Unranked matchmaking

This is a legitimate concern. We feel like putting them in the same matchmaker will reduce queue times. But if we start to see a large amount of aberant behavior (whatever it may be) we may have to rethink this decision.

On October 19 2012 22:45 korona wrote:

I truly hope they create separate matchmaking queues for unranked and ranked matches in retail version. As if they are in one shared queue there are lots of abuse possibilities. To list few from the viewpoint of unranked player facing a ranked player

I have an update about how unranked MMR works (or will work):

- Unranked MMR is a separate MMR. Both your ranked and your unranked MMR uses whatever previously-established MMR value is available. Presumably, this means that during a season roll, if you haven't played any ranked matches but you have played unranked matches, your ranked MMR inherits your current unranked MMR. Whichever mode you play first, that's what the other's starting value will be.

- Players queued for unranked matches can potentially be matched against ranked-queued players. After the match, the ranked player's ranked MMR will change and the unranked player's unranked MMR will change.

- Again, to reemphasize: Unranked MMR and ranked MMR change independently.

Now, there are a couple of consequences of this:

- What's most likely to happen is because the two MMRs are independent, most players will probably have a "serious mode" MMR (ranked) and a "gimmick/troll" MMR (unranked).

- As long as ranked players can play against unranked players, this could muddy the actual skill level of low leagues like Bronze. If everyone uses their unranked MMR for monobattles or whatever, I don't think you'll get an accurate assessment of how "good" the average Bronze player is because it will vary wildly. If present-day Bronze players are complaining now about how many Bronze smurfs there are, expect those complaints to be much more frequent when HotS rolls out.

On October 19 2012 22:45 korona wrote:
They are implementing unranked matches via matchmaker in HotS. But there may be a problem. Currently in the beta unranked and ranked matches use same shared matchmaking queue. Thus the system can match an unranked player against a ranked player. As beta population is relatively small this makes sense -> shorter matchmaking queue times. But...

... Blizzard seems to consider this implementation for the retail version too. On Oct 9 Browder addressed the shared queue on US forums (source http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/6794871228#14):
I truly hope they create separate matchmaking queues for unranked and ranked 1v1 matches in retail version. As if they are in one shared queue there are lots of abuse possibilities. To list few from the viewpoint of unranked player facing a ranked player:

1) There is no risk for unranked players (no point loses & MMR not affected) -> Can do a) extra greedy / risky / coinflippy strategies, b) fun / joke / troll strategies (these should normally have low chance of success, but may work as they are often illogical).

2) Giving free wins for friends (especially on top of the ladder people face each others more often).

3) No penalty for leaving games -> leaving prematurely from games due to not wanting to play a) a certain match-up, b) against certain player, c) after falling little behind in a match, d) after match lasts too long, e) after messing up practiced build order, f) wanting to mess up competitive laddering and thus mass leaving.

I am sure there are lots of other problematic things too, if unranked & ranked players are matched against each others. I feel that if you are playing a ranked 1v1 game, you should always be matched against another ranked player who has something on the line (his points & hidden MMR rating) even if the queue waiting times may be longer.


(Edit: Focus of this text is 1v1 matches, not team games. Added '1v1' to couple sentences)