More Matchmaker and Morrowind

Another League of Legends Matchmaker Mismatch?

So here’s another game where I question the matchmaker. 4 Silver level summoners and a Bronze on one side and 3 Bronze, a Silver, and a Placement on the other. How was this determined to be a fair match? One team has a minimum of 28 wins while the other has a summoner with only a single win and another with 30…it just seems that there could be a better balance – even with these 10 summoners. You could swap the Fiora and Trundle to get 2 Silvers vs 3 Silvers or you could swap the mid laners to get 2 Silvers and 3 Bronze against 3 Silvers and a Placement. It just seems that looking at the breakdown, something could have been done to make this a more fair match.

So is the Matchmaker broken? Is it using some other criteria beyond rank and games played to determine who should be on what team? Granted, summoners who are just starting out deserve a spot on a team, but should they be placed on the team that from outward, visible metrics looks like it’s already inferior?

Just taking a quick look at Wikipedia, the term Handicapping refers to “the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning”. I would think that the matchmaker performs some kind of handicapping in order to get a fair match but when I see games with these huge discrepancies in observable metrics it makes me wonder if Riot’s matchmaker is broken or following some agenda other than fairness.

Morrowind – The Expansion to The Elder Scrolls Online I Think We Want

I am so excited to see TESO getting an update, and not just an update, a full blown expansion. I haven’t given TESO my full focus, but now that they’re adding a pet class…the Warden, I might just have to give it a full run. Pet classes are typically my favorites and I always try to play one if they’re available in a game. It’ll be interesting to see how they incorporate the new class into the game, but I’m looking forward to it none-the-less.

That big bear was what really caught my eye during the Super Bowl commercial and it looks like he can be a tank…at least from the trailer. It’ll be nice to run around the beautiful world of Tamriel with a Bear friend to provide a meat shield as I burn bad guys down with spells. That was one issue I had with the Templar or the Sorcerer – at least at the lower levels I was playing, it seemed I was always trying to figure out how to keep the bad guys at range so I could use my spells or healing. When I would run with my friends, I would always have to jump around a lot to try to stay alive as I was trying to heal them.

It was probably the way I was playing the characters so I’ll have to go back and give them a better try because the game was gorgeous and I enjoyed the story.