Dota 2 released a new update that makes some changes to the MMR and the queueing. Valve has been putting out updates in the hopes of improving the overall play experience. This latest round should be good news for many players.
Let's start with the MMR. The update removed the variability in how much MMR players lose or gain from each match. This means that matches no longer give out results like -40 MMR for losing a match or +10 for winning one.
In addition, each match typically handed out 25 MMR. However, the update means that solo games are going to hand out 30 MMR while party games give out 20 MMR. Valve said that hopefully this will have more of an impact for those playing solo compared to when playing in a party. Simply put, it looks as if Valve wants players who opt for solo play to not feel punished for not being in a party.
Talking about the queueing, the Fast Queue was introduced last year which you can read more about here. However, the new update removes the Fast/Slow queue. Instead there's now going to be Ranked Roles and Ranked Classic. In order to be able to play Ranked Roles, players need to earn Role Queue games by playing matches and select all roles. This is actually unchanged from the previous feature.
Now while Ranked Classic replaces Slow Queue, it doesn't let players select roles. Valve said that this change was made mainly because the game's "slow/fast queue concept has not been successful in producing good quality games." The past system had players in the Slow Queue waiting even a little bit longer and often ended up in bad quality matches for the whole player pool. This change should be a fair requirement to enforce. This should be particularly good for those who want the benefit of playing a specific role.
It was in September of last year when Dota 2 started making changes to the matchmaking, which was also the start of the new ranked season. As already mentioned, there have been a number of changes for Dota 2 since last year as it relates to the match making. Some of these changes include offering players a Role Symmetry as well as a Draft Role Report. At the same time, the idea of Core and Support Ranks were also introduced.
By October, an update was released that fixed the Matchup Combinations. The rule had been five-player parties could only be matched with other five-player parties. However, there was no assurance that it resulted to high quality matches. Thus, the change to allow a two-person and three-person against a five-player team was made. You can read more about that here.
