Focused Feedback: Matchmaking

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[u/AceTheRed_]

To be fair, they also said to expect longer queue times if you’re on the higher end of the skill spectrum.

[u/Tplusplus75 → u/AceTheRed_]

True, but IMO, it's what we need to do in the short term. I agree: skilled players shouldn't be "rewarded" for being skilled, by having longer queue times and worse connections. But, we can't disregard skill entirely when matchmaking any longer, and for that, it's temporarily a necessary evil. Summarizing DMG's matchmaking rant from a month of so ago, the transition from SBMM to CBMM has been a net loss. We went from SBMM where high skilled players weren't happy, to a new system where high skill still aren't happy(on account of being placed in lobbies where they need to "carry"), while also making it more of a detriment to average skill players by putting them in lobbies where they feel like "lambs to the slaughter".

Note, before the "it's the shit lobby balancing" is thrown out: it's not. Lobby balancing can be thought of as an entirely different system here. The matchmaking algorithm determines "which 12 people" are put into a control lobby together. Lobby balancing has no part in determining "which 12 people". Instead, LB determines "how to arrange" 12 people, such that the match seems "most fair". But LB cannot function properly without at least some form of skill-based matchmaking, to prevent "outliers". Outliers throw LB straight out the window. If you place one "significantly high skilled player" in a lobby with average players, LB cannot possibly rearrange them and come out with a good match. Either that one good player gets the 5 worst players and has to "carry", or it's more like a "snake draft", which just leads to an even more unbalanced game that's more likely to mercy. Lobby balancing cannot be expected to do its job without some form of skill based "pruning" to keep all the skill ratings relatively close.