• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 22:13
CEST 04:13
KST 11:13
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S Season 2 - RO4 & Finals Results (2025)0Code S RO4 & Finals Preview: herO, Rogue, Classic, GuMiho0TL Team Map Contest #5: Presented by Monster Energy4Code S RO8 Preview: herO, Zoun, Bunny, Classic7Code S RO8 Preview: Rogue, GuMiho, Solar, Maru3
Community News
Weekly Cups (June 9-15): herO doubles on GSL week0Firefly suspended by EWC, replaced by Lancer8Classic & herO RO8 Interviews: "I think it’s time to teach [Rogue] a lesson."2Rogue & GuMiho RO8 interviews: "Lifting that trophy would be a testament to all I’ve had to overcome over the years and how far I’ve come on this journey.8Code S RO8 Results + RO4 Bracket (2025 Season 2)14
StarCraft 2
General
How herO can make history in the Code S S2 finals Firefly suspended by EWC, replaced by Lancer Rain's Behind the Scenes Storytime Code S Season 2 - RO4 & Finals Results (2025) Weekly Cups (June 9-15): herO doubles on GSL week
Tourneys
RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series $3,500 WardiTV European League 2025 [GSL 2025] Code S: Season 2 - Semi Finals & Finals WardiTV Mondays Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers [G] Darkgrid Layout
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 478 Instant Karma Mutation # 477 Slow and Steady Mutation # 476 Charnel House Mutation # 475 Hard Target
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ ASL20 Preliminary Maps BW General Discussion Recent recommended BW games FlaSh Witnesses SCV Pull Off the Impossible vs Shu
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL 2v2] ProLeague Season 3 - Friday 21:00 CET Small VOD Thread 2.0 [BSL20] ProLeague Bracket Stage - Day 4
Strategy
I am doing this better than progamers do. [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile Beyond All Reason What do you want from future RTS games?
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine UK Politics Mega-thread Echoes of Revolution and Separation Russo-Ukrainian War Thread
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club! Maru Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Korean Music Discussion [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion NHL Playoffs 2024 TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
A Better Routine For Progame…
TrAiDoS
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Heero Yuy & the Tax…
KrillinFromwales
I was completely wrong ab…
jameswatts
Need Your Help/Advice
Glider
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 32205 users

Funny MMR system

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
Sound1
Profile Joined August 2016
France93 Posts
November 30 2017 20:27 GMT
#1
I felt obligated to post this SS because I think it is a real problem.

Can someone tell me how it is possible ?

https://imgur.com/a/otXBh

This little guy as litteraly 6 games in his entire career (3w 3L) and only he is 100 MMR below me.

This is not the first time I see more than 100 MMR lost in 1 game, obviously guys are all noobs on sc2 so why they have to play vs people way better than him.
I think there is no better way to kill a game discouraging new players.

I know the MMR needs many games to fix itself but it is absolutly not fun for the new player and for his opponents. Why he has a such high MMR after 6 games, it is nonsense.

I specifiy this guy has already a rank, he was Silver 100th in his division.
I am Plat T2. In one word, it was wasted time for him and I.
Startale Sound Fan boy Forever !
Vutalisk
Profile Joined August 2016
United States680 Posts
November 30 2017 20:37 GMT
#2
-130 MMR. Poor guy. You should have let him win couple games to make up for it!
ZigguratOfUr
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
Iraq16955 Posts
November 30 2017 20:44 GMT
#3
Losing 130 MMR is a good thing--it means he'll reach the correct MMR faster. Besides Blizzard is aware of new players having to go on losing streaks before their MMR stabilizes and is addressing it (https://us.battle.net/forums/en/sc2/topic/20759537143). At the end of the day Blizzard can't magically know the other player's 'true' MMR--the fact that he's gone 3-4 so far is pretty good.
Ctone23
Profile Blog Joined December 2012
United States1839 Posts
November 30 2017 21:07 GMT
#4
Unless it's changed, the wild fluctuating MMR changes happen for the first 25 games, or "provisional mmr" period. I think it works quite well, tho I think it can be improved for the brand new player.

I have played several former masters players from WoL since 4.0, and I think it's the correct solution to have big mmr swings to get those type of players in the league where they belong, and not starting from the bottom beating up complete beginners.
TL+ Member
Nakajin
Profile Blog Joined September 2014
Canada8989 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-11-30 21:21:12
November 30 2017 21:17 GMT
#5
Hey good thing is, he probably don't know how bad losing 130 MMR is yet

But I mean he is 3-4 so it's not that bad, maybe it will stabilizes around an MMR of his level. Honestly I wouldn't think someone who played only 6 games is gonna see that much difference between losing against a plat or losing against a silver, since you don't really realize how badly you were outplayed at this point and you are suppose to win only about 50% of your games anyway. So if it's not a recurring thing I don't think it's really a problem to verify that the MMR of the new player are ok by giving them hard match up.
Writerhttp://i.imgur.com/9p6ufcB.jpg
Sound1
Profile Joined August 2016
France93 Posts
November 30 2017 21:50 GMT
#6
On December 01 2017 06:17 Nakajin wrote:
Honestly I wouldn't think someone who played only 6 games is gonna see that much difference between losing against a plat or losing against a silver, since you don't really realize how badly you were outplayed at this point


Sorry, but I can't agree with you on this point. More your opponents is better than you hardest the game is.
Maybe he would have been more opportunities to win vs a silver or a gold but not vs Plat playing seriously. He didn't even have time to understand what going on, just because he doesn't know how to macro yet, and he was focused on his production.

I don't think our game between us helped him a lot. I just hope it will not be too discouraged.
Startale Sound Fan boy Forever !
DSh1
Profile Joined April 2017
292 Posts
November 30 2017 22:04 GMT
#7
Plat and silver are not so far apart. As a player who was/probably is 3.5k mmr-ish again. If I am not warmed-up I might lose against golds so much that I would get paired with silver. Especially since I haven't played on the new patch etc..
Having some games with skill differences is also not the end of the world.
GothGirlGames
Profile Joined September 2017
167 Posts
November 30 2017 22:06 GMT
#8
Not always true, for me it more common lower players try cheesey all-ins that abit hard to defend but once you do you have won. While the players at some or higher might give you some credit and play for a longer game.

I am quite new but if I was competly new I would feel alot more overun by a rush I wouldn't understand how to stop then if my opponent showed up with 40 roaches/stalkers/marines&mauraders with upgrades when I am at lets say 20 with no upgrades.
Sundr
Profile Joined November 2017
34 Posts
November 30 2017 23:18 GMT
#9
I think I've got around ~25 games by now and I still see some absolutely crazy stuff with MMR, like how diamond player with 7k!!! games have similar MMR as I do (around ~3,5k)? In-game it is painfully obvious that opponent plays like 50 times better than me, and we're matched in Ranked system...

Btw, a quick question: does Unranked takes into account player stats and matches you against more similar in skill opponent?
Nakajin
Profile Blog Joined September 2014
Canada8989 Posts
November 30 2017 23:20 GMT
#10
On December 01 2017 06:50 Sound1 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 01 2017 06:17 Nakajin wrote:
Honestly I wouldn't think someone who played only 6 games is gonna see that much difference between losing against a plat or losing against a silver, since you don't really realize how badly you were outplayed at this point


Sorry, but I can't agree with you on this point. More your opponents is better than you hardest the game is.
Maybe he would have been more opportunities to win vs a silver or a gold but not vs Plat playing seriously. He didn't even have time to understand what going on, just because he doesn't know how to macro yet, and he was focused on his production.

I don't think our game between us helped him a lot. I just hope it will not be too discouraged.


Oh I mean he probably got trash it's not what I mean, but when you just start to play you don't really understand your position in the game. (well at least I didn't) So losing while beeing 40 supply down after 6 minutes or losing while beeing down 10 supply after 6 minutes feels kind of the same, you just know that you lost. And sure it's a shitty game for him but I wouldn't think he found it worst than beeing chese or 2 bases push by a silver.
Writerhttp://i.imgur.com/9p6ufcB.jpg
ZigguratOfUr
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
Iraq16955 Posts
November 30 2017 23:24 GMT
#11
On December 01 2017 08:18 Sundr wrote:
I think I've got around ~25 games by now and I still see some absolutely crazy stuff with MMR, like how diamond player with 7k!!! games have similar MMR as I do (around ~3,5k)? In-game it is painfully obvious that opponent plays like 50 times better than me, and we're matched in Ranked system...

Btw, a quick question: does Unranked takes into account player stats and matches you against more similar in skill opponent?


Unranked has separate MMR, but still uses the same system to match you up with people. I wouldn't focus too much on the number of games played--some people play a ton of games, but still aren't very good.
Excalibur_Z
Profile Joined October 2002
United States12235 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-11-30 23:57:38
November 30 2017 23:41 GMT
#12
On December 01 2017 05:27 Sound1 wrote:
I felt obligated to post this SS because I think it is a real problem.

Can someone tell me how it is possible ?

https://imgur.com/a/otXBh

This little guy as litteraly 6 games in his entire career (3w 3L) and only he is 100 MMR below me.

This is not the first time I see more than 100 MMR lost in 1 game, obviously guys are all noobs on sc2 so why they have to play vs people way better than him.
I think there is no better way to kill a game discouraging new players.

I know the MMR needs many games to fix itself but it is absolutly not fun for the new player and for his opponents. Why he has a such high MMR after 6 games, it is nonsense.

I specifiy this guy has already a rank, he was Silver 100th in his division.
I am Plat T2. In one word, it was wasted time for him and I.


Happy to explain what's happening here.

You correctly assessed that your opponent had very few games played. This means that there is a great deal of uncertainty around whether he actually belongs at 3400 MMR. It's much better for his MMR to move rapidly in this case because if it didn't, if he lost the standard (low-uncertainty) 20-21 MMR, he would take 6-7x longer to reach players of his true skill level.

He did not lose 130 MMR because of any in-game factors, or because of how badly you beat him. He lost 130 MMR for two reasons:
1. The system is not convinced that he is truly 3400-quality.
2. The system IS convinced that YOU ARE truly 3400-quality.

If you had only 6 games played and were in the same high-uncertainty situation as your opponent, his MMR would not have been as heavily impacted (he probably would have lost half that much instead). But because you have established yourself as a reliable representation of what a 3400-MMR player is, you exert greater influence over his MMR.

The fact that he is in Silver is related. His MMR is in the Platinum range, but for players who have less than ~25 games played, their league placement uses a provisional MMR that is around ~500 lower than the MMR used for actually finding opponents. The reason for this is that if he continues playing against people much better than him, losing -130 then -100 then -70 then -50..., then he would end up around 2900 MMR anyway and the Silver badge would accurately define him. If he instead started winning half his games at 3400 and defined himself as a true 3400-quality player, he would be promoted once the provisional status expires after ~25 games.

The reason he has 3400 MMR to start with is simple: that's near the median of the skill spectrum. Because skill distribution is relatively normal, it makes sense to start new players out near the middle where they have equal opportunity to rise and fall.

On December 01 2017 08:18 Sundr wrote:
I think I've got around ~25 games by now and I still see some absolutely crazy stuff with MMR, like how diamond player with 7k!!! games have similar MMR as I do (around ~3,5k)? In-game it is painfully obvious that opponent plays like 50 times better than me, and we're matched in Ranked system...

Btw, a quick question: does Unranked takes into account player stats and matches you against more similar in skill opponent?


The number of games doesn't matter beyond a certain point. For players in Placement (<5 matches played) the matchmaker will try to put you against other players in Placement. After that, it will just find players near your MMR. Some players were once 1K and it took 7000 games for them to rise to 3.5K. Some players were 3.5K and never improved relative to other players after 7000 games, and so they stayed at 3.5K.

That's the most important thing to remember about what MMR represents: it's a relative measure of your skill compared to the rest of the population. Everyone gets better the more they practice, that's obvious. But you will only rise in MMR if you improve faster than players at your current skill level.

Unranked (and Ranked, for that matter) do not take into account any player stats or anything in-game when adjusting your MMR or seeking out opponents (which is solely governed by MMR). The only thing that changes your MMR is winning and losing, and the degree of change depends on the confidence the matchmaker has in your MMR (see above).
Moderator
Elite00fm
Profile Joined January 2008
United States548 Posts
December 01 2017 00:23 GMT
#13
I think there is something legitimately wrong with the MMR system after the game went free to play. I haven't played in like 3-4 years, where I was struggling to beat gold players. I played a bunch of games last week when the game went free, went 16-11, and the game put me in diamond with like 3900 MMR. I'm not sure if the skill pool has been incredibly diluted with all the free players, or if Blizzard is giving out "feel good" ranks now. I still don't even know what some of the new units do and don't know any build orders. It feels nice to be a rank that I thought used to be respectable, but it is off-putting because now it seems like a shiny participation sticker. I wanted to see my skill level after a long time, and was thinking I'd be lucky to get gold, but I came back to an MMR shitfest instead.
TelecoM
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
United States10668 Posts
December 01 2017 00:39 GMT
#14
Interesting, never seen that much point change in a game before.
AKA: TelecoM[WHITE] Protoss fighting
Excalibur_Z
Profile Joined October 2002
United States12235 Posts
December 01 2017 01:11 GMT
#15
On December 01 2017 09:23 Elite00fm wrote:
I think there is something legitimately wrong with the MMR system after the game went free to play. I haven't played in like 3-4 years, where I was struggling to beat gold players. I played a bunch of games last week when the game went free, went 16-11, and the game put me in diamond with like 3900 MMR. I'm not sure if the skill pool has been incredibly diluted with all the free players, or if Blizzard is giving out "feel good" ranks now. I still don't even know what some of the new units do and don't know any build orders. It feels nice to be a rank that I thought used to be respectable, but it is off-putting because now it seems like a shiny participation sticker. I wanted to see my skill level after a long time, and was thinking I'd be lucky to get gold, but I came back to an MMR shitfest instead.


Some degree of MMR inflation is expected with the influx of new players. The league distribution will self-correct during the next season roll, but if Blizzard believes that's too far into the future, they can force it manually.
Moderator
shaun2306
Profile Joined December 2017
4 Posts
December 01 2017 01:57 GMT
#16
the mmr is stuffed up
BigRedDog
Profile Joined May 2012
461 Posts
December 01 2017 05:10 GMT
#17
I played almost an hour a day and my mmr never fluctuate that much. If you play lots, bnet can see your skills and place you with players more relevant to your mmr.
Big Red Dog!
Sound1
Profile Joined August 2016
France93 Posts
December 01 2017 08:53 GMT
#18
On December 01 2017 08:41 Excalibur_Z wrote:
Happy to explain what's happening here.

You correctly assessed that your opponent had very few games played. This means that there is a great deal of uncertainty around whether he actually belongs at 3400 MMR. It's much better for his MMR to move rapidly in this case because if it didn't, if he lost the standard (low-uncertainty) 20-21 MMR, he would take 6-7x longer to reach players of his true skill level.

He did not lose 130 MMR because of any in-game factors, or because of how badly you beat him. He lost 130 MMR for two reasons:
1. The system is not convinced that he is truly 3400-quality.
2. The system IS convinced that YOU ARE truly 3400-quality.

If you had only 6 games played and were in the same high-uncertainty situation as your opponent, his MMR would not have been as heavily impacted (he probably would have lost half that much instead). But because you have established yourself as a reliable representation of what a 3400-MMR player is, you exert greater influence over his MMR.

The fact that he is in Silver is related. His MMR is in the Platinum range, but for players who have less than ~25 games played, their league placement uses a provisional MMR that is around ~500 lower than the MMR used for actually finding opponents. The reason for this is that if he continues playing against people much better than him, losing -130 then -100 then -70 then -50..., then he would end up around 2900 MMR anyway and the Silver badge would accurately define him. If he instead started winning half his games at 3400 and defined himself as a true 3400-quality player, he would be promoted once the provisional status expires after ~25 games.

The reason he has 3400 MMR to start with is simple: that's near the median of the skill spectrum. Because skill distribution is relatively normal, it makes sense to start new players out near the middle where they have equal opportunity to rise and fall.


Thanks a lot for these explanations. MMR system still was mysterious for me.

The reason he has 3400 MMR to start with is simple: that's near the median of the skill spectrum. Because skill distribution is relatively normal, it makes sense to start new players out near the middle where they have equal opportunity to rise and fall.


It sounds very weird to me. Why no synchronise MMR with rank ? Even if you win your 5 ranking matches, you can not drop in diams league, so why MMR is not immediatly adapted to your current league (silver or gold).
Instead of that, a new player will have to play vs plats or diams (with ~3.5k MMR) while he still has difficulties to make units.
It still nonsense for me

This game is already so frustrating when you play against an opponent with equal skill level than you, I don't think it is a good idea to propose to new player some matches vs 2 leagues above players.
Startale Sound Fan boy Forever !
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12129 Posts
December 01 2017 09:31 GMT
#19
On December 01 2017 08:24 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 01 2017 08:18 Sundr wrote:
I think I've got around ~25 games by now and I still see some absolutely crazy stuff with MMR, like how diamond player with 7k!!! games have similar MMR as I do (around ~3,5k)? In-game it is painfully obvious that opponent plays like 50 times better than me, and we're matched in Ranked system...

Btw, a quick question: does Unranked takes into account player stats and matches you against more similar in skill opponent?


Unranked has separate MMR, but still uses the same system to match you up with people. I wouldn't focus too much on the number of games played--some people play a ton of games, but still aren't very good.

Not exactly. Unless Blizzard made changes in the past year or so, unranked has wider range of players you can get.

Back in the end of HotS/beginning of LotV I was playing both ranked and unranked modes. In ranked I've rarely seen master or platinum, 90 % of players were diamond. Though if i switched to unranked I saw even golds Even the search times were shorter in the unranked pool.

Currently I'm not playing ranked at all so I cannot compare.
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
paralleluniverse
Profile Joined July 2010
4065 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-12-01 10:25:17
December 01 2017 10:23 GMT
#20
On December 01 2017 09:23 Elite00fm wrote:
I think there is something legitimately wrong with the MMR system after the game went free to play. I haven't played in like 3-4 years, where I was struggling to beat gold players. I played a bunch of games last week when the game went free, went 16-11, and the game put me in diamond with like 3900 MMR. I'm not sure if the skill pool has been incredibly diluted with all the free players, or if Blizzard is giving out "feel good" ranks now. I still don't even know what some of the new units do and don't know any build orders. It feels nice to be a rank that I thought used to be respectable, but it is off-putting because now it seems like a shiny participation sticker. I wanted to see my skill level after a long time, and was thinking I'd be lucky to get gold, but I came back to an MMR shitfest instead.

There is nothing legitimately wrong with MMR, although some improvements can be made to deal with new players.

There are slightly too many people in Diamond and Plat based on the league distribution, but that has absolutely zero effect on matchmaking or correct ranking on sites like RankedFTW. This is a cosmetic issue that will fix itself when the league boundaries get updated.

As for the OP, new players losing 130 MMR per game is good, it means they'll get to their true MMR faster. If anything, the change in MMR should be even larger.
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Replay Cast
00:00
2025 GSL S2 - Ro8 Group B
CranKy Ducklings132
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft724
Nina 136
ROOTCatZ 56
Ketroc 42
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 13859
Artosis 826
HiyA 140
Sharp 85
Icarus 8
Dota 2
monkeys_forever524
LuMiX1
League of Legends
Trikslyr85
Counter-Strike
Fnx 1573
Stewie2K896
Other Games
summit1g5485
C9.Mang01068
shahzam841
WinterStarcraft352
Maynarde136
Mew2King104
Temp020
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1778
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH295
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Other Games
• Scarra860
• imaqtpie796
Upcoming Events
RSL Revival
7h 47m
Cure vs Percival
ByuN vs Spirit
WardiTV Qualifier
13h 47m
PiGosaur Monday
21h 47m
RSL Revival
1d 7h
herO vs sOs
Zoun vs Clem
Replay Cast
1d 21h
The PondCast
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
Harstem vs SHIN
Solar vs Cham
Replay Cast
2 days
RSL Revival
3 days
Reynor vs Scarlett
ShoWTimE vs Classic
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
3 days
[ Show More ]
SC Evo League
4 days
Circuito Brasileiro de…
4 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Acropolis #3 - GSC
2025 GSL S2
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
BSL Season 20
Acropolis #3
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
NPSL S3
Rose Open S1
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
Copa Latinoamericana 4
RSL Revival: Season 1
Murky Cup #2
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025
YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025
PGL Bucharest 2025

Upcoming

CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
SEL Season 2 Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
HSC XXVII
Championship of Russia 2025
BLAST Open Fall 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.