Matchmaking isn't rigged; it's volatile

I see a lot of posts about broken/rigged MMR and long win/loss streaks.

If you are losing 10 games in a row and experiencing these streaks consistently, you need to look at what the common factor between all those games is. You.

Here is what will improve your game, if you aren’t doing these things you’ll experience a lot of volatility in your rating (there’s no conspiracy, only good and bad decisions):

• Smart rotations (you just wiped the enemy at mid, is spreading your team thin and pushing far the smart move?)
• Watching the mini map (this is the most valuable tool you have in every match)
• NOT attempting to revive yourself (enemy downs you, runs away while you are downed, do you attempt to get back up? in most cases the answer is a solid and resounding NO unless you are 99.99% sure you will quickly get back up without them doubling back to smack you.. map awareness is key here. Are there nearby allies to help or enemies that will just keep you downed?)
• Using downed skills to help your team (use your downed knock back/fear/interrupt to assist whoever is still fighting in the smartest way possible. Look for nearby downed enemies to tag and help kill for the rally... never give up)
• NEVER give up (ever! come backs are possible and do happen but only if you never give up)
• Use your CC to prevent revives or stomps (this is a game changer, teams doing this will beat teams that don’t)
• Let enemies bleed out if they are off point and don’t pose a threat to anyone via downed skills or potential rally (this keeps them out of play for significantly longer in some cases and can really turn things around)
• Fight on points! (It can be ultra tempting to step off point to help an ally nearby but in most cases it is a mistake on their part to be fighting off point and out of your range and not on your part for holding the point from being contested.. there are always exceptions of course but again this is about making good decisions)
• Check B at the start of a match to see who and what you’re against (often times you’ll recognize people or comps and you can make a preliminary strategy before the game begins or alert team mates as to what build a certain person is playing or who a weak player on the enemy team is that should be focused and downed first)
• Calling smart targets (if no one else is calling a target to focus then the responsibility falls to you, make a hotkey and make good decisions in team fights to pick a target for everyone to focus down first... this can be taken a step further to tag the enemy thief for your team to easily keep an eye on and your friendly thief/rev/guardian to easily take the target called with their own hotkey to quickly teleport over/through terrain to the enemy target)

This is just a few things off the top of my head, there are many many more. If you see things in the list you aren’t doing, that is why your rating fluctuates so much. The better players do all of this and more.

Please add helpful tips to keep this a positive thread to help others.

I like the bleed out part...

have been doing this a lot lately both in wvw and the free for all arena, down someone and stow weapon, let them bleed out while I /laugh at them until they alt F4....

I do that to my allies, let them bleed out, throw siege on them and laugh when they start raging and alt F4

i dont normally act this way in game but refer to signature.

So how about the 10 win streaks followed by 10 loss streaks again and again for players who consistently finish in the top 250?

@Sinful.2165 said:

• Fight on points! (It can be ultra tempting to step off point to help an ally nearby but in most cases it is a mistake on their part to be fighting off point and out of your range and not on your part for holding the point from being contested.. there are always exceptions of course but again this is about making good decisions)

It's a good thing you specify the circumstances a bit but this is partly wrong.Saving your allys hide/+1'ing them is far more important than even capping an uncontested node. You gain far more value out of having an opponent on respawn and your ally alive, than from the few ticks of that node.But map awareness comes into play here as well because if the opponent your ally is fighting is about to gain a +1 from his own team, the situation is reversed. At this point you just have to hope that your ally comes to you for aid instead of getting defeated on the roads. Because if they get defeated, those 2 opponents are about to atleast push you off the node you were standing on, not helping your ally. Result is that you lose the node anyway and your ally is in respawn and maybe you are as well.

@Yannir.4132 said:

@Sinful.2165 said:

• Fight on points! (It can be ultra tempting to step off point to help an ally nearby but in most cases it is a mistake on their part to be fighting off point and out of your range and not on your part for holding the point from being contested.. there are always exceptions of course but again this is about making good decisions)

For those reading, stop chasing off point away from allies only to be downed. You cost the point we could have capped, and if I can't rally you, you give the other team 5 points.If no matter the pop size only 10% of the players are godlike, odds are that you are not in that group. Stick to the basics.

Its not so much that matchmaking is volatile IMO.

Its more that some comps are objectively more powerful than others, and matchmaking doesn't take comps into account.

(Firebrand+Scourge vs a team without one etc.)

@Crab Fear.1624 said:

@Yannir.4132 said:

@Sinful.2165 said:

• Fight on points! (It can be ultra tempting to step off point to help an ally nearby but in most cases it is a mistake on their part to be fighting off point and out of your range and not on your part for holding the point from being contested.. there are always exceptions of course but again this is about making good decisions)

This is true. And if that ally who was fighting off point hadn't fought off point, the entire situation with its subsequent choices would've been avoided.

So when you have a choice fight on point, but if an ally, let's say a necromancer with basically no movement skills or active defenses, is caught in the roads, it's better to save them and win in the long run than to let them lose and shortly lose the point as well.

@Yannir.4132 said:

@Crab Fear.1624 said:

@Yannir.4132 said:

@"Sinful.2165" said:

• Fight on points! (It can be ultra tempting to step off point to help an ally nearby but in most cases it is a mistake on their part to be fighting off point and out of your range and not on your part for holding the point from being contested.. there are always exceptions of course but again this is about making good decisions)

Players who know how to fight off-node and kite just abuse this like crazy and it's freelo up to 1600+. Walk off the node and you can heal to full. You just battle without risk, as a team won't focus you unless you're literally sitting on / next to the node. Meanwhile on higher end games, neither team will even go sit on the node and will rather stealth / stack on safe spots to win the initial engage which is much more important for momentum.

Fighting off node is perfectly fine; you simply need to learn when and why. If you're a firebrand standing on the node annoyed yoru ally dies off node; I get it sucks but you should leavethe node and RES him. If he dies, you'll be in a 1v1 (which is bad) or a 1vX (which is worse) and the correct play is to LEAVE THE NODE AND ROTATE. Which still means you lose the node.

So a warrior you're unlikely to kill, obviously don't chase him off-node. But cleaning up a fight? A class you can train down like necro or FB without allies? Kill them already. Having them on respawn and split is more important than 5 seconds of tick on a node. Momentum >> static points unless the static points allow you to (near instantly) win the game.

Same with "dying on node". I see players 2v1 while staying on node all the time. Why on earth would you stay on the node in a 2v1? Sub 1500 all it takes to 2v1 players is walking circles wide around the node. One of them afks there, sometimes both, and you can easily preserve cooldowns. It's not worth it to sit on node until you need the CD's either. You just leave the node, kite around, save CD's and try to trade efficiently. If they 2v1 you and you live; your team 3v4's the map and you gain momentum. Even stalling as long as possible helps. Even without the node knowing you gained 0 points. And if you sit on node and through that they kill you (faster), you'll lose more points AND the node AND your team will be 4v5 until you're back.

Fighting off-node is fine. You just need to know why you're fighting off node. To keep yourself alive? To kill an enemy which is very pressured? IF you're just chasing endlessly without doing anything; obviously that's bad. Then again, so is standing on node and dying or standing on node and letting whoever you pressure reset freely.

There are a lot of of topics on those loss streaks as well. Ofcourse you have an infliuence on the outcome of any game, so also on any loss. But thats so obvious, its like asking if the pope is catholic.Now mathematically things become different when you experience for example 10 losses in a row. Based on the matchmaking system in this game, opposing teams should have (almost) equal skill on average. So on paper you should have on average a 50% win chance each and every game. There could be several explanations then for a loss streak:

1. You are literally ''overrated'': you cause your team to lose every time because your skill level is much lower than the rest of your team. But, how did you get such a high rating in the first place then?
2. You lose 10 very close matches, so you were unlucky 10 matches in a row. This has a really small probability.
3. You play like a god but your teammates mess it up every time, so your matches were uncarriable.

Reason 2 has such a small probability that you can only reasonably consider reason 1 and 3. And guess what: in both reasons the matchmaking system has a big impact.Conclusion: its way too simple to state that ''you'' are the reason for loss streaks.

Point being that a general rule such as "Always fight on point" doesn't work. There's just too many exceptions to it. A class like Revenant or Thief excels at picking off targets on the roads, removing them from play. Usually why it works is because the opponent doesn't engage the aggressor because somewhere on their spine is written: "Don't fight off point".

Play with your allies. Don't leave them to die. Don't wander off on your own. With the exception of dueling builds where you want to seek 1v1's.

@Etheri.5406 said:

@Yannir.4132 said:

@Crab Fear.1624 said:

@Yannir.4132 said:

@"Sinful.2165" said:

• Fight on points! (It can be ultra tempting to step off point to help an ally nearby but in most cases it is a mistake on their part to be fighting off point and out of your range and not on your part for holding the point from being contested.. there are always exceptions of course but again this is about making good decisions)

naw, what are you talking about? have long 1 v 1 off node is fine? if you get some to chase you maybe its a good job. i say, stop chasing anyone like you. no need. if they dont chase you, what good are you?

Appreciate the positivity in this OP. Agreed with the never give up: Here's an example of a game that we should have lost, but didn't because we figured out the equation to winning. If your team is smart, you can too:

My only thing I disagree with is the fighting off point: It's significantly valuable to get a kill. If it doesn't disadvantage your team to fight off point: IE, two of their team members are fighting off point, therefore two of your team members can be fighting off point without disadvantaging you. A lame but valid example. I watched a monthly match where the first two minutes of the game were fought off point. Was very interesting.