this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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I try not to care too much about that.
I've had games where half my team has disconnected, and still had fun. Won, even.
As long as I'm not getting utterly stomped, I can usually pull off some cool moments. And getting my fun that way has been a lot less toxic than worrying about team balance, ranks, and winrates.
I've had some matches where the other team just utterly overpowers mine, and some where my team completely stomps the other, but those matches tend to end quite quickly.
And personally, I find a certain pleasure in fighting against impossible odds, trying to make up the difference with skill and strats.
Matchmaking that makes every match even, tends to mean every match plays the same. That there's never a beginner on your team to mentor, never a beginner on the other team that you can teach about denies the hard way.
Never a single god-tier player on the other team that you overcome by coming together as a team.
So, I've actually been enjoying the shit out of the fact that each match tends to have range of skill levels.
I don't really share your perspective at all. I'd probably be happier if I was able to extract fun out of those things, but I can't. Bullying a new player in lane to "teach them how it's done" isn't fun to me, and attempting to mentor teammates would be socially exhausting to begin with even if I had a working mic - and that's not even considering the fact that you're happy if half your teammates speak English.
I don't really feel this at all, to be honest. To me it feels like the opposite is true. Snowballing stomps all pretty much play out the same way every time, the only thing that changes is whether it's your team or theirs that has the highest impact low skill players.
Even games all play out differently, because the balance of power is always on a knife's edge. Both teams are constantly dancing back and forth, trading outplays. A single seized opportunity or a single mistake can change the entire game. Going off-script to improvise and buy a perfect item at the right time can clutch a crucial teamfight. Having the presence of mind to go for mid boss after an unexpected team fight win when you're behind can turn everything around.
Even games are amazing, they are the reason I keep coming back to this game despite most matches being frankly more frustrating than fun.
It was the same for me, but the last five or so games my teams were stomped. I think it's because I stayed in a match after everyone had been disconnected which maybe screwed up my rank, I dunno. Anyway, I stopped playing because that was a bit too much to be worth it.
I can explain a bit better.
You can have even games without every player on your team being exactly the same skill level as you. All you need is for the overrall competence of each team added together being equal.
I don't mind uneven games happening occasionally because they are over quickly. They could be over even sooner if a team could vote to surrender, but that isn't in the game yet.
Such matches are still valuable as learning experiences, and pulling off good battles even if you fail to win the war is perfectly viable fun.
But the type of evenness enforced by MMR ratings makes every player in a match interchangeable, or close to it.
If every player in a match is at exactly the same skill level, that means there is no skill gradient to climb.
In fighting games, rematching over and over against someone that utterly beats your ass is when you are learning the fastest, provided you are able to take pleasure in analysing and modifying what you are doing in attempts to improve your performance.
Even if you don't win, losing slower and slower is its own reward, because you can feel yourself improving.
The same happens in reverse. When I'm the better player, seeing something click in my oppent and have them pull off something to successfully get at me feels amazing! Actually seeing the moment someone gets better at a game is insane!
Neither side of that happens in games where the matchmaking only ever lets you play with people who already know everything you do and vice versa.
You don't need to be in VC to set an example, all you need to do is exist.
You don't need to be in a VC to look at what the player carrying your team, or the opponent crushing yours is doing, and learning from it.
Evenness enforced by only ever matching players of the same skill-level IS MORE SAMEY than the evenness that can happen when matches that have a range of skill-levels are allowed to occur as well. And personally, I am perfectly willing to trade in some matchmaking misses for that additional variety.
And it doesn't even mean that even matches where everyone is at the same skill level can't still happen, too.