#TechGirlEra
determined by their performance against other players. This will rise or fall determined by your wins and losses. When two people compete, the higher-rated player is expected to win, and the lower-rated player is expected to lose. If the higher-rated player wins, they’ll gain a modest number of points; whereas if the lower-rated player wins, they’ll gain a higher number of points as the win was less expected and therefore “worth more”. When joining a game, the player is assigned a numerical value as their
rating – we’ll use 1500 for this article. Each game has its own algorithm for calculating MMR, but the core concepts are the same: win, good; lose, bad. So, you boot up Rematch and get into the queue. The matchmaker
will try its best to match you with other players that also have an MMR of 1500. If there aren’t enough available players with a similar rating, it’ll widen the search to something like 1400-1600. This is why queueing in the lobby can sometimes take a bit longer. You can’t just let in anyone and their mums – player ratings are sacrosanct in matchmaking. Balanced teams are integral to a player’s enjoyment, and player retention, so the average MMR of the teams should be as similar as possible. Getting players into matches as quickly as possible is also super important; it’s a toss-up between balance vs. speed – if skill doesn’t necessarily matter, matchmaking can be instantaneous. While often confused, your MMR and in-game ranking are separate.
You won’t see your MMR in most games, but you’ll usually see some sort of rank – e.g Tekken starts with Beginner all the way to God of Destruction ∞ or League of Legends with Iron, Bronze, Silver etc. with the max being Challenger. In-game rankings keep players engaged and gives you something to work towards – who doesn’t love the instant dopamine hit of moving up a rank when you’ve smoked a bunch of twelve-year-olds on Fortnite? Speaking of Fortnite, your in-game ranking lags a tiny bit behind your
MMR so your rank doesn’t jump up or down too quickly. At lower ranks, it’s easier to climb higher but once you reach Diamond/Champion levels, your demotion risk becomes higher and losses hurt more. For Fortnite at least, once you reach the ultimate level of Unreal, you can’t get demoted for the rest of the season. Rank resets, but #MMRis4eva(-ish). Some rank systems might also serve as ego-protectors for when you eventually get annihilated by said same twelve-year-olds (obviously
because you had a hard day at work, not a skill issue). In StarCraft, when you were on the verge of demotion, there used to be a system that gave you once more chance to prove that you were still worthy of your rank by pitting you against the top of your rank and improve your win:lose ratio. Similarly, League of Legends has demotion protection for a period
after you get promoted. Your MMR, however, does go down. It is mathematically driven and will always be moving based on your wins and losses, even if your rank is frozen. Some games use Glicko – a more complex version of Elo which
considers the wider context of the player, including things such as winning streaks, session frequency, and opponent’s rating. As a result of these contextual metrics, Glicko adapts to a player’s skill much faster than Elo. Imagine, if you will, that you spent Season 2 of League fucking people’s shit up! But then Apex Legends came along, and you got obsessed with that for a while. A handful of seasons later, you come back to League. Glicko knows. It tracks uncertainty; new or inactive players will rank up or down faster, whereas active players have more stable incremental increase/decrease. There are of course, arguments against SBMM – like reducing
enjoyment for casual players, longer wait times, latency, or putting a glass ceiling on the most skilled players. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare caused an outcry with longtime fans, with players complaining that the more “blatant” use of SBMM took away from the traditional COD experience i.e. absolute randos of varying skill levels all together in one match and n00bs *literally* fighting for their lives. In the words of Sir Winston Churchill, “git gud.” Getting matchmaking right is integral to the lifetime and popularity of
a multiplayer game. If you’re a newcomer getting repeatedly stomped by the fast-twitch thumbs of primary school children, you’ll eventually lose interest as you don’t get much of a chance to improve and play properly. But for players who are locked tf in, keeping matches competitively balanced ensures continual engagement, challenging them with satisfying wins and well-fought losses. gg. Having learnt now that matchmaking is much more than just
getting players together in a lobby, what blows my mind is that this process takes seconds (if it’s built to a high standard, by, I don’t know, certain Wizards?).
October/November 2025 MCV/DEVELOP | 19
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