Update 12 Jul, 2016: In the wake of many reports on the forums that competitive skill rating is still not being adjusted correctly, especially in games affected by leavers, Blizzard say they’re working to identify the problem.
In a thread that has, predictably, turned quite heated, Overwatch community manager Stephanie ‘Lylirra’ Johnson says that while the fix deployed on Friday seemed to have worked, the reports still flooding in from players saying competitive skill rating is not being adjusted correctly mean a bug fix team is still working on it.
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Here’s the latest post in full:
“While the match data that we have right now is telling us that things should be working correctly, and while we haven’t been able to identify any new issues, that doesn’t mean we think everything is g2g.
“We have developers working as we speak to try to account for what we’re seeing on our side and what players like you are reporting experiencing on your side. We haven’t found what’s causing that disconnect yet, but we’re still investigating and looking for other potential bugs. And we’ll continue to investigate and test until we’ve figured out what’s up.
“We’re sorry it’s taking so long to get to the bottom of this. Your reports are appreciated, though, so thank you!”
While it wouldn’t be the first time Blizzard’s data has been out of line with what players are experiencing, the number of reports might suggest a more serious issue than previously anticipated. Obviously Blizzard employees are playing on the same servers as everyone else, especially through the weekend, and should have noticed a problem if it was persistant. There’s no further details of their current thinking, but it looks like they’ll be working all night – it’s currently 00:50 out there, with the last post just an hour ago – to get it fixed.
Original story 11 Jul, 2016:People have been complaining on the Overwatch forums that their Skill Rating increase for a victorious match only slightly bumped if someone on the enemy team rage quit. Blizzard say that this issue has been fixed since Friday.
Blizzard explained in a post on the forums that they made a change on Thursday so if a player leaves during match, it would no longer affect how Skill Rating is adjusted at the end. Apparently this didn’t work as intended, however, as a bug stopped the change going live.
Luckily, Blizzard put a fix live for that bug the very same night and they say they’ve been monitoring Competitive Play to ensure it’s working as intended.
“At this time, we can confirm that the change is live and has been working correctly since last Friday night. While leavers previously had an impact on how Skill Rating was adjusted, they don’t anymore (and haven’t for a few days),” writes the community manager in an update.
“There are other factors that still have an impact on Skill Rating, though. Things like your team’s probability of success, your individual performance, and win/loss streaks can all affect how your Skill Rating is adjusted at the end of a match. These factors are there for a reason (to help make Skill Rating as accurate as possible), but we know that it’s not always clear right now why your Skill Rating is adjusted the way it is.
“In fact, a lot of the complaints in this thread seem to be a result of that confusion rather than any existing bugs in the system (we checked). That’s a concern for us, because we not only want Skill Rating to be accurate, but also for it to make sense. The fact that it doesn’t is good feedback for us, and seeing how we can make Skill Rating feel better is definitely something we’ll be keeping in mind as we look at ways to improve Competitive Play for future seasons.”
It’s a good job Blizzard plan to tweak it further, as people are still reporting errors with how Skill Rating is adjusted, with many claiming to be victorious as the underdogs but still only getting a 5% bump. This reportedly happens most when people on the enemy team quit.
What the system desperately needs is some more transparency, it seems.