Sniper 3D | Trophy Update

What is MMR?

Firstly, it’s important we clarify what MMR/Matchmaking Rating is. This is, and will keep on being, a hidden value that determines whom each player gets matched with. It goes up when you win and down when you lose, in varying amounts depending on who your opponents are and how much you score. It’s used in most multiplayer games to help players find opponents of equal (or close to equal) skill.

We have been aware of a practice we call “elo bombing” — losing on purpose to get matched with less geared and less skilled players to make your games easier — for a while now. By doing this, players would be able to lose MMR, while staying in high ranked leagues like Grandmaster, thus getting easier matches but keeping all the benefits of being in higher leagues. We are treating this as an exploit, and the changes we are making have the goal of ending this practice and providing everyone with fair matches. 

In summary, we have had inflation in the game for a while (gaining more trophies if you are below the number of trophies we think is fair for your MMR). The current change will do two things: first, inflation will be more intense, visible and longer-lasting. Additionally, we will also use the discrepancy between your MMR and your trophies to deflate users in some cases.

Typically, trophy rewards are (from 8th to 1st):

-23, -16, -9, -3, +3, +9, +16, +23

On one side, if your MMR is extremely high in comparison to your trophies, we will boost you in the following way, making your climb easier:

-7, 0, +7, +13, +19, +25, +32, +39

On the flip side, if your trophies are too high for your MMR, you will instead have, in extreme cases:

-39, -32, -25, -19, -13, -7, 0, +7

These numbers are not set in stone and will vary based on different factors. For example, you might get -7 for 8th place, or you might get -6, but the corresponding trophies for each position will scale. Our system was not built to support trophy counts as high as they are now, which is what allows players to elo-bomb. This is what we're aiming to fix. 

Again, all these changes have the purpose of having players attain the rank they belong at. If you’re a good player with a high MMR, you should have a high number of trophies, and we will help you get there. If you’re at a high number of trophies but your skill doesn’t match, you might have to start winning matches again to prove your worth. Rest assured of one thing, the algorithm we currently use (Trueskill) is known for having very fast convergence rates, so you should be back to where you belong with just a few rounds.

You can read more about MMR in our recent development blog!

Who Does This Affect?

In our previous release, there was a bug in how the inflation/deflation curve was being calculated, and we deeply apologise for that. After some tweaks, the most recent figures for which players will have inflated trophies, deflated trophies and whose trophies will remain the same are as follows: 

This means almost 90% of players will actually be getting more trophies in the arena, while 5% will be having their trophy count reduced. However, this will only last until their MMR normalizes, which will likely only take a few games.

We understand this change will be hard for players to adjust to, but we find it to be necessary to level the playing field for players, stop the practice of elo-bombing and add prestige back to the higher ranks. We believe that with this change, in combination with our upcoming automated ban-waves, we’ll be closer to our goal of a clean and fair PVP Arena.