[HotS] In Defense of Quick Match Text by TL.net ESPORTS

In defense of Quick Match

Analyzing the virtues and issues of the most popular game mode

Written by: Phantom



Quick Match is one of the most popular game modes of Heroes of the Storm. It’s designed to let you pick the hero you want and get you into a match as soon as possible. This mode has gathered a lot of negative attention, with many calling it the source of the lack of game knowledge within the heroes community. But is Quick Match really responsible for this?



The lack of basic game knowledge is a well known issue across all skill levels. Many players don’t know what makes a good team composition or how to use objectives effectively, and Quick Match is often cited as the reason. The mode is infamous for its unconventional team compositions, supposedly teaching new players that a good draft isn’t important or that any hero is good in every map. In defense of Quick Match though, it doesn’t need to teach any of that.



Understanding the role of Quick Match and the Draft modes



Quick Match is designed to get you into a game fast, get you acquainted with the maps and to teach you how to play with different heroes. It is often used to improve mechanical hero skills, since it allows consistent practice with whichever hero you wish. Drafting is very important for the competitive aspect of the game, but I would argue that teaching good drafting practices is the responsibility of Unranked Draft. Quick Match could improve by having stricter hero composition rules to avoid frustrating games, but if a player wants to learn what makes a team composition good, Unranked Draft should be the place to go.



Another common complaint is that Quick Match doesn’t teach you that certain heroes are better in some maps and worse in others. This is completely true, but again, it is not the role of Quick Match to teach you that. Some of this could be explained in the loading screen of the maps, or even as a small advice blurb in the drafting screen. Preferably, there would be more advanced tutorials players were forced to take. Some heroes do excel in certain conditions, for example, Dehaka and Brightwing have global movement abilities that make them stand out in big maps, but for most heroes, in most skill levels, mechanical skill and team composition have a bigger impact. Unranked draft alongside better tutorials should be teaching the player base which heroes are good in which situation, and which heroes aren’t, but the game has failed to do that.



Unranked Draft is meant to be the stepping stone between casual play and ranked, but right now it’s not fulfilling its role. When Blizzard removed the account level requirement for Hero League, Unranked Draft was left in the middle of nowhere. Most casual players prefer Quick Match and when they finally want a more competitive experience, many go straight to Hero League. There, they will bring with them some bad practices, but this doesn’t mean the game mode is bad for the game, what it means is that not enough players are interested in playing Unranked and learning how to draft before playing in Hero League. Even then, there are more factors at play here.



The main argument in defense of Quick Match is that if it was the source of the issues surrounding game knowledge, then the problem would be isolated to Quick Match. When players eventually transition to Hero League they would rapidly become more educated and the problem would be solved after a few games. But that’s not what is happening. Hero League, Team League and Unranked Draft are not teaching players either. It’s true that the player base is uneducated, but placing the blame on Quick Match would only be distracting us from the real source of the problem: the game itself.



The Hero Brawler



A big factor in the knowledge gap amongst players is the target audience of the game. Heroes of the Storm was initially presented as a casual alternative to traditional MOBAs. In fact, Blizzard was not willing to even use the term, instead referring to the game as a Hero Brawler. Heroes of the Storm was marketed to be a friendlier, faster paced genre that shared a lot of similitudes with League of Legends and DOTA 2, but wasn’t quite the same thing. While this was done to secure its own niche in an already crowded genre, it had some unintended consequences. Most of the player base is composed of casual players. This means that, no matter the mechanical skill they have, they aren’t familiar with the pro-scene and don’t read guides. When they play Hero League, they won’t care about team compositions or meta strategies, not because they learned bad habits from Quick Match, but simply because they were never interested in learning at all.





A Hero Brawler with your favorite characters.



Some design decisions to make the game more friendly are directly related to this issue. Heroes of the Storm is an amazing game, but it does a terrible job of explaining itself to the average player. Early game mistakes aren’t punished enough, while late game deaths have a very big impact. Comeback mechanics are non-intuitive. The hard focus on objectives fools the playerbase into believing every objective has the same importance, when in reality it varies depending on the map and game time. The game gives the impression that dying while fighting one versus five isn’t that bad because when an enemy died 2 times in the first two minutes they didn’t appear to fall behind. It is impossible to know how much experience your team needs to level up; the amount of experience a minion gives appears when it’s killed, but in this context that number is not useful. The game has gotten better in displaying meaningful information, such as implementing the ability to click on heroes and see their statistics, as well as armor indicators, but it still has a long way to go. Most of these issues are a product of game mechanics and UI, rather than being solely the fault of Quick Match.



I don’t believe any player is in the wrong here: everyone approaches the game their own way. What I do believe is that Blizzard made a mistake in how it initially handled Heroes of the Storm, and how little information they decided to show has hurt the game. Casual players exist in every game, but even if they are casual they know more about strategy than the average Heroes of the Storm player, as their game supplies more information organically.





Conclusions



The reason Quick Match is so popular is because it simply fills the needs of most of the player base. You can play with your favorite character, you won’t need to pick a role you don't enjoy, you won’t be forced to fill and pick a hero you find boring. It’s perfect to play with friends or practice a hero to try new builds, and above all it’s ideal if you just want to have fun. When players say Quick Match isn’t a good mode, I say no, it’s a great one.





Quick Match enables you to play with the hero you want to play.



The core idea this game was founded on was to be able to play with the Blizzard characters you have always loved. Quick Match realises this idea. If you want to play with Thrall, you can do it for the first time since 2003. If you want to send Diablo riding into battle on a rainbow colored unicorn, you can do that too. The idea Quick Match represents, simply put, is Heroes of the Storm.



It is true many players take some wrong lessons into ranked play. However this is not due to Quick Match being a problematic game mode, but rather the fact that drafting modes (and the game itself) do a bad job of explaining core concepts to the average player.

Quick Match is a big part of what makes the game special. It doesn’t teach a new player everything they need before ranked, but that’s not its purpose. The responsibility of teaching players the different competitive team compositions should fall upon the shoulders of the more competitive ranked modes, and the game should do a better job of explaining itself to the player base. Quick Match is not stopping players from learning about the game, it is just teaching different lessons.







[Phantom] is an avid Heroes of the Storm player and writer who specializes on creating unique and fun articles. Driving discussion forward, he's always working on new ideas and projects.





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Quick Match is one of the most popular game modes of Heroes of the Storm. It’s designed to let you pick the hero you want and get you into a match as soon as possible. This mode has gathered a lot of negative attention, with many calling it the source of the lack of game knowledge within the heroes community. But is Quick Match really responsible for this?The lack of basic game knowledge is a well known issue across all skill levels. Many players don’t know what makes a good team composition or how to use objectives effectively, and Quick Match is often cited as the reason. The mode is infamous for its unconventional team compositions, supposedly teaching new players that a good draft isn’t important or that any hero is good in every map. In defense of Quick Match though, it doesn’t need to teach any of that.Quick Match is designed to get you into a game fast, get you acquainted with the maps and to teach you how to play with different heroes. It is often used to improve mechanical hero skills, since it allows consistent practice with whichever hero you wish. Drafting is very important for the competitive aspect of the game, but I would argue that teaching good drafting practices is the responsibility of Unranked Draft. Quick Match could improve by having stricter hero composition rules to avoid frustrating games, but if a player wants to learn what makes a team composition good, Unranked Draft should be the place to go.Another common complaint is that Quick Match doesn’t teach you that certain heroes are better in some maps and worse in others. This is completely true, but again, it is not the role of Quick Match to teach you that. Some of this could be explained in the loading screen of the maps, or even as a small advice blurb in the drafting screen. Preferably, there would be more advanced tutorials players were forced to take. Some heroes do excel in certain conditions, for example, Dehaka and Brightwing have global movement abilities that make them stand out in big maps, but for most heroes, in most skill levels, mechanical skill and team composition have a bigger impact. Unranked draft alongside better tutorials should be teaching the player base which heroes are good in which situation, and which heroes aren’t, but the game has failed to do that.Unranked Draft is meant to be the stepping stone between casual play and ranked, but right now it’s not fulfilling its role. When Blizzard removed the account level requirement for Hero League, Unranked Draft was left in the middle of nowhere. Most casual players prefer Quick Match and when they finally want a more competitive experience, many go straight to Hero League. There, they will bring with them some bad practices, but this doesn’t mean the game mode is bad for the game, what it means is that not enough players are interested in playing Unranked and learning how to draft before playing in Hero League. Even then, there are more factors at play here.The main argument in defense of Quick Match is that if it was the source of the issues surrounding game knowledge, then the problem would be isolated to Quick Match. When players eventually transition to Hero League they would rapidly become more educated and the problem would be solved after a few games. But that’s not what is happening. Hero League, Team League and Unranked Draft are not teaching players either. It’s true that the player base is uneducated, but placing the blame on Quick Match would only be distracting us from the real source of the problem: the game itself.A big factor in the knowledge gap amongst players is the target audience of the game. Heroes of the Storm was initially presented as a casual alternative to traditional MOBAs. In fact, Blizzard was not willing to even use the term, instead referring to the game as a Hero Brawler. Heroes of the Storm was marketed to be a friendlier, faster paced genre that shared a lot of similitudes with League of Legends and DOTA 2, but wasn’t quite the same thing. While this was done to secure its own niche in an already crowded genre, it had some unintended consequences. Most of the player base is composed of casual players. This means that, no matter the mechanical skill they have, they aren’t familiar with the pro-scene and don’t read guides. When they play Hero League, they won’t care about team compositions or meta strategies, not because they learned bad habits from Quick Match, but simply because they were never interested in learning at all.Some design decisions to make the game more friendly are directly related to this issue. Heroes of the Storm is an amazing game, but it does a terrible job of explaining itself to the average player. Early game mistakes aren’t punished enough, while late game deaths have a very big impact. Comeback mechanics are non-intuitive. The hard focus on objectives fools the playerbase into believing every objective has the same importance, when in reality it varies depending on the map and game time. The game gives the impression that dying while fighting one versus five isn’t that bad because when an enemy died 2 times in the first two minutes they didn’t appear to fall behind. It is impossible to know how much experience your team needs to level up; the amount of experience a minion gives appears when it’s killed, but in this context that number is not useful. The game has gotten better in displaying meaningful information, such as implementing the ability to click on heroes and see their statistics, as well as armor indicators, but it still has a long way to go. Most of these issues are a product of game mechanics and UI, rather than being solely the fault of Quick Match.I don’t believe any player is in the wrong here: everyone approaches the game their own way. What I do believe is that Blizzard made a mistake in how it initially handled Heroes of the Storm, and how little information they decided to show has hurt the game. Casual players exist in every game, but even if they are casual they know more about strategy than the average Heroes of the Storm player, as their game supplies more information organically.The reason Quick Match is so popular is because it simply fills the needs of most of the player base. You can play with your favorite character, you won’t need to pick a role you don't enjoy, you won’t be forced to fill and pick a hero you find boring. It’s perfect to play with friends or practice a hero to try new builds, and above all it’s ideal if you just want to have fun. When players say Quick Match isn’t a good mode, I say no, it’s a great one.The core idea this game was founded on was to be able to play with the Blizzard characters you have always loved. Quick Match realises this idea. If you want to play with Thrall, you can do it for the first time since 2003. If you want to send Diablo riding into battle on a rainbow colored unicorn, you can do that too. The idea Quick Match represents, simply put, is Heroes of the Storm.It is true many players take some wrong lessons into ranked play. However this is not due to Quick Match being a problematic game mode, but rather the fact that drafting modes (and the game itself) do a bad job of explaining core concepts to the average player.Quick Match is a big part of what makes the game special. It doesn’t teach a new player everything they need before ranked, but that’s not its purpose. The responsibility of teaching players the different competitive team compositions should fall upon the shoulders of the more competitive ranked modes, and the game should do a better job of explaining itself to the player base. Quick Match is not stopping players from learning about the game, it is just teaching different lessons.

DarkPlasmaBall Profile Blog Joined March 2010 United States 38922 Posts #2 It definitely says something when Blizzard has to keep reminding the Heroes community that you're pretty much not supposed to expect good games in Quick Match and that it's just "anything goes". I've noticed that they're not even trying to make sure that both teams have similar hero compositions, whether it's 1 or 2 vs. 0 warriors, 1 or 2 vs. 0 healers, etc. Getting to pick your favorite hero doesn't mean much when the teams might be so lopsided that you can't even have a fun game. "There is nothing more satisfying than looking at a crowd of people and helping them get what I love." ~Day[9] Daily #100

RaiKageRyu Profile Joined August 2009 Canada 4726 Posts #3 That is one way to look at it. I agree if you play QM then you need to throw your expectancy of fair fights outside the window though. Someone call down the Thunder?

Creager Profile Joined February 2011 Germany 1570 Posts Last Edited: 2018-07-17 00:19:47 #4 Ok, as a now-long-time StarCraft(2) player I’m probably heavily biased, since both SC2 and HotS share the same engine and therefore behave very similar mechanically, but that made picking up the game rather easy for me (at least the SC2 -> HotS direction, not so sure about the other way round).



The biggest problem I have with HotS is the player base in conjunction with the games core emphasis - the game really doesn’t have a high skill ceiling (micro/strategy-wise, sometimes I watch clips of high-level players/pros on reddit and tbh while they’re still good plays 9/10 times it’s not that impressive, unlike most gosu plays in SC), but it makes up for it by being rather heavy on the teamplay aspect - shared XP, objectives, good understanding of hero synergies etc. .



I like working as a team a lot, so I have enjoyed the game thoroughly (been playing since alpha, mainly as support), but boy, this game has become more and more frustrating for me as of late, because a lot of players still don’t give a shit about stuff like that, at all - regardless of the game mode, be it unranked or team league.



So many people don’t seem to realize the importance of cooperation in this game and since the past three years the average player skill doesn’t seem to have improved, at all, feels more like the opposite. ... einmal mit Profis spielen!

[Phantom] Profile Blog Joined August 2013 Mexico 1641 Posts #5 On July 17 2018 07:50 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:

It definitely says something when Blizzard has to keep reminding the Heroes community that you're pretty much not supposed to expect good games in Quick Match and that it's just "anything goes". I've noticed that they're not even trying to make sure that both teams have similar hero compositions, whether it's 1 or 2 vs. 0 warriors, 1 or 2 vs. 0 healers, etc. Getting to pick your favorite hero doesn't mean much when the teams might be so lopsided that you can't even have a fun game.



It seems Blizzard is undecided on what to do with it. Previously they made changes so if you had no Warriors, you'd play agaisnt teams teams with no Warriors either. The same with healers. However recently they appear to have changed that for some reason.



In my opinion, Quick Match should force team compositions to have at least one warrior and one healer, for both teams. Anything else doesn't matter, it's qm and can be sub optimal, but there should always be the base of a good team comp.





It seems Blizzard is undecided on what to do with it. Previously they made changes so if you had no Warriors, you'd play agaisnt teams teams with no Warriors either. The same with healers. However recently they appear to have changed that for some reason.In my opinion, Quick Match should force team compositions to have at least one warrior and one healer, for both teams. Anything else doesn't matter, it's qm and can be sub optimal, but there should always be the base of a good team comp. On July 17 2018 09:18 Creager wrote:



So many people don’t seem to realize the importance of cooperation in this game and since the past three years the average player skill doesn’t seem to have improved, at all, feels more like the opposite.



I've definitely felt the same, it feels almost as if the average player hasn't improved ever. Which can't be the case I hope...but maybe. Honestly it seems most players do not care. In sc2 after a big tournament, or even randomly, my oponent Will say something about WCS, or scarlett or some player. SC2 players are very invested. This has happened to me in OverWatch and league of legends too. Howeber in HGC most players seem to not even know of HGC, or care really. I've seen very few mentions of that kind of stuff in games.

I've definitely felt the same, it feels almost as if the average player hasn't improved ever. Which can't be the case I hope...but maybe. Honestly it seems most players do not care. In sc2 after a big tournament, or even randomly, my oponent Will say something about WCS, or scarlett or some player. SC2 players are very invested. This has happened to me in OverWatch and league of legends too. Howeber in HGC most players seem to not even know of HGC, or care really. I've seen very few mentions of that kind of stuff in games. Writer TeamLiquid Staff writer since 2014 @Mortal_Phantom

Fanatic-Templar Profile Joined February 2010 Canada 4374 Posts #6 On July 17 2018 10:22 [Phantom] wrote:

In my opinion, Quick Match should force team compositions to have at least one warrior and one healer, for both teams. Anything else doesn't matter, it's qm and can be sub optimal, but there should always be the base of a good team comp.





I think the exact opposite. Quick Match is never going to be balanced, so any effort is futile and only validates the expectations of players that it should be. Being in-between like this makes nobody happy, and since making it actually balanced is impossible, the side they should choose is obvious.



I remember completely ridiculous and/or one-sided match-ups from before they implemented that "equal supports on both sides" rules, and it was fine. It's Quick Match. And knowing you've got no chance is oddly relieving, there's no pressure at all, so you just play and have fun. I've had wins with unwinnable comps just because everyone was in a good mood and cooperating as a result, while I expect the enemy team was yelling at each other over every mistake. I think the exact opposite. Quick Match is never going to be balanced, so any effort is futile and only validates the expectations of players that it should be. Being in-between like this makes nobody happy, and since making it actually balanced is impossible, the side they should choose is obvious.I remember completely ridiculous and/or one-sided match-ups from before they implemented that "equal supports on both sides" rules, and it was fine. It's Quick Match. And knowing you've got no chance is oddly relieving, there's no pressure at all, so you just play and have fun. I've had wins with unwinnable comps just because everyone was in a good mood and cooperating as a result, while I expect the enemy team was yelling at each other over every mistake. I bear this sig to commemorate the loss of the team icon that commemorated Oversky's 2008-2009 Proleague Round 1 performance.

karazax Profile Joined May 2010 United States 3730 Posts Last Edited: 2018-07-17 12:17:24 #7 On July 17 2018 10:22 [Phantom] wrote:

Show nested quote +

On July 17 2018 07:50 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:

It definitely says something when Blizzard has to keep reminding the Heroes community that you're pretty much not supposed to expect good games in Quick Match and that it's just "anything goes". I've noticed that they're not even trying to make sure that both teams have similar hero compositions, whether it's 1 or 2 vs. 0 warriors, 1 or 2 vs. 0 healers, etc. Getting to pick your favorite hero doesn't mean much when the teams might be so lopsided that you can't even have a fun game.



It seems Blizzard is undecided on what to do with it. Previously they made changes so if you had no Warriors, you'd play agaisnt teams teams with no Warriors either. The same with healers. However recently they appear to have changed that for some reason.



In my opinion, Quick Match should force team compositions to have at least one warrior and one healer, for both teams. Anything else doesn't matter, it's qm and can be sub optimal, but there should always be the base of a good team comp.





Show nested quote +

On July 17 2018 09:18 Creager wrote:



So many people don’t seem to realize the importance of cooperation in this game and since the past three years the average player skill doesn’t seem to have improved, at all, feels more like the opposite.



I've definitely felt the same, it feels almost as if the average player hasn't improved ever. Which can't be the case I hope...but maybe. Honestly it seems most players do not care. In sc2 after a big tournament, or even randomly, my oponent Will say something about WCS, or scarlett or some player. SC2 players are very invested. This has happened to me in OverWatch and league of legends too. Howeber in HGC most players seem to not even know of HGC, or care really. I've seen very few mentions of that kind of stuff in games.

It seems Blizzard is undecided on what to do with it. Previously they made changes so if you had no Warriors, you'd play agaisnt teams teams with no Warriors either. The same with healers. However recently they appear to have changed that for some reason.In my opinion, Quick Match should force team compositions to have at least one warrior and one healer, for both teams. Anything else doesn't matter, it's qm and can be sub optimal, but there should always be the base of a good team comp.I've definitely felt the same, it feels almost as if the average player hasn't improved ever. Which can't be the case I hope...but maybe. Honestly it seems most players do not care. In sc2 after a big tournament, or even randomly, my oponent Will say something about WCS, or scarlett or some player. SC2 players are very invested. This has happened to me in OverWatch and league of legends too. Howeber in HGC most players seem to not even know of HGC, or care really. I've seen very few mentions of that kind of stuff in games.





Several things to note:

There was a bug with Quick Match after the patch last week where it was not following the existing rules of matching a support vs a support, tank vs tank, ect. This was patched a few days ago, so it should be the same as pre-patch now.



Blizzard said improvements to Quick match will be announced this summer.



Previously they mentioned their intention to revamp hero classes and to force more standard comps for quick match. Their plan at that time was that it'd require 1 tank-warrior, 1 healer and 1 assassin, and 2 flex picks. Pending testing and the queues not erupting in molten lava, initially this will be the new standard for the vast majority of QM compositions.



The plan then is to follow up on this change by adding more incentives for queuing as roles that are currently underrepresented in the matchmaking queue which will then make this a hard requirement for every team.





They said they would start working on these QM changes after the ranked match making patch that just came out last week. It will also include reworking class roles to better help with balancing this type of match making.



QM will always have an increased chance for imbalanced team comps even with these changes, but it will help players to at least play in more standard comps.



What many people who don't like QM don't get, is that for a lot of the player base QM is the end game. They aren't using it to practice for hero league or draft, they have no interest in that game mode. This is born out by QM being by far the most popular game mode according to blizzard and the number of games recorded on HOTSLOGS for QM games vs ranked games supports this. Likely the numbers are even more slanted to QM as it is less likely that QM players are sending their games into HOTSLOGS.



In general though I agree that Quick Match is not the source of poor player knowledge in hero league. There are plenty of Hero League players who have been playing draft for far longer than they played Quick Match and still have poor game knowledge. Several things to note:They said they would start working on these QM changes after the ranked match making patch that just came out last week. It will also include reworking class roles to better help with balancing this type of match making.QM will always have an increased chance for imbalanced team comps even with these changes, but it will help players to at least play in more standard comps.What many people who don't like QM don't get, is that for a lot of the player base QM is the end game. They aren't using it to practice for hero league or draft, they have no interest in that game mode. This is born out by QM being by far the most popular game mode according to blizzard and the number of games recorded on HOTSLOGS for QM games vs ranked games supports this. Likely the numbers are even more slanted to QM as it is less likely that QM players are sending their games into HOTSLOGS.In general though I agree that Quick Match is not the source of poor player knowledge in hero league. There are plenty of Hero League players who have been playing draft for far longer than they played Quick Match and still have poor game knowledge.

Aiobhill Profile Joined June 2013 Germany 283 Posts #8 This is a really good writeup, but it also makes clear why seeding from QM into HL was a terrible idea.



I'm curious to see if the planned 'improvements' will get a positve feedback from the QM crowd. As somebody who virtually stopped playing the mode, making quick match slower while offering only part of the appeal of HL won't lure me back. Axslav - apm70maphacks - tak3r

Harris1st Profile Blog Joined May 2010 Germany 3695 Posts #9 I really like the educational stuff they put in the launcher these days. Hopefully it helps TheDougler is the master of signature bets, he is the two-time Blizzcon SigBet Champ. Also, Serral let me down.

Larkin Profile Blog Joined January 2012 United Kingdom 7149 Posts #10



I remember when I first started SC2, I spent hours and hours watching and reading guides, playing the singleplayer and playing vs bots. I always spend a good few hours with tutorial videos when learning a Paradox game, for instance, as well. I did the same for Heroes when it came out as it was the first moba I actually immediately enjoyed.



I am the minority, by a long way. Very, very few people in any game will go to reading guides, watching videos and trying to learn the game by study. They will just go straight into PvP and think that they will learn the game from there. For Heroes, that PvP is QM, and for many players, that is where they will stay.



I know I'm a bit late coming into this, though I did chip in on the reddit thread. I think the general lack of game knowledge and the poor average skill of the playerbase is very much based from the way the game is advertised and the fact it is not 'taught' much at all unless the player goes out of their way to look stuff up.I remember when I first started SC2, I spent hours and hours watching and reading guides, playing the singleplayer and playing vs bots. I always spend a good few hours with tutorial videos when learning a Paradox game, for instance, as well. I did the same for Heroes when it came out as it was the first moba I actually immediately enjoyed.I am the minority, by a long way. Very, very few people in any game will go to reading guides, watching videos and trying to learn the game by study. They will just go straight into PvP and think that they will learn the game from there. For Heroes, that PvP is QM, and for many players, that is where they will stay. On July 17 2018 10:22 [Phantom] wrote:



In my opinion, Quick Match should force team compositions to have at least one warrior and one healer, for both teams. Anything else doesn't matter, it's qm and can be sub optimal, but there should always be the base of a good team comp.







I fundamentally disagree with this. Unranked Draft is where you can have 'good' team comps. Unranked draft should be the standard game mode, the most played game mode - it has higher quality games for the most part due to the drafts, but as it is unranked, people don't take it too seriously in general and can have more fun.



The problem now, I think, lies in the very name of QM itself, along with the previous inexistance of separate playlists beyond QM and Ranked (and vs AI, I guess). The 'quick' is an immediate appeal, and the fact it has always been the non-hero league standard mode is a hard habit to break. QM should be the fiesta game mode for people who like their brawls and their random compositions and their hour long endlessly stacking quest games. Those are fun, sometimes. But if the most played game mode is giving us these games, the solution isn't to try and force different games in it, it is to encourage people who want to play 'proper' games to play unranked and then move into ranked.



There should be a revamp of the playlists in general, and the way accounts should progress. First, there should be a new and improved series of tutorials that have more unlocking as the following progresses. There should be a cap of a number of AI games that have to be played first - co-op with bots first, then with people. Then, a 'basic training' playlist should be available - this would be limited to say 10 games per account, and would match new accounts together (filling in gaps with the AI if need be) so they could get used to some PvP.



Then, the QM mode - which should be called something like 'no draft mode' with a description like 'no picks, no bans. Just choose your hero and play with others doing the same. Expect non-stop brawling and mayhem!' would become available, and as games are completed, advanced tutorials begin to unlock. Once the player has 16 heroes purchased or at lvl 5, and is at a certain total player level, unranked becomes available, and this would be the main game mode, with tighter MMR restricted match making that more rapidly loosens over queue time, and a first to last pick/ban order. Players would have completed a drafting tutorial that has taught them the mechanics of drafting and encouraging prepicks, communicating and basic composition setups (aided by the aforementioned improved hero classifications).



Players would need 16 heroes at level 10 and 10 more at level 5, say, along with another level cap to be able to unlock ranked. Hero league would be solo or duo queue, though duo queue with a player who has already been placed would be locked to try and prevent boosting etc. Teamleague would be parties of 4 or 5 - the option for 4 would be for certain solo queue HL players that can tick an option for going into a TL game after a certain queue time, and for TL teams that are missing one player but still want to play a good level game. The queue for 4man TL would let you know if other similar mmr 4man parties were searching. 3 man parties would just have to adapt - either drop one and play duo HL, or pick up more and play TL. I would have TL being 5 man only, but the 4man option might help a teensy bit with the minor region issues.



Ranked queues in HL would inform you what bracket it is looking to balance teams in. If you were 2500 MMR, the first, say, 60s would be looking for 2450-2550, then 2400-2600, and so on, ensuring that there is as small a range of MMR in one game as possible. Keeping this transparent to the player would allow them to understand what their level is/should be, and to be able to opt not to keep queuing if they don't want to play in an MMR range that exceeds a personal preference. The QM mode would have the loosest requirements for MMR average: HL and TL would share an MMR with initial placements influenced by unranked MMR, which itself would be initially affected by non-draft MMR, which itself shares one with vs AI and modified by the performance in the basic training. Performance adjustments would make small adjustments to gain/loss based on a variety of performance features compared to the average at that level and a gold-standard set at the highest level. Uncertainty for each MMR would be very high to begin with, and would decrease faster for the QM/unranked, but would remain high throughout the HL/TL placements. It would require 25 placement matches to be placed the first time, 10 the next 2 seasons, and 5 thereafter.



I could ramble more, but that's my general idea on the 'should be'. I fundamentally disagree with this. Unranked Draft is where you can have 'good' team comps. Unranked draft should be the standard game mode, the most played game mode - it has higher quality games for the most part due to the drafts, but as it is unranked, people don't take it too seriously in general and can have more fun.The problem now, I think, lies in the very name of QM itself, along with the previous inexistance of separate playlists beyond QM and Ranked (and vs AI, I guess). The 'quick' is an immediate appeal, and the fact it has always been the non-hero league standard mode is a hard habit to break. QM should be the fiesta game mode for people who like their brawls and their random compositions and their hour long endlessly stacking quest games. Those are fun, sometimes. But if the most played game mode is giving us these games, the solution isn't to try and force different games in it, it is to encourage people who want to play 'proper' games to play unranked and then move into ranked.There should be a revamp of the playlists in general, and the way accounts should progress. First, there should be a new and improved series of tutorials that have more unlocking as the following progresses. There should be a cap of a number of AI games that have to be played first - co-op with bots first, then with people. Then, a 'basic training' playlist should be available - this would be limited to say 10 games per account, and would match new accounts together (filling in gaps with the AI if need be) so they could get used to some PvP.Then, the QM mode - which should be called something like 'no draft mode' with a description like 'no picks, no bans. Just choose your hero and play with others doing the same. Expect non-stop brawling and mayhem!' would become available, and as games are completed, advanced tutorials begin to unlock. Once the player has 16 heroes purchased or at lvl 5, and is at a certain total player level, unranked becomes available, and this would be the main game mode, with tighter MMR restricted match making that more rapidly loosens over queue time, and a first to last pick/ban order. Players would have completed a drafting tutorial that has taught them the mechanics of drafting and encouraging prepicks, communicating and basic composition setups (aided by the aforementioned improved hero classifications).Players would need 16 heroes at level 10 and 10 more at level 5, say, along with another level cap to be able to unlock ranked. Hero league would be solo or duo queue, though duo queue with a player who has already been placed would be locked to try and prevent boosting etc. Teamleague would be parties of 4 or 5 - the option for 4 would be for certain solo queue HL players that can tick an option for going into a TL game after a certain queue time, and for TL teams that are missing one player but still want to play a good level game. The queue for 4man TL would let you know if other similar mmr 4man parties were searching. 3 man parties would just have to adapt - either drop one and play duo HL, or pick up more and play TL. I would have TL being 5 man only, but the 4man option might help a teensy bit with the minor region issues.Ranked queues in HL would inform you what bracket it is looking to balance teams in. If you were 2500 MMR, the first, say, 60s would be looking for 2450-2550, then 2400-2600, and so on, ensuring that there is as small a range of MMR in one game as possible. Keeping this transparent to the player would allow them to understand what their level is/should be, and to be able to opt not to keep queuing if they don't want to play in an MMR range that exceeds a personal preference. The QM mode would have the loosest requirements for MMR average: HL and TL would share an MMR with initial placements influenced by unranked MMR, which itself would be initially affected by non-draft MMR, which itself shares one with vs AI and modified by the performance in the basic training. Performance adjustments would make small adjustments to gain/loss based on a variety of performance features compared to the average at that level and a gold-standard set at the highest level. Uncertainty for each MMR would be very high to begin with, and would decrease faster for the QM/unranked, but would remain high throughout the HL/TL placements. It would require 25 placement matches to be placed the first time, 10 the next 2 seasons, and 5 thereafter.I could ramble more, but that's my general idea on the 'should be'. https://www.twitch.tv/ttalarkin - streams random stuff, high level teamleague, maybe even heroleague

[Phantom] Profile Blog Joined August 2013 Mexico 1641 Posts #11



I also believe seeding from QM to hero league was a mistake, specially when there was no cap to which league you could get to and we got QM players getting to all the leagues from bronze to Masters 1000. Those are fun, sometimes. But if the most played game mode is giving us these games, the solution isn't to try and force different games in it, it is to encourage people who want to play 'proper' games to play unranked and then move into ranked.





I agree with this, Larkin. Though I don't know if there will be a time when unranked becomes the standard mode. As I meantioned in the article, QM just checks a lot of the marks and from the perspective of your average player, the tradeoff of having worse compositions and crazier games doesn't seem to be enough. Specially when you play Hero League of Unranked draft and get something terrible there too. I often use this phrase "Draft modes are the modes where a player can chose to have a decent comp, and they chose not to anyway".



I agree also with the improved tutorials, and how right new new accounts are dropped into the game too fast without teaching them enough.





It's interesting that you bring up increasing the requirements for HL, because that's something I've thought about too. When heroes of the storm 2.0 was released, the requirements for playing HL actually went down. It was easier to get new heroes, and there was no longer an account level requierment for HL. I do think they should increase it, or maybe even forcé you to play an advanced tutorial on drafting before you are able to play it. Though Blizz would need to find a balance because you also don't want players to feel locked out of the "real game" for too long.





About ranked informing you of your MMR rankings...I've been thinking for a while that the ranked system in Heroes is kinda bad, and I personally would be much happier with the system used in Sc2, which uses a mix of leagues and public MMR. I think that would make the ranking experience much more enjoyable.



I agree with this, Larkin. Though I don't know if there will be a time when unranked becomes the standard mode. As I meantioned in the article, QM just checks a lot of the marks and from the perspective of your average player, the tradeoff of having worse compositions and crazier games doesn't seem to be enough. Specially when you play Hero League of Unranked draft and get something terrible there too. I often use this phrase "Draft modes are the modes where a player can chose to have a decent comp, and they chose not to anyway".I agree also with the improved tutorials, and how right new new accounts are dropped into the game too fast without teaching them enough.It's interesting that you bring up increasing the requirements for HL, because that's something I've thought about too. When heroes of the storm 2.0 was released, the requirements for playing HL actually went down. It was easier to get new heroes, and there was no longer an account level requierment for HL. I do think they should increase it, or maybe even forcé you to play an advanced tutorial on drafting before you are able to play it. Though Blizz would need to find a balance because you also don't want players to feel locked out of the "real game" for too long.About ranked informing you of your MMR rankings...I've been thinking for a while that the ranked system in Heroes is kinda bad, and I personally would be much happier with the system used in Sc2, which uses a mix of leagues and public MMR. I think that would make the ranking experience much more enjoyable. Writer TeamLiquid Staff writer since 2014 @Mortal_Phantom