Author | Lightnews

Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · 1d

oops we had a visual bug on launch, fixed now though :)

Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · 1d

if you feel like you might have what it takes, but don't check all the requirements, i would still encourage you to apply. if you're unsure, please reach out!

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · 1d

two announcements: first, i'm now a lead :)
second and more importantly: we're hiring! if you want to come help us make Overwatch matchmaking the best it can be, please apply!
careers.blizzard.com/global/en/jo...

Senior Software Engineer, Server Matchmaking - Overwatch 2 | Irvine, CA in Irvine, California, United States of America | Engineering at Blizzard Entertainment

Apply for Senior Software Engineer, Server Matchmaking - Overwatch 2 | Irvine, CA job with Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine, California, United States of America. Engineering at Blizzard Entertainment

careers.blizzard.com

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · 28d

the hero with the higher vote count gets banned first. each player's earlier votes are worth more. and for each ban we're only considering the votes for the team whose turn it is to ban (we randomly decide which team goes first and then it proceeds A-B-B-A)

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Sep 26

does it work if you select a different value in the "ALL" dropdown

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Sep 26

other team bans ball, your team bans mercy, other team bans rein, your team can't ban doom because we only allow 2 bans per role. working as intended! (though perhaps we could make this case clearer in the UI)

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Sep 3

under the hood, hero SRs use much of the same MMR system that powers role ranks

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Sep 3

currently we're just using win-loss. we had been tracking for a while though :)

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Sep 3

we've had some of the systems for tracking per-hero SRs for a while, it's been a fairly long-term goal for us!

the 3 divisions is a typo (its still actually 5), will be fixed soon

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Sep 3

hard to say, because it's dependent on second-order effects. i'll see if we can do a blog post with data in the future :)

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Aug 28

i actually don't know, that's a question for @captainplanet.bsky.social !

Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Aug 28

we're investigating, thank you!

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Aug 28

also note that we rebalanced ranks at the top end, so we expect a few more players achieving Master/GM/Champion over the next few seasons. don't worry though they're still very exclusive, and i'll still be in Plat

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Aug 28

happy season 18 launch everyone! this patch I helped build the Hero Skill Rating system. please share any (positive) feedback you have about it.

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Aug 4

a while back we changed it so that at high MMR the pins are not guaranteed, since it was causing some issues for queue times. sorry about that, the avoid still makes them less likely to show up than otherwise :(

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Aug 2

Idk I think the meta is actually different at different skill levels. optimal strategies change based on aim/mechanics/coordination

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Aug 1

yeah that's a hard one, we want players to group, but it can be rough for the solo. Unlike 2/3s we can't try to pack them with other groups into matches. the good news is that 4 stacks are very rare compared to solos, so this should happen very rarely

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Aug 1

new ow blogpost with two of my favorite things: philosophy, and sneak peaks at new stats features
overwatch.blizzard.com/en-us/news/2...

Director’s Take: The More You Know

If knowledge is power, Overwatch players are about to hit Champion. Assistant game director Alec Dawson breaks down the philosophy behind offering more clarity, transparency, and data to the community...

overwatch.blizzard.com

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Aug 1

matchmaking queues are markets with time as the currency. dont worry though, at least we'll never impose tariffs!

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Jul 25

donkey kong is so viscerally joyful! really loving it so far

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Jul 23

would love to, and agree AI could likely do better in principle, just a lot of work to build! (though it seems to be getting easier pretty rapidly...)

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Jul 23

yea i strongly believe that fairness is the best way to maximize fun (blogpost covered this in some detail)

we're always looking for new ways to detect matches that will be one-sided. some percentage are likely near-impossible to solve though (everyone's human, people have bad days!)

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Jul 23

victory is zero-sum, but fun is positive-sum

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Jul 22

in my personal experience (tho i mostly play role queue), i'd estimate 90%+ of my matches are winnable at the start.

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Morgan Maddren @srslypaladin.bsky.social · Jul 22

hard to say! most of the matches that end up one-sided look pretty balanced to us. some of that could be hidden signals we haven't found. mostly i believe its not that tho, and just due to a combination of Overwatch being very decisive + players playing inconsistently

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