New changes to the 2v2 TMM

Hey, as you may not know I (commonly known as Yudi) have recently joined the Matchmaker team to support the 2v2 TMM map pool system.

As an initial move today, I am announcing an update that our team came to agreement on how the current 2v2 rating brackets will work. Basically we will be utilizing a stepped, tiered bracket system for each rating range in order to improve the experience for all players.

The main improvement and function is as follows: as you get a higher rating, you start unlocking new, harder maps and start losing access to the easier maps. By this system each player will experience a map pool that suits their skill area. Lower tier, less competitive players will stay on less challenging maps, while higher tier, competitive players will not have to play those maps and keep within the higher brackets.

The details: chrome_BKjbrTPhWO.png

<500 players will be playing <500 maps

500-1000 players will be playing <500 AND 500-1000 maps

1000-1500 players will be playing 500-1000 1000-1500 maps AND lose access to <500 maps

1500+ players will be playing 1000-1500 , 1500+ maps AND lose access to both <500 and 500-1000 maps

By utilizing this new concept, the map pool will be relatively shorter for everyone except <500, which is why we're now adding 5 maps to the total 20, making it a 25 map pool, so maps are distributed evenly compared to the old system.

The next map pool will be released at the usual start of the month and will use this new system. In this pool, we will be using a lot of old, forgotten 2v2 maps that have been overlooked for the past years in order to add more presence to them and variety to the TMM scene. If this pool comes off as a bit too different from the norm, please feel free to comment on that.

If you guys have anything to say, leave your feedback below.

Thanks,

Yudi

Old System

500 = 7 maps
500-1000 = 9 maps
1000-1500 = 12 maps
1500+ = 20 maps

New System

500 = 6 maps
500-1000 = 10 maps
1000-1500 = 12 maps
1500+ = 15 maps

Shoutout to Morax for helping me with the wording.

That's a good idea. This way my noob ass won't come across your pro ass. I suck at 1v1/2v2 but want to get better and this will encourage me to play more of it knowing I'm among my fellow noobs until I am ready to move up. Well done.

Let there be light

what happens when I get a 1k in my team - ppl of completely different categories are in the same game? Will the lower rated maps be picked or will the pools be combined?

Forumpros doing balance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wTcguJZh3A .
When a canis player remembers to build more than 3 units https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hjp8xJHuyA .

The map pool is determined by the lowest rated player in the game. So if there’s a 1.2k in the game, you can at most get the 1.2k pool.

This system is definitely an improvement in terms of the quality of the maps players will get especially in the higher brackets however it creates a UX issue where the maps shown in your client map list are not all of the possibilities you can get since if you play with a person from a lower bracket you get a map from their pool and there are maps in their pool that are not in yours. Because of this, I think a slight adjustment to either this system or the client UI should be made and I am discussing possible solutions with Yudi.
Idea N.1) Adjust the client UI so it shows all the maps from your bracket pool as well as maps from the pool of the bracket that is directly below you. So if you are in the 1k-1.5k bracket you have maps from both brackets 500-1k and 1k-1.5k displayed in the map list that you can see in the client.
Idea N.2) Adjust the old system using the Weighting system with the idea to make it the same (map wise) as the new one. Basically, decrease the weights of maps that are more than 1 bracket away to 0, set maps from 1 bracket away to 0 or 1, and set maps from your own bracket to 1 ( if others are set to 0) or some higher number eg.2 (if one bracket away is not 0 to adjust the chance of drawing those maps compared to the others). This achieves a very similar result to Idea N.1) and has the benefit of not needing client changes as well as allowing for easy adjustments via the mod client. A person from 1k-1.5k would see all the possible maps in their bracket however some of them would only be drawn if they would play with a player from a lower bracket.

Both Tagada and i came to a conclusion after several minutes of discussion , by using the n.2 method that he suggested we should be able to fix the addressed issue without impacting the new concept.

@haachamachama said in New changes to the 2v2 TMM:

Lower tier, less competitive players will stay on less challenging maps, while higher tier, competitive players will not have to play those maps and keep within the higher brackets.

I don't understand how higher rating players "will not have to play those maps" if you have a 2000 paired with a 200 vs two 1200s. Aren't you then limited exclusively to the lowest skill maps, consistent with Askaholic's comment? Or has there also been some change that entirely prevents teams with large deviations in rating?

TMM pairs has always been inconsistent due to the lack of players, so having huge disparity between the players is inevitable, "if you have 2000 paired with a 200 and two 1200s" already applies to the current system aswell, only difference is if both parties have 1.5k+ rating they shouldn't be drawing <500 maps which is already an improvement, only way to prevent such unfair matches is by either not getting a game at all or lowering deviation which decreases the chances of getting a game.

I'm trying to improve the system to hopefully attract more players to it in order to prevent these kind of issues and let people have a good time.

@haachamachama said in New changes to the 2v2 TMM:

TMM pairs has always been inconsistent due to the lack of players, so having huge disparity between the players is inevitable

Ya, that's exactly why I thought this was so common that the statement wasn't really true, though eliminating the smaller maps when you have only higher rating players is an improvement.

Just one other thought, it might be slightly better to use an average rating in some situations rather than sharply defined categories. I'm thinking of when you have one team of two 1600s and the other with 1700 and 1490. I would guess all 4 players would prefer to stick with the 1500+ category of maps, because including the 1490 player's range, which includes 500-1000 rating maps, doesn't really seem optimal when basically all the players are quite a bit beyond that. I'm not sure the best way to design a system that avoids that, maybe something about the average or maximum deviation between all players. And maybe it just gets really complicated for minimal benefit so this isn't worth thinking too much about anyway, especially given the aforementioned lack of players...

Lower rated maps are likely not going to be maps with a strong and weak slot, at least to the degree of maps such as phenom or sentons. If you do some average then you allow maps waaaaay out of the league of some people that can barely handle making a hydro before stalling.

I approve of this new mm system.

Ras Boi's save lives.