd half is because the vote surender is dissabled for the first 3 min. I hate loosing but dislike not earning the win just as mutch

(AlphaUT) #20

How about fix shitty multiple mercs like 3 thunders. What a joke.