This afternoon, Hearthstone's Dean "Iksar" Ayala has shared insight on Battlegrounds matchmaking and fairness.

  • Blizzard is collecting data on what kind of advantages groups may have over solo queue players.
  • When they have enough data to understand how groups work, matchmaking can be adjusted.
  • If adjustments don't fix the fairness of group play, they have the ability to change how groups work.
    • Examples given include disabling groups above an MMR, only pair groups together, separate queues.

Dean also talked about rating resets.

  • There is a planned rating reset in Patch 18.4.
  • We will have future rating resets with every major Battlegrounds patch.
  • They will use player feedback based on the rating resets to determine how to go forward with them.
  • A reset will set your visual rating to 0 with your internal matchmaking rating staying the same.

Are you enjoying Battlegrounds Parties? Let us know your thoughts down below!

Quote From Dean Ayala

We have two core goals directly relating to group queuing. One is to allow you to play with your friends when you want. The other is to create a fun and fair experience for all players involved in a game. Ideally, there is a solution that allows for both of these things to happen.

There are a bunch of potential solutions to solve group queue issues relating to competitive integrity. The TL:DR is there is some data collection involved in understanding the kind of advantage group players have over solo players so we can accurately matchmake and rating adjust. Once we have an accurate baseline of the advantage different skillsets of players get (4k, 6k, 10k, etc) by grouping together, we can adjust the matchmaking rating of those grouped players to create a fair experience. There are many more details about how the end of game rating calculation would work, but the general idea is that whether you queue up into a game with grouped players or solo players your expected rating adjustment end of game would be the same.

If this doesn't work for whatever reason (actual or perceived fairness), there are many other paths we can go down. We can disable group queue, disable group queue about a certain MMR, only pair groups together, create a separate queue, etc, etc. All of these solutions involve some amount of downside that we'd like to avoid if there is an alternate solution with minimal downside.

Beyond 18.2, we have plans for a rating reset in 18.4 and we will reset again every major battlegrounds patch. Rating reset will also likely involve some iteration based on player feedback, so we'll continue to adjust until players feel like we're in a good place. In the interim, hope you are enjoying BG and I hope you get really big pogos.

Matchmaking Rating: Your rating that we match you with Visual Rating: Your rating you see on your account

When reset happens your visual rating will go to 0 and your matchmaking rating will stay the same. You will progress from 0 for 30-60 games until you matchmaking rating and your visual rating are roughly aligned, at which point you will stay the same rating unless your skill level improves.

It's very similar to how the star rating reset system works in constructed Hearthstone. We feel like that system was relatively successful because hardcore users zoom through the system pretty quickly and less hardcore users get to play in a system that is mostly progression based. It can feel pretty crappy if you are new bg player and your experience is just tanking your rating for your first X games.