π Honor of Kings International Server Ranking Matchmaking Research
Those who have played the Chinese server know that Honor of Kings' matchmaking system is quite ridiculous - this is not a completely fair game. Many times, even though you're clearly stronger than the opponents and play better, you lose because of teammates who are too weak. This abstract matchmaking system is even worse in the international server.
π― Core Observations
- Matching opponents is not based solely on rank (you could even say it has little to do with rank), but rather references hidden MMR. Hidden MMR is essentially Honor of Kings' own scoring system for each account's strength, which we regular players can't see. High hidden MMR means you're strong, and you'll match against opponents who also have high hidden MMR, even if your account's rank isn't high. The developers didn't set up hidden MMR just to annoy players, but to prevent high-skilled players from smurfing or boosting. With hidden MMR in place, when boosters win streaks, they easily match against other boosters, effectively preventing regular players from facing boosters and having poor gaming experiences. However, this mechanism inevitably "mistakenly hurts" regular players. Below I'll detail the behaviors that most easily cause account hidden MMR to increase.
- The behavior that most easily causes hidden MMR to increase significantly is teaming up with high hidden MMR accounts, such as many high-tier players, high peak scores, or new accounts with 90% win rates. Many people don't understand: "I'm queuing with him, he's carrying, my rating isn't high, it should be fine, right?" But the system doesn't think so. Let's look at it from another angle: If your account (medium hidden MMR) solo queues, you'll match against opponents who also have medium hidden MMR, so everyone's strength is similar, and your win rate is around 50%. When you queue with a high-skilled player, because their account has high hidden MMR, the opponents you face will definitely be stronger than if you solo queued. Even if the high-skilled player can't carry your teammates, winning one and losing one (in reality, queuing with truly skilled players will likely have higher win rates, because with you lowering the hidden MMR, opponents will be easier than if the skilled player solo queued), the system will think that when facing opponents stronger than your current account's hidden MMR, your win rate can still reach 50%, so your hidden MMR goes up.
- Getting account boosting will also cause hidden MMR to increase significantly. This is easy to understand, since boosters usually get MVP with gold medals, so the system thinks your real strength far exceeds your current rank. This is why many people lose all their stars back a few days after getting boosted, hahaha. The key is these people will definitely think they're too weak and don't deserve to stay at higher ranks, when actually it's all the booster's fault. After you lose streaks, the system will lower your hidden MMR, and then you start winning and losing again. (This is why I don't recommend account boosting - I'll explain later how I avoid this problem)
- At this point, many players will say: "I haven't gotten boosted, I mostly solo queue, why do I keep winning and losing and can't climb, when I can clearly feel the opponents are weaker than me!" This is when you fall into the losing MVP trap! If you often get losing MVP, or even often have higher ratings than the opposing MVP, your hidden MMR won't go down. If hidden MMR doesn't go down, teammates will be weak, hahaha, it's that simple.
π§ Solution Strategy
- Smart friends must have already thought of it - to deal with high-skilled players' accounts having too high hidden MMR, we just need to have the skilled player use an account with very low hidden MMR to queue, right? I thought the same at first, so I started buying foreign accounts with low hidden MMR. I thought now I could easily win streaks, but it wasn't until the first three coaching accounts I bought all became unusable that I realized something was wrong. (Unusable means ranked matches start having queue collisions). I started suspecting if my rating was too high, causing hidden MMR to increase too quickly, so I started consciously controlling my rating. After some testing, I found that rating control had some effect, but the actual effect was very limited. For example, if playing normally, an account might be usable for 10 games, but with rating control, it might be usable for about 15 games. This definitely doesn't work for me - if one account can only be usable for a dozen games, this coaching business would be a loss! Later, one day when I was targeting carries (targeting carries means playing Lanling King, picking one of the opponent's carries, and targeting them all game), I found that even after ten+ win streaks, the opponents were still weak! You know, I had better results than when I deliberately controlled rating and fed kills. So I started researching again, wondering if it was because targeting carries every game goes to late game, so the system thinks both sides have similar strength and doesn't increase hidden MMR much. After extensive testing, I found that game duration does matter - games that end in under 10 minutes with a push increase hidden MMR a lot! But more importantly, the main reason was that I used peak match strategies to play ranked: early game contesting neutral resources, 4 minutes on time starting turtle, 10 minutes starting dark turtle to force teamfights, etc. I found this game's hidden MMR detection system is very smart - it doesn't just look at your rating to judge your strength, it constantly analyzes whether your behavior in the game matches your current rank. After discovering this, I changed my playstyle: never invade jungle early game, don't start dragons before 10 minutes (unless the opponent starts and gives up, then I take over), 10 minutes start lord and split push, etc. After this, my win rate shot up, basically able to carry clients to 80% win rate and hundreds of stars easily.
- At this point, many people will ask: "But your rating is so high, after I queue with you and win streaks, my hidden MMR will also increase, and I won't be able to play myself anymore!" Actually not necessarily. High-skilled players use peak match strategies to dominate ranked, such as using Tiger to destroy the opponent's jungle, using Ganjiang with Duoduo to get 50-60% damage every game, using Alipay with Yaomei to dominate the bot lane every game, etc. But my current improved ranked playstyle ensures win rate while completely blending in with locals. I will constantly split push to pressure opponents, making them fight teamfights with fewer people, so teammates can fight with numerical advantage. If opponents don't defend base, I'll backdoor - backdooring doesn't increase hidden MMR much! As I said, because I use completely local playstyles, I can basically guarantee matching against locals, and often times, opponents when queuing with me will be weaker than when you solo queue. Because opponent skill level is low, naturally, even with more win streaks, hidden MMR increases very slowly.
- Another point unrelated to hidden MMR is: don't tilt, really don't tilt. Many players complain that after win streaks come loss streaks, but after loss streaks, win streaks aren't guaranteed. Through my testing, regular players solo queue/several regular players queue together, if they lose streaks, opponents will definitely become weaker. If you still can't win, it's just because you lost streaks, got tilted, and your mechanics deteriorated. So really, don't tilt. Honor of Kings increasing game activity by making players tilt is real. I'll explain later how Honor of Kings specifically messes with regular players' mentality, but one thing I can guarantee: no matter how toxic your account is, no matter how many loss streaks, if you come to me for coaching, I can get you win streaks.
π My Practical Verification
Because of these discoveries, I can carry clients to hundreds of stars with around 80% win rate every season. Those who understand know how difficult this is - others with higher win rates than me are either several skilled players queuing together, or two coaches carrying one. But two coaches carrying one is expensive, and two skilled players will definitely have high ratings and increase your account's hidden MMR, so why bother. All my accounts achieve these win rates with one coach carrying one or one coach carrying two.
If you're curious about the matchmaking mechanism or want to find me for custom coaching plans, you can contact me here.