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Dota 2 update overhauls matchmaking to make “playing Dota more fun for players of all levels”

Valve announces a big matchmaking update for its MOBA game

Valve has just released a pretty huge update for its MOBA game Dota 2, and some shake ups to its matchmaking are on the menu. In a blog post on the Dota 2 website released yesterday, the studio talks about some tweaks and updates that players can expect in the form of some “experimental changes that will last until the end of the season.”

The post says that the “update includes some engineering changes to the core matchmaking system to allow for bigger changes and better analytical capabilities. Over the next year, we’ll be spending more time focusing on various aspects of matchmaking” so as to “make the overall experience of playing Dota more fun for players of all levels.”

First, the update will remove “the concept of separate Solo and Party MMRs.” The studio says it expects this to be “the most controversial component in today’s update, as we’ve heard fair criticisms of it in the past.” This change hinges on two key aspects: “the teamplay and social aspect” and “the value and correctness of the MMR value”.

Valve says “the game currently overly emphasizes playing solo and establishes a strong social reward mechanism for this”, which it wants to address. For the MMR value, devs say “most of the issues related to this we think we can solve with better algorithms.” They also add that they want to incorporate a bit more consideration and prioritisation for the game’s teamplay aspect into matchmaking.

The update will also grapple with some consequences stemming from play comfort levels depending on whether they’re playing support or core roles, such as “imbalanced games” and MMR numbers “drifting away” from player’s real skill levels. It will introduce “a new concept of Core and Support MMR numbers”, which means the game will need to know your choice of role before a match is formed.

For the “experimental” period, the studio is “moving the Ranked Roles feature to the base Ranked matchmaking and expanding on its capabilities” – so, you can make a selection, or multiple selections, of roles you like playing from position one to five. You’ll get matched depending on your support or core MMR.

At the end of this “experimental” season, the studio will ask for player feedback, and then use that to help decide features and changes for the next, though it asks for players to report any bugs or issues relating to matchmaking to them as you go. If you want to check out what the update brings in full, head over to the blog post on the game’s site.