DOTA 2

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eXarc

Trakanon Raider
1,605
501
I never rage and am also the first one to initiate communication. I make jokes constantly and am light hearted and supportive while playing.

All the other shit aside, I get it. Really.

My REAL issue is the fact that I had to play something like 200 games to get to the calibration point and since I had a very long hiatus from DoTA and MoBAs in general, I experimented a LOT. And practiced bullshit A LOT. The problem here is they don't fucking tell you at all that all of those 200 games are going to have consequence ON TOP of the calibration matches. So I completely fucked myself up and it took me literal m o n t h s to get up to 200 games played as I'm busy now and don't have time to play DoTA like I used to. I expected the calibration matches to be the things that fucking calibrated me.

As for why I care, it's because at such a low bracket you have to deal with an INSANE amount of garbage bullshit. It's DoTA and I understand there are shitty games and people everywhere regardless, but if you don't understand what I'm saying then you've never played in the sub 1k or 1k bracket and you can fuck right off. DoTA is time consuming and it is infuriating to waste time on a consistent basis because of shitty people.

I get that some people think they are better than they really are. I have played DoTA for over 10 years. I very freely admit that I not even close to being like an 8k player. But am I a 1k player? Abso fucking lutely not.

They need to explain how the matchmaking system works more clearly for people who fall into situations like I did.
 
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Needless

Toe Sucker
9,146
3,263
They reverted the regional softlock... i tried playing last night and it was unplayable again with at least 8 peruvians in my games again :(


edit: i should calibrate, i figure i'll get around 2k... my party calibration was ~2.5k but that might have been because i play with a range of players when i queue party ranked.

2x 1k shitter friends
2x 3k friends
1x 4k
1x 5/6k

I read somewhere that the first game is the most impactful for your mmr calibration, is that true? if so i'm gonna calibrate low as fuck since i did it when i first started playing in august lol
 

Intrinsic

Person of Whiteness
<Gold Donor>
14,146
11,471
Just calibrate and play. If you calibrate at 2k but are 'really' 3.5k out whatever you'll adjust naturally. It takes games but there's no reason you shouldn't win 60+% of your games and come out well ahead on MMR until you reach your own average. Then you'll hover +/- a few hundred MMR until you break whatever is holding you back.

Even if you're playing 1.6k, going 22/3/20 every game and not gaining MMR it isn't the teams fault. If you were that far ahead and stomping nerds you would not be stuck at 1.6k for long. Be critical of yourself and figure out in the mouth breather games how to win. Whether it is some non standard item that the game / team requires, better decision making, or better coordination. 9 people playing with their toes aren't going to outfarm or out decision someone 1k+ MMR and 400 GPM / XPM ahead.
 

Zaphid

Trakanon Raider
5,862
294
Even if you bitch and moan, wasn't big part of TI the new ranked qeue letting you transfer your rating, basically recalibration ?
 

eXarc

Trakanon Raider
1,605
501
Even if you bitch and moan, wasn't big part of TI the new ranked qeue letting you transfer your rating, basically recalibration ?
Wait, what does this mean? I haven't seen anything about 'transferring' a rating.
 

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
36,050
113,851
The TI6 compendium had a TI6 matchmaking thing where you got a completely different MMR (everyone recalibrated). If you liked your TI6 MMR, at the end of it, you could make that your new MMR.
 

Fight

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
4,555
5,360
If you bought the 2016 TI compendium, you could queue for re-calibration ranked games. It was active for a few months.

What they didn't tell you though, was that the calibration took 50 games, rather than the normal 10. I think I played 15 or so re-calibration games and none of it counted because it didn't play the minimum required amount. I wasn't too upset about it, as it only would have adjusted my MMR 200 points or so total.
 

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
36,050
113,851
If you bought the 2016 TI compendium, you could queue for re-calibration ranked games. It was active for a few months.

What they didn't tell you though, was that the calibration took 50 games, rather than the normal 10. I think I played 15 or so re-calibration games and none of it counted because it didn't play the minimum required amount. I wasn't too upset about it, as it only would have adjusted my MMR 200 points or so total.
I didn't even remember that it was a higher number of games. That must be why I played it for like 4 or 5 matches and then never touched it again.
 

Dandain

Trakanon Raider
2,092
917
Dota MMR is not broken Gravel, you are the MMR that it says you are. The faster you accept this truth, the better off you'll be. You could give any of the 4k players on our forum your account (not even a pro). And they would win without fail from 1600 to 2600 with virtually no losses. Facing a higher level smurf is one of the only situations that they would lose any of the games on the 1000 MMR climb. If you give a pro your account, outside of the time required to win, they would climb like a rocket towards their rating. There is some inflation between servers, especially EU because its so populous. The distribution of player skill that has been quoted many times in this thread is still mostly accurate. Above 4.4-4.5k in the USA servers is absolutely at the 5% at most mark of the playerbase and I think that's generous. I think its more like 2 or 3%. Until that rating, which you will wait for 5-10 minutes for games, You will end up with players with 1000+MMR difference. You could play a million games at 1600 rating, and the only person who will be hundreds, let alone thousands of MMR higher than you will be in a party queue only with their party rating.

This idea that your normal games have held you down is just a delusion in your mind. Certainly there are many ways to achieve a rating. Example: If you pick a hardcore pubstomper as your only hero and climb to 3k, you will have achieved 3k, but in the scope of DOTA skill it will be a shallow 3k. You may only know how to play 1 position at 3k, and 1 hero, you may only do 1 item build, so it doesn't take shop knowledge. A player can have a broad rating at their skill level playing many heroes or roles or a narrow rating with limited pools and positions. As a tool, you can personally know if your skills is broad or deep. MMR reflects that. It doesn't mean that you are 100% better at 100% of things than someone who is below your rating or 100% worse at things than someone who is above your rating.
 
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eXarc

Trakanon Raider
1,605
501
Is it theoretically possible to calibrate at something ridiculous like 8k or is there a cap to it?

I am reading you cannot place higher than 4.6k out of the gate due to Valve changing some algorithm, but I don't know if any of this information is true. In fact, I don't know how to believe ANY of the shit I hear or read about MMR. Does Valve have any official information released? Cause I don't see much specific information listed anywhere, unless I'm in the wrong spot. Everyone seems to have a different pet theory on MMR.
 
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Intrinsic

Person of Whiteness
<Gold Donor>
14,146
11,471
Is it theoretically possible to calibrate at something ridiculous like 8k or is there a cap to it?

I am reading you cannot place higher than 4.6k out of the gate due to Valve changing some algorithm, but I don't know if any of this information is true. In fact, I don't know how to believe ANY of the shit I hear or read about MMR. Does Valve have any official information released? Cause I don't see much specific information listed anywhere, unless I'm in the wrong spot. Everyone seems to have a different pet theory on MMR.

I've watched 3 pros calibrate smurfs and none of them were higher than 5k. I think PPD was like 5k or 4.6k exactly or something. They were also queued against 6k players while calibrating and often the highest MMR eventhough it said 'calibrating' since they didn't have one.
 

Zaphid

Trakanon Raider
5,862
294
Is it theoretically possible to calibrate at something ridiculous like 8k or is there a cap to it?

I am reading you cannot place higher than 4.6k out of the gate due to Valve changing some algorithm, but I don't know if any of this information is true. In fact, I don't know how to believe ANY of the shit I hear or read about MMR. Does Valve have any official information released? Cause I don't see much specific information listed anywhere, unless I'm in the wrong spot. Everyone seems to have a different pet theory on MMR.

MMR is a convenient scapegoat, but the matchmaking is always evolving, since people eventually abuse it to powerlevel accounts and so on. That's why there's a cap on calibration, IIRC about 4.9K, otherwise you'd have people running bot games to get 7k out of the gate and sell the accounts. They don't even release any info on MMR distribution and so on. Personally it produces remarkably solid games for me, even if I get an occasional paint eater here and there (or it's me). Keeping it underwraps keeps it from being exploitable and they can tweak it as they see fit without people throwing a hissyfit. I know in HoN the player colors weren't randomized, so if you got a certain color, people wouldn't let you play mid and so on, since you were obviously the "weakest" link.
 

kegkilla

The Big Mod
<Banned>
11,320
14,738
I can honestly say that I enjoy playing low priority games more than normal ranked games at 3.5k right now. Great things about LP - you can't get reported so you can say whatever the fuck you want, you have to win to get out, it's easy to get quests done, less neckbeard faggots to deal with, you're forced to single draft so you have to try out new heroes. I played a ranked game yesterday where my support threw a shit fit because I used the shrine without him (after I pinged it and he didn't move) and ended up costing us the game. I'll take some Peruvian jajajas over mentally ill white people any day.
 

Urlithani

Vyemm Raider
1,963
3,129
I haven't gotten stuck in LP, but I'm enjoying playing unranked games. I finally got enough games to try and play ranked to get placed, but I decided it doesn't really matter. Unranked can be a crapshoot sometimes, but people are chill enough for me.
 

Needless

Toe Sucker
9,146
3,263
non meta builds are pretty fun, i wanted to try something different on MK so i went with:

Phase boots -> Maelstrom -> diffusal blade -> Basher -> diffusal lvl 2 -> bkb -> abyssal -> mjolnir -> boots

Maelstrom and diffusal procs from MK ult is actually pretty fucking good lol, and by the time i ran out of all my diffusal charges from chasing people i had an abyssal blade
 

Zaphid

Trakanon Raider
5,862
294
That's literally the point of MK, he can build anything for right click and it works. If you want to instagib poeple with ulti, go for deso, if you want to do something else, be my guest. Blindly following meta builds is generally terrible idea, even AM has some variety these days.
 

Intrinsic

Person of Whiteness
<Gold Donor>
14,146
11,471
I forget his name but there's a euro guy that is in Waga's games periodically and mains monkey since he came out and doesn't buy Echo. He was explaining it to Waga one day and was just like, well, whatever works.
 

Needless

Toe Sucker
9,146
3,263
This qualifer is so hard to watch, i think Winter may be one of the worst casters in any esport

Guy ruins it single handedly