Everything about the Dota 2 Matchmaking Update

Valve has released its matchmaking update to compliment their approaching new season coming this Thursday. The update centers around balancing out the player base and solving Matchmaking Rating (MMR) issues. Here’s everything to know about it!

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Dota 2 update Role Balance

Valve has realized how crucial role symmetry was. Noticing that many games had a disadvantage over the misaligned roles. An example of this is when the top-lane radiant player has a higher MMR than his opposing dire opponent. Which caused problems considering the disadvantage. Valve took the time to brainstorm. As a result, the solution given is that the update will now emphasize the alignment of roles rather than any other criteria.

Draft Role Reporting

Role sabotaging was a huge problem during the end-season. In this new update, players may now report players that won’t choose their selected roles. With a new report function enabled during the drafting and beginning phase. Information that’s taken from the new input function will contribute to a quicker resolution. And the punishment for sabotaging games will be more severe.

Core/Support Ranks

Ranked takes a turn on the Core/Support method. Before, ranking up a certain categorical rank was ineffective. Considering that valuable information would be lost. Players would also think less of you for playing your lower-ranked category. Valve has addressed that both roles as a player are just as important. With the new balance being. For every game, you play a certain category you will receive a percentage of MMR for your counterpart category rank.

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Banning Waves

One of the anticipated things coming to the matchmaking update is the banning process. The first wave of bans is given to players that have low behavior scores. Valve will continue to ban players in the low percentage of the community even after the first wave. The second wave is for accounts that violate the Steam Service Agreement that prevents users from purchasing and selling steam accounts. The third phase is Valve banning players that have been detected to be using exploits. Accounts that have been banned by Valve will have their associated phone numbers permanently blacklisted.

Smurfing Accounts

The increase of smurf accounts has caught Valve’s attention. The answer to the underlying problem was addressed by Valve. Phone verification for ranked games is now mandatory. The road to rank access is now longer. Instead of having a certain amount of games to play before reaching rank access, ranking is now based on time played Reaching rank access will now take 100 hours of gameplay. As a result, players that are overly performing will have their +/-25 MMR base adjusted. Which will speed up the process of getting to a desired rank.

Party Role Compatibility

Party matchmaking is less confusing now. Detailed pop-ups will appear on your HUD when your party compatibility doesn’t meet the requirements.

Commendations

Valve increased the number of commends for each player.

Topics of Discussion

Valve still has not addressed some issues, mainly because of the uncertainty of what the community wants. Here is a list of what Valve requires feedback on:

High MMR games
Hard Support
Role queue abuse
Smurfs

To conclude, the clarity Valve has presented through the Matchmaking Update shows the community they care. Matchmaking and making a better experience for players are finally priorities now, with new playable characters in the future.