Why do Some Argue Against Skill Based MM?

Death_on_2_Treads, on Jul 30 2021 - 02:40, said:  There is no problem with winning matches being better, if you are better in the equal match.  If you are put on a team with far superior players and you beat down a bunch of tomatoes 15-2, and that what you stats are based on, is it really worth anything? I'd say not. If the team were even and you did that, I'd be worth something. It matters who you play and what the teams are. 


_Juris, on Jul 26 2021 - 16:52, said:   Actually, I think one can make a pretty good case that it will make gameplay worse for the average player that doesn't own OP tier 10 or premium vehicles.  Right now, because MM just matches my tank tier/type to a similar tank tier/type on the other team, i'm not strongly incentivized to play the most OP tank that I own, because over the long run, in order to help my team win more games, all I have to do is be better than the average player playing that tank tier/type on the opposite team.  So although the "worst" case is still another purple (or even better) player on the other team, i'm not guaranteed that i'll have to account for that possibility, and so my incentive to play the most OP tank that I have for that tier and type isn't all that strong (since mostly i'll play against average players, and I can compensate for that by being more skilled).  However, if you guarantee that i'll always have to play better than the purple on the other team for that same tank tier/type, then i'm strongly incentivized to bring the most OP tank I possess, since then if I want to help my team win, I have to be better than not just the same tank tier and type, but ALSO better than the similarly-skilled player on the other team, and the best way to ensure that is to always play the most OP tank I have.  TL;DR - if you'd rather that all the purple players always play Chieftains with bond equipment, by all means continue to advocate for SBMM.   So why does this make gameplay worse for everyone else?  Because neither I nor the purple on the other team are likely to waste our time specifically trying to kill each other (since part of what makes you purple is that you're hard to kill, and will force opponents to make unfavorable plays to try to do so).  Instead, we're much more likely to focus on killing the other purple's teammates as fast as possible, which will be both easier for us and less pleasant for them, since instead of bringing (for example, at tier 8) an M48 Raumpanzer just because I like three-marking bad tanks and am not strongly disadvantaged by doing so under the current MM system, i'm only ever bringing a Bourrasque, Renegade, or something like that, since I don't want to end up at the sharp end of the game in my M48 Raumpanzer against the other team's purple in his Bourrasque.