In addition to today's small update on the main Dota 2 client, Valve has released a statement on the Dota 2 Blog that details their current progress on the improvement of Matchmaking in Dota 2.
Earlier today, Valve finally addresses its stance on the highly requested and anticipated ranked matchmaking system and a legitimate matchmaking rating feature or MMR. In their blog post, Valve reveals that the ranked matchmaking feature will be added on the Dota 2 client in the next major update. Valve also gives a sneak peek on the upcoming features.
"The next major update will add a ranked matchmaking feature to the game. This mode is aimed at experienced players who want to play in a more competitive environment and know their matchmaking rating (MMR). Dota 2 matchmaking has always calculated MMR and used it to form matches; in ranked matchmaking we make that MMR visible."
While some organizations choose not to disclose their methods of calculating MMR, Valve gave an extensive explanation on their MMR system and an explanation on the workings of the matchmaker. Valve also stated that the MMR is only visible for ranked matchmaking only.
What you need to know about Ranked Matchmaking:
- Ranked matchmaking is unlocked after approximately 150 games.
- All players in the party must have unlocked the mode.
- Currently, only All Pick, Captains Mode, and Captains Draft are available.
- You may not participate in ranked matchmaking while in the low priority pool.
- Coaches are not allowed in ranked matchmaking.
- Matches played in normal matchmaking do not impact your ranked matchmaking MMR, and vice versa.
- Your ranked MMR is visible only to you and your friends. The MMR used for normal matchmaking is not visible.
- When you first start using ranked matchmaking, you will enter a calibration phase of 10 games. During this time, your ranked MMR will not be visible.
Ultimate goal of matchmaking:
- The teams are balanced. (Each team has a 50% chance to win.)
- The discrepancy in skill between the most and least skilled player in the match is minimized. This is related to team balance, but not the same thing.
- The discrepancy between experience (measured by the number of games played) between the least experienced player and the most experienced player is minimized. More on this below.
- The highest skill Radiant player should be close to the same skill as the highest skill Dire player.
- Each team contains about the same number of parties. For example, the matchmaker tries to avoid matching a party of 5 against against 5 individual players.
- Players’ language preferences contains a common language. Lack of a common language among teammates’ language preferences is strongly avoided. Lack of a common language across the whole match is also avoided, but less strongly.
- Wait times shouldn’t be too long.
For more detailed and complete information on the implementation of the upcoming ranked matchmaking system, visit the Dota 2 Blog here.
Source: Dota 2 Blog
