I don't think a lot of people would fundamentally disagree when I said that we are not happy
with the matchmaker.
It has been a point of contention for about as long as competitive play exists, and it
is also a topic I have covered numerous times on this channel already.
Now, if you are under the impression that there is only one single problem with it that
could be fixed just like that- Then you are painfully mistaken.
The problem surrounding matchmaking issues in Overwatch comes down to many factors.
Not the least of which is a wrong idea sides of the community of how a matchmaking system
is supposed to work, and even downright ignorance to why some of these perceived anomalies are
happening.
Bottomline is that, even if you think you know how the matchmaker works, chances are
that you don't.
And that goes for me as much as most other people.
But that doesn't stop us from talking about it, speculating and offering our feedback.
Because whether the matchmaker is objectively broken or not- If it is perceived to not be
functioning properly by the playerbase, then something needs to change.
That means that our feedback is very important for the Devs, even when we have no idea what
we are talking about.
My target today is the dev team's stance on how the matchmaking system is handling
smurf account.
Allowing smurfing in competitive play creates a lot of issues on a social level, as I have
covered in my video talking about 5 Inexcusable Flaws in Overwatch.
Matchmaking Rating adjustments or not- The idea of participating in competitive play
with a secondary account will always be unhealthy for a game, no matter how you look at it.
A player smurfing fundamentally doesn't care as much as somebody whose actual ELO
is on the line, and that is simply not fair towards players who are blood, sweat and tears
out there trying to get their ranks up.
With that out of the way- Let's talk about the balance related issues that can occur
thanks to their acceptance for Smurf Accounts.
Take me as an example.
I have an alt account almost entirely dedicated to practising DPS heroes, because god knows
having a Zenyatta One Trick swap to DPS is gonna cause a lot of whining when I tried
to do that on my main account.
So I play Zenyatta on my main and I have an absolutely awful time.
Nobody cares to group up, nobody is peeling and everyone is just whining constantly.
What would stop me now from swapping my Zenyatta Masters Account to my DPS Platinum Account,
to then play Zenyatta against players who are way worse than me, just because I am frustrated?
"So what about it," you might say.
"The matchmaker is gonna see you stomping Plats and adjust your rating very quickly!"
and you wouldn't be completely wrong if you said that.
If I spent two days just consistently stomping Plats and Diamonds until I reach my original
rating again, then the problem would be solved, right?
Well, at least according to Blizzard.
But here is the actual issue.
If I was to go on one of those angry tantrums where I just wanna stomp some low ELO players,
then I wouldn't be doing that for 2 days straight.
I would go for a handful of games, blow some steam off and call it a night.
If I keep playing DPS on that account and only every so often go on one of those rampages,
then I am going to be a constant, potential problem for the matchmaker.
And here's the kicker- One of my friends has done exactly what I just talked about.
They had an alt account to practise one hero, got placed very low, and one day got frustrated
because their main heroes are no longer meta now in Season 10.
So they went on a tear on their low ELO account where they could obviously still pull some
stunts off.
And it took them two whole days of grinding competitive play to be adjusted back into
GrandMaster.
Two, whole, days.
Two days of them completely destroying the balance of their matches by tearing through
everyone they played against.
Now consider the following- How many players have an alt account?
Given that Blizzard openly said that having alt accounts is fine- You can sure that there
is a ton of them.
Just try to pay attention in your own matches how many players below level 100 you can find.
Even if everyone only did angry stomps every so often, given that so many players own alt
accounts, you can bet your bucket that this is gonna be a common occurrence because of
just how many smurf accounts are out there.
It's the same thing I said for being toxic- Why would someone care about practising PMA
on a Smurf Account?
Even if they only got toxic like once a month, given how many smurf accounts exist, you can
come across toxicity very frequently.
"Alright Cliff," you might be saying.
"Now tell me something new.
All of these things have been complained about for ages!" and I hear you, yes, you're
completely right.
But I think that most people who made their opinions public failed to address the core
issue in this argument.
Saying things like "Oh I am like two divisions below where I am supposed to be, because all
those tryharding smurfs are on the enemy team, and I keep getting those that don't care!"
It's the typical old ELO Hell fallacy.
Obviously, in the grand scheme of things, Blizzard is banking on all of this balancing
itself out.
That eventually, you are going have more legitimate matches than smurf account infested ones,
and somehow that is supposed to even out your ELO based on your own performance.
But what I want to point out is not an individual player's ranking that is affected by this
issue- I want to talk about the sheer magnitude that this problem has reached.
It is no longer the case of isolated incidents where somebody might be having bad luck.
Considering how many smurf accounts are out there, chances are that the amount of legitimate
matches you participate in have already gotten slimmer than those that have been affected
unfairly to some extent.
Losing and winning thanks to the influence of smurf accounts in itself is causing matchmaking
anomalies where players gain and lose rating where they shouldn't be gaining or losing
any.
And the issue obviously doesn't come from smurfing alone.
Because sure, you might be banking on that eventually balancing itself out, but then
we look at all the other issues that also plague competitive play.
There are players who, on the back of patch heroes alone, climb multiple divisions in
a single season.
The recently changed Hanzo and newly added Baguette are perfect examples of that.
I have found Season 9 Platinum Players who got near GrandMaster by one tricking Brigitte.
No matter how you slice it, that can't be right.
And the effects ingame show that.
Players like these have no idea how to perform in a high rank.
Sure, they might get away with farming some FREELO thanks to the chaotic and often random
nature of competitive play, especially on the back of obviously broken heroes or meta
trends.
But in the grand scheme of things, especially once things get dicey, they painfully underperform.
They will drop out of that rating once the specific hero has been nerfed or once another
meta comes around, and on their way down, they will be taking a lot of other player's
ELO with them, and that completely unjustified.
So we have this weird cycle where players are getting frustrated on their main accounts
because they feel like they lost their games unjustifyingly.
They then swap to their alt accounts where they either don't care anywhere near as
much, or they proceed to absolutely stomp other players lower in rank than their main.
Your skill rating, by no means, actually measures your skill.
And I think by now, we all are painfully aware of that.
Sure, we can spend 20 minutes talking about how the playerbase, in large, doesn't understand
why the matchmaker feels so unfair so often, but at the end of the day, allowing smurf
accounts is just one of the many domino pieces that you placed waiting to be kicked over
to eventually bring down this whole construct that we call competitive play.
But hey, ultimately, that is just my point of view on the whole issue.
Whether that is actually accurate or not- Who knows.
But our feedback matters, so make sure you drop down into the comment section below and
give us your own take on what you think is wrong with the matchmaker.
And if you think it's fine, tell us why you think so.
For all of you who are tired of complaining about problems and instead, would like to
take a step into improving your gameplay- Why not check out my video on clutch plays
based on game sense over mechanical skill?
I actually think you guys might find that really useful.
But until then, thank you everybody so much for watching, don't forget to drop me a
like on your way out if you enjoyed the video, subscribe if you wanna see more, and maybe
share this video with a friend you think would find it interesting.
Thanks again for watching and I hope to see you all next time.
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