Dota 2’s latest update has drawn the ire of the public minutes after its release, and it’s not hard to see why.
Over the weekend, Valve tested a number of changes in ranked matchmaking that can seriously derail the hopes of parties trying to practice as a group while raising their MMRs at the same time.
Changes tested:
- Parties can only play in unranked matches.
- Ranked matchmaking no longer has Captain’s Mode or Random Draft.
- Unranked All Pick now follows the same pickings order as Ranked All Pick.
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I can see where Valve is coming from, since Solo MMR is truly a better tool of measurement of a player’s skills, because you can be a feeding offlaner on a team with Miracle as mid, RTZ as safelaner, ppd and Kuroky in support and still win ranked party games and boost your MMR.
But gamers who are serious about Dota play with their teams most of the time, hence, removing the ranked game option for parties can derail their progress in Dota 2’s complex MMR system.
I think people can live without Party MMR, but they would like to improve their Solo MMRs when they play with their best teammates. So maybe, we can remove Party MMR, but still allow ranked games for parties, though we should probably use a different formula so the Solo MMR won’t get boosted by your better teammates.
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The new pickings order in both the Ranked and Unranked All Pick games make Captain’s Mode obsolete, because there is a banning phase, where you can nominate heroes to be excluded from the hero pool and the teams pick in order. BUT THERE IS A REASON WHY PLAYERS CHECK THE ALL PICK BOX – they don’t want their hero banned.
For instance, if there is a beginner who can only use Axe, Centaur Warrunner, Omniknight and Abaddon, and those heroes all get banned on the same game. How unlucky.
It can make sense in a ranked game where most players have a hero pool deeper than four (the number of heroes banned each match). But in unranked games, which are the only games accessible to beginners, it doesn’t.
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Well, because these changes are just a test, it can be easily reverted.
The ball is in your court, Valve.
