One of the most frustrating things to have in a competitive match is getting a distressing losing streak. This is because, unlike other competitive games, such as MOBAs, the SR or Elo system in Overwatch drastically increases or diminishes depending on the player's streaks.
Basically, the SR system takes precedence not just on individual matches but a cluster of games played within a given set of time. But today, Blizzard announced that they have "augmented" the system and it is currently live on the PTR..
Overwatch : Tweaked SR System
Yesterday Scott Mercer, Overwatch's principal director, announces that the team had introduced new tweaks to the current SR System and is now live in PTR patch 1.10. Mercer first discussed the negative effects of the current system and how it affects the community by deviating them from their "true skill." He pointed out that the previous system does not update the players' MMR (matchmaking rating) as quickly as it should be, which resulted in a spree of wins or loses. Due to this "gap," the system uses a multiplier that takes precedence based on the players' consecutive wins or loses. This tool, according to the principal director, is still currently flawed.
Since the SR multiplier hurts the rise and fall of the player's MMR, the team decided to tweak the system by making the multiplier tool "a bit more aggressive." To make this more elaborate, each player will now have to lose or win a lot more before the multiplier is used. Furthermore, during the instance where the multiplier is used, it would scale up a lot less than what it used to. This will now prevent drastic changes on the SR gains and losses.
New SR System And Its Impact
Aside from ironing the current SR system, the revamp also hopes to mitigate the issue attributed to both smurfing and boosting, as it is now a lot harder to jump from one tier to another. Earlier, it was reported that Blizzard is planning to introduce new capital punishment for Overwatch boosters. It is still unknown whether the team will sanction "smurfers'" in the game or not. Check back for more Overwatch news and updates!
