About the new MMR system

Hello people of the fog, I have seen a lot of topics complaining about the new MMR system for so many reasons that is impossible to approach all of them. But as a former programmer and developer, it's pretty clear to me that things are not as bad as some of you are painting. Before anything...

YES, I KNOW IT'S TERRIBLE TO FACE AN EXTREMELY UNBALANCED MATCH, BUT CALM DOWN, THERE ARE SOME THINGS WE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION BEFORE THROWING ROCKS THAT WAY.

The system was released like, 50 hours ago, and according to the devs, it worked pretty well at first on Xbox One. I don't have the exact data, but the console community is not as massive as the PC one, and that may be one of the core issues we are facing.

We are now under a matchmaking system that tries to predict the outcome of a match based on some data. And it's clear that a HUGE part of this community doesn't have enough data to make the matchmaking balanced. I see people talking about how Otzdarva or streamers like him, with massive time at the game, are getting rank-15 survivors on their lobbies. And it probably happens because even if HIS MMR is precise after a lot of games, most of the players are not, and their performance is being evaluated against all kinds of players, trying to acquire enough data for the balance.

And well, maybe the devs underestimated the necessary time for the massive player base to be actually evaluated. But maybe it's not even that. How many players would be rated at the same skill level as Otz, for example, on his region and on THAT TIME WINDOW? It would suck a lot to face the same 4 players 2000 times in a row because only you 5 had the time and skill necessary to get that high of MMR in such a short window.

The system is clearly performing tests between a wide range of players trying to pinpoint your skill level, and to be able to do that on 10 matches, you need a previously consolidate ranked player base. If you have just some info and a lot of players with no data available, the system will go nuts before the evaluation becomes solid.

I played 4 matches since the release, and got a full rank-20s on my first (crushed), a full red ranks on the second one (got crushed), and was send down for the next 2 matches. That kind of thing is a clear indicator of the system trying to predict the outcome without having enough data.

That way, in a couple weeks, after a reasonable part of the player base have actually passed through the system, we will get a solid matchmaking. Maybe things will even get a little better next week, because a lot of us can only play on weekends, or have things that keep us away from the game during the week. And by playing, they will contribute to make the system more precise.

The more people endure the weird games and play accordingly, the quickest we will have a consolidated MMR database, and therefore, a more precise matchmaking.

So, let's give em some time. It's a huge change, that will surely require some tweaks. But not a single week has passed. If the things don't get better, we can ask for changes, but simply treating that level of work as disposable is not right.