New Dota 2 Ranked Roles: Core and Support MMR

A new Dota 2 matchmaking system has been launched in August 2019: The Core and Support Role based MMR replaces the Solo and Party MMR.

Update: In march 2020, Valve released the single MMR rank with role performance and stopped using the support/core distribution.

Dota 2 Ranked Roles replace the Solo and Party MMR:

RIP solo and party MMR, it was an enjoyable journey with you two… 😉

On the 6. August 2019 was the last day of solo and party MMR. Yes! Valve removed the concept of both features from Dota 2 to enhance the ranked match-making experience.

Dota 2 launched a new mode called Ranked Matches with Roles. In this mode, players have to select a role even before searching a game and later on have to follow that role by picking a fitting hero. This mode only applies to the ranked matchmaking, you can play normal matches without the role selection, this is why a good portion of players switched to the normal mode temporarily.

Pre role selection has been a Dota Plus feature before and some Dota Plus subscribers now complained that this feature is free, but in my opinion it’s great that it nothing new: It has already worked over a long time and has a good chance to optimize the Dota 2 MMR matchmaking experience!

What will happen to the Dota 2 MMR System?

Over the next year (2019-2020) many matchmaking improvements and changes will happen:
Valve right now is optimizing the core Dota 2 matchmaking system to allow bigger changes and better analytical capabilities. The rollout of the Core and Support MMR will last until the end of the season.

Things that are getting improved over the next year:

• Balancing inside teams and also the skill level compared to the opponent team.
• The player conduct level is getting more and more important, read more about it here.
• Improving the new player matchmaking experience.
• Reducing abusive behaviors, Dota 2 account boosting and account buying possibilities.
• Making friend and teamplay aspects better to attract people for more party matchmaking.
• High mmr matchmaking dynamics.
• Other issues in an effort to make the overall experience of playing Dota more fun for players of all level.

Early goals of the Support and Core MMR Distribution:

The goal is of course to increase the balancing for ranked Dota 2 matchmaking games.
The first big experiment is to remove the solo and party MMR distribution: It’s just a test until the end of the season and we have to see if it is working out in making the MMR value better and more accurate or not.

One great thing is that the game balancing, of friends with mixed MMR, is the biggest task for the current matchmaking improvements, if you play with friends who have higher or lower MMR, Dota 2 will in the future communicate better how fair the game is and how your progress will be if you win or lose this match.

Valve is asking for help and feedback, how good is this big change after 9 years of Dota 2 with Solo and Party MMR? It’s time for something new! 😉

What are the new Dota 2 MMR Ranked Roles?

Fact is, Dota 2 players have totally different role playstyles and confidence when it comes to playing core roles or support roles:
Some players are awesome cores, others fail hard when they have to play a core and carry a game. The same goes for the support role, some like it and have the skills for it, others don’t have the patience and game control for it.

Now comes the interesting part: When it comes to picking a role you have 5 positioning options but only 2 MMR values! So which MMR is addressed to which position?

Dota 2 Pickphase: The Predefined Roles are Visible

In Dota the role system with position 1-5 are omnipresent: When you start a game, roles everyone has selected are visible on top of the game just under the name of your team, the enemy positions are of course hidden. If more than one player has selected a role, the game assigns the correct role, this does not happen if you select only 1 or 2 positions. If you choose a specific position, it’s clear that the game will search 4 other players for the 4 other positions. Just in case you are selecting more than 2 positions, the game has to evaluate the correct positions. 😉

These are the 5 Positions you can pick in Dota 2:

Dota 2 Role	Position
Safe Lane	1
Mid Lane	2
Off Lane	3
Soft Support	4
Hard Support	5

Pick the Dota position that you want to play, it makes the most sense to choose the roles that you are best with to successfully win the match!

Tip: You can select more than one role, you can even select all roles right now (this might change over time). But that’s okay maybe you don’t want to limit your possibilities for a game. But what the most people do is, that they predefine their role and select limited roles: The most players select 2 roles that fit in a way together, give them a bit flexibility but definitely separates a Core or Support role.

Which Dota 2 Position falls into which MMR Role?

For soft/hard support and hard carry roles it’s self-explanatory which MMR Role is assigned, but for the Off Lane and Mid Lane MMR check the following table.
The two MMR values are Core MMR and Support MMR, when you choose a role, it will automatically be connected to the associated MMR value.

MMR	Position
Core MMR	Safelane (Position 1), Mid Lane (Position 2), Off Lane (Position 3)
Support MMR	Soft Support (Position 4), Hard Support (Position 5)

What about Core and Support MMR Calibration?

When I made the update and logged into the game I already had a Support and Core MMR, but a friend of mine had to calibrate.
How to check if you are Calibrated for Support & Core MMR:

• Open Dota 2 and go to your profile.
• Hit the “stats” tab.
• On the upper right side you will see if you already have mmr or if you need to calibrate it!

Seasonal Core and Support MMR Calibration:

Everyone who has to calibrate will see this: “Requires 10 Games to Calibrate”. That means you have to complete 10 Core MMR calibration games and 10 Support MMR calibration games to get your final new MMR!
If the experiment works well, and only then, the Core and Support MMR will also be available in the next season and that would mean that you have to calibrate for each of the MMR ranks again.

Will my current Solo or Party MMR be the new Support and Core MMR?

Good News! The higher MMR value will be taken for both, Support and Core MMR.
Before the update, I had a Solo MMR of 4226 and a Party MMR of 2990 now my Support MMR is 4226 and my Core MMR as well. That means the higher MMR Rank (I have Ancient 7 right now) will be applied to both of your new Role-based MMR values.
That’s awesome! Maybe not so awesome in some cases if players are getting ranked higher than they are, but no one will cry about it, I think it’s fair.

What happens if you do not play your predefined Role?

Fact is, the system forces you to fulfill your role. If you pick that role you must play it. If a player does not play his role, then even one single report can make him face penalties. Yes! A new report option is also available.

BUT: Low medal players can now also experience mid and carry roles, it most of the cases the better players took the “more important” positions, this is not the case anymore, if the high ranked player predefined to play hard support, that’s it, he has to stick to it. 😉

Idea and Concept of the new Dota 2 Role MMR:

Basically, the system wants to know which role you want to play, to form a better game.
Now when you play ranked matchmaking in Dota 2 you have to choose a role from position 1 to 5 that means that position is taken and everyone can rely on that.

Why Valve came up with this update?

Do you know that have caused serious problems over the years?
Arguing team members, who of them is allowed to play mid and who is carrying, if two players wanted to play mid it could end in a disaster and it was absolutely common that one of them trolled the full game and everything was ruined. In higher MMR matches though, these kids were eliminated and the percentage due to the high punishments got better and better, but still, it has been a problem:
How often do I wanted to play mid, marked it first and someone else took a mid hero – as patient as I am I switched my role and gave him the Mid Lane, but the new concept is about to find a final solution for this problem…

Comeback of fair Dota 2 Party Matchmaking:

One more reason is that the matchmaking system in the past overemphasized and over rewarded the progress of solo MMR! While playing party MMR with friends of other skill levels was quite a tough task with many random factors that reduced the progress of possible success.
Because of that many players started to play alone, Valve now wants to change this, to force us to play more with friends. I like this change and I can confirm that it often was more comfortable for me to play solo, let’s see how the changes work!

Pros and Cons of the Dota 2 MMR Role Seperation:

What is good and what is bad about the Core and Support MMR update?

1. Pros of the new Dota 2 Matchmaking:

• In the future you will directly see if someone is a good support or core player.
• Peaceful gaming, every player will focus on his role.
• High chances of more intense gameplay.
• No one has to worry about wards and smokes any more.
• To find a match faster, without consent, players still have to pick support roles.
• One report and the ruiner will face penalties.

2. Cons of the new Dota 2 Matchmaking::

• Many players are only experienced in one or two roles. This new mode will force them to play diverse.
• Some players might stick to one position forever and will only establish knowledge for that role.

Conclusion

Never forget the goal is to reach the best MMR system that is possible and Valve is open for feedback and ideas!
How do you like the new MMR distribution compared to the Solo and Party split that has been lasting so long? Tell us in the comments. 😉

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