Ranked Mode Overhaul Matchmaking - Frequently Asked Questions
Blizzard just posted an overview of frequently asked questions about the new ranked system and their answers, including the hot topic of if tanking your MMR will help or not. Read all the questions and answers below:
Quote from BlizzardHey everyone! We put together a general matchmaking FAQ here for our new ranked system to help answer questions you may have.
For general description of this new system, please refer to our Year of the Phoenix blog.
If you want to learn some basic concepts of matchmaking, here is our previous blog about matchmaking in Battlegrounds.
Q: How does matchmaking work for each season?
A: There are two matchmaking pools: matchmaking by rating (aka. MMR) and by rank.
When your star bonus multiplier is bigger than 1, or you are in Legend rank, you are (generally) in the first matchmaking pool; when your star bonus drops to 1, you are in the second pool.
Q: Why are there two matchmaking pools?
A: Since each player starts at the bottom of the ladder at start, we want fair matches for everyone (aka. win-rate close to 50%). At that time, your progression on ladder is protected by your star bonus, thus your net expected gain will be positive through the ladder. Once other players run out of star bonuses, matching by rank will allow for good players, or players who want to push themselves a bit, to be able to progress to a higher rank.
In short, having two matchmaking pools helps players progress in the ladder without having to grind as much, while still making most matches fair.
Q: If I “tank” my MMR at certain rank floor, will I be matched with easier opponents next season because you are matchmaking by MMR at the start?
A: No, in general you won’t. At the start of the season we will recover your MMR to certain threshold if it is dropped below that value, which is based on what your rank is in the previous season. Therefore, there would be no benefits to intentionally tank your MMR.
Q: How many stars bonuses do I get at the start of the season?
A: It depends on your current MMR and the rank you reached from your previous season, whichever gives a higher value. Generally, the minimal initial star bonuses you get for each rank floor you reached are:
Best Rank Minimal Initial Star Bonuses Bronze 10 2 Bronze 5 2 Silver 10 2 Silver 5 3 Gold 10 4 Gold 5 5 Platinum 10 6 Platinum 5 7 Diamond 10 8 Diamond 5 9 Legend 10
As you can see, every player starts with at least two stars bonuses.
Q: Do you reset MMR each season?
A: No, we do not.
Q: Will the value of my previous season’s MMR be exactly same as the new season?
A: Technically no, although the change will be very small and the “value order” will be kept (Player A whose MMR is larger than player B in the last season will still be ordered as such). Mathematically, a re-normalization process takes place at the start of each season to keep the distribution in a nice bell-shaped curve.
Q: If I missed one season, will I lose my star bonuses when I return?
A: No, you won’t.
Q: If I missed multiple seasons, will I lose star bonuses when I return?
A: Based on how long you are absent, there will be some small decay applied to your MMR. Therefore, you may (or may not) lose some star bonuses.
Q: Where do the win steak bonuses end?
A: Diamond 5.
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Posted Apr 9, 2020 (Outland DH Nerfs)Here's one example. You finish the season with 8 bonus stars, me with, say, four. You winstreak down to four bonus stars, whilst I'm losing every match. Our MMRs are not the same; we are no more likely to match up against each other than with us at different ranks. Not to mention that MMR drops when you lose - albeit very slowly for this one, in my experience - whilst bonus stars do not. MMR and number of bonus stars you have are simply two different numbers. There'll be some correllation between MMR and end of season ranking, yes; if it's done well, then it should be a close correllation. You've also got the legend pool, which has a variety of MMRs, owing to people playing jankier decks post-legend, amongst other things, so you will see legend players against those with bonus stars. All of which says no, you don't get matched up within brackets of # of bonus stars.
Oh, and when you play jank and/or don't play a mode much, it can take a good while to get rid of stars. Might be simply issues with initializing MMR (possibly based it on something other than previous season results) and slow moving, but going from roughly even to double digit lossstreak is... not really a good way to burn through stars. It's a good system, particularly for grinders, and better than the old one overall, with a few flaws.
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Posted Apr 9, 2020 (Outland DH Nerfs)That's literally what it's doing right now? You get bonus stars depending on your rank from last month, and you then get matched with other people who have the same amount of bonus stars, aka people who were the same rank as you last month.
Maybe you should learn how the system works before complaining about it
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Posted Apr 9, 2020 (Outland DH Nerfs)There is nothing to say that you get matched against those with the same number of bonus stars. You get matched based on MMR, with the pool being (those with bonus stars+legend rank). No splits within that. Just the two matchmaking pools.
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Posted Apr 9, 2020 (Outland DH Nerfs)The basic concept of MMR says that... if someone has 3 bonus stars and you have 8, that person is obviously not going to have the same winrate or skill level as you and therefore won't be matched with you.
MMR has existed for 10+ years dude. It works. It isn't some mystical concept, it's an algorithm that matches you with even opponents.
It doesnt even take that long to run out of bonus stars, I'm down to 3 after like 8 games. Then you're back to pure rank based matchmaking anyway
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Posted Apr 7, 2020 (Outland Release)The system still seems to be screwed. For a couple of days I'm moving between 10 and 6 diamond. No star bonus. Today I was paired with a guy, whom I invited to ask for his deckcode. It appeared he was in legend. But from the faq I shouldn't be matched with a legend guy despite his "low" mmr - he was at 6000 something.
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Posted Apr 7, 2020 (Outland Release)HEEELLLOO
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Posted Apr 5, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)Obviously that's to keep people from exploiting the system lmao...
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Posted Apr 9, 2020 (Outland DH Nerfs)So why not matchmake by the rank then - the better number of either your current rank or the highest rank of the previous month. MMR is pointless in this system, and hiding the number simply makes players distrust you.
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Posted Apr 4, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)So if you dont wanna tryhard, diamond 10 is the best rank to stop at?
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Posted Apr 4, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)i'd agree with that. dia10 = old rank 5
and the nice thing about the new system is: if you happen to play more than usual you might even hit the additional rank floor at dia5 with winstreaks, while in the old system, if you go on a loosing streak at rank 2 you were pretty much f'd :)
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Posted Apr 4, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)yeah i like this system more as well
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Posted Apr 3, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)Just got to Gold 5.. received 1 pack for it... I thought it was 2 packs and 5 rares or something?
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Posted Apr 3, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)-
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Posted Apr 4, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)it adds up. if you check your rewards chest you will notice there is more packs in it than you think. each rank 5 is 1 additional pack. so bronze, silver and gold5 means you should get 3 packs
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Posted Apr 3, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)If you've been playing for 5+ years and can't win a game, I don't think that's Blizzard's fault. Sounds like you only like playing when you're winning. Here's a thought, maybe the cards you're using or the decks you're playing aren't good, or there could be one other reason.
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Posted Apr 4, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)I'm pretty sure that is not what he was implying. There are still to many players bm'ing, but I think his problem is that he tried the new system right on day 1, where if I'm not mistaking everyone starts at bronze 10, so he obviously can go up against top players, who are more experienced in their decks and strategies overall. Then there are the trolls, who play their best decks just like at the beginning of a new expansion to shit on others, who are trying either the new system with a much weaker deck or new cards like the demon hunter ones.
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Posted Apr 3, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)I'm not sure I buy their claim about "raising" your MMR to a rank floor if you tank it. If that's true why even have it at all.
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Posted Apr 3, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)Star bonus - nice. Better rewards - nice. Matchmaking system - f... i mean messed up in my opinion
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Posted Apr 3, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)Without win streak bonus at last rung it is much harder to get legend now :(
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Posted Apr 3, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)There was no win streak before though, so nothing has changed except you need 15 stars not 25 at the last rung