Overwatch Update 1.10 Tweaks How Streaks Affect Your Rating

[ffronw]

Overwatch Update 1.10 Tweaks How Streaks Affect Your Rating

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1397/1397057.jpgThe newest Overwatch patch is live, and it makes some changes to how win and loss streaks affect your Skill Rating.

The rating system in Overwatch is in constant flux, sometimes changing in major ways from season [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/168175-Blizzard-Removing-Sudden-Death-Coin-Toss-Changing-Skill-Rating-System-for-Overwatch-Season-2]. There are also some tweaks that are made at other times, and yesterday's 1.10 patch has one of those tweaks.

The change affects a so-called "streak multiplier," which is used to accelerate how quickly your skill rating changes when you win or lose several matches in a row. This helps to combat what is known as "Smurfing," where a skilled player creates a new account to be able to play against lower-ranked players and beat up on them. Basically, the more games you win or lose in a row, the more each win or loss changes your skill rating.

The change in 1.10 is to make that streak multiplier less aggressive. According to a forum post [https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20754005467#post-1] from Overwatch Principal Designer Scott Mercer, "You now need to win or lose more games in a row before any multiplier is used, and it scales up at a slower pace. Furthermore, we will now try to only use the multiplier in cases where the matchmaking system has some confidence that the player's MMR and skill are wildly mismatched. In cases of natural, random streaks, you ideally shouldn't see any acceleration either up or down at all."

Patch 1.10 went live last night alongside the Uprising event [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/170053-Blizzard-has-officially-announced-the-next-Overwatch-event], which runs through May 1.

[gallery=7194]

Permalink

 

[hentropy]

The streaks are an issue, but the easiest "fix" to competitive would be to just wipe the slate clean between seasons.

This hybrid "we're going to dock points for win loss but adjust it according to skill contribution" also doesn't work. It's been proven to screw healers and tanks. The only way to consistently climb in mid ranks is to instalock DPS and be good enough at that DPS to carry the team.

They should either make it one or the other- either add or subtract SR based on MY performance entirely, or make it entirely dependent on team effort. Everyone gets the same SR for a win or a loss, and that gain is dependent on how close the game is, big gains for stompings and smaller gains for close games. Trying to mix these two does not work.

Holding people accountable for streaks is somewhat silly as well, but it's assuming that the system is working well, which it's not.

 

[WindKnight]

This hybrid "we're going to dock points for win loss but adjust it according to skill contribution" also doesn't work. It's been proven to screw healers and tanks. The only way to consistently climb in mid ranks is to instalock DPS and be good enough at that DPS to carry the team.

Whats even worse for me, is I'm very much someone who's first choice is healing, 2nd tanking in comp (and NOT roadhong 'tanking'), and yet frequently my SR is above of the average of the teams I'm put in... so the DPS's who the SR system favours over me, have lower SR than I do.

 

[IceForce]

Whats even worse for me, is I'm very much someone who's first choice is healing, 2nd tanking in comp (and NOT roadhong 'tanking'), and yet frequently my SR is above of the average of the teams I'm put in... so the DPS's who the SR system favours over me, have lower SR than I do.

The reason for that is likely because your internal MMR ('matchmaking rank', which we can't see) is lower than your SR. You're being matched with people whose SR and MMR correlates, and since the matchmaker goes by MMR and not SR, your SR ends up being higher than most other people in the match.

...I hope this makes sense, it's kinda difficult to explain.

A common question is why have two different values (SR / MMR) at all, why not just have one. And the reason for that is because an SR increase or decrease is governed entirely based on win/loss, that's it, whereas MMR is not. MMR increase/decrease factors in a bunch of other things (most of which is undocumented to prevent people exploiting the system).

For example, in a match you might do very little and have no real impact on the match at all, but you still win because the other 5 people on your team do decently well and carry you. In this situation, you *do* technically still gain SR, but the internal MMR is not fooled; in cases like this it can actually go down for a win, if the game concludes that you got carried.

The opposite is also true. You can be DPS-ing in a match and get something like 70% kill participation, but still lose because the rest of your team is garbage and not carriable. In that situation your SR will take a hit, but your internal MMR will remain the same or might even go up, because the game realizes you were better than the people you were paired with.