High MMR Dota 2 matches are in danger of going extinct

High MMR Dota 2 matches are those with an average MMR of 10.000 or even higher. These matches require a lot of top professionals to be online at the same time and on the same server. We usually see them happening on the Western European server, but they’re taking place all around the globe.

Two things that hinder the emergence of these matches are long waiting times and bans. And Valve’s new matchmaking and reporting system is increasing the likelihood of both.

The problem

Pro players have been complaining about the system for years. In some scenarios, you can queue for three hours without finding a match. This is highly problematic for someone who wants to practice or stream to an audience of 1000 people. You simply cannot tell that many viewers to stay calm and wait until a game is found.

Another issue is that the new reporting system seems to be poorly calibrated. Players are encouraged to report others anonymously for a variety of reasons and without risking any consequences.

At the moment, reports can be spammed. So if someone has a problem with a given player, in the Immortal bracket there will be plenty of opportunities to report that player into complete silence. Or even worse, to bring his behavior score below 3000 and thus prevent him from playing ranked for a while.

Reporting someone for being toxic in a game is like suing someone. Just because you sue them doesn’t mean they’re automatically guilty. But Valve seems to use a simplified system that assumes guilt on the part of the reported player without thoroughly checking to see what happened.

Feels like everyone is interpreting “Action taken” as “Punishment was handed out” when they report someone.

Action taken could just be “We looked at it, you did a spurious report that was unfounded, and did not punish. Case closed, action taken.”

Am I wrong? 🤔

— WagaGaming (@WagaGaming) September 5, 2023

This is especially true for reports related to verbal toxicity. How do you make your system check whether someone was reported for a good reason or not? It’s probably not that easy.

Something clearly needs to be done to fix the system for the Immortal bracket because the people competing in it run into each other very often. A system that assumes that being reported is the same as being guilty of toxicity leaves plenty of room for top players to go after each other and compromise someone’s ability to play ranked.

This is not something that you want to do when your game is also an esport with tournaments that are worth tens of millions of dollars each year.

Header: Valve, Quinn