An exploit in Dota 2’s matchmaking system is being exploited by high-level players, allowing them to steal MMR.
Pro players are gaming some of Valve’s matchmaking tools in order to siphon MMR away from other top names. Nick “GOD_Z” Zhang, formerly known as GOAT of Arkosh Gaming, discussed the phenomenon on Twitter.
According to GOD_Z, certain pro Dota 2 players are taking advantage of Dota Plus’s “avoid player” feature that prevents an individual from being put on one’s own team. He states that an unnamed group of Chinese players are specifically blocking former Newbee star Song “Sccc” Chun. By queuing for a match at the same time as Sccc in the same region, the players greatly increase their chances of being matched on the same team.
The players who are doing this are part of a practiced team. This effectively allows a stacked team to compete together in a solo queue matchmaking environment and more easily farm MMR. This comes at the direct expense of the person they’ve all chosen to avoid, as it results in the avoided player consistently playing against teams with multiple players queued together as a practiced lineup.
Dota 2 matchmaking exploit only a concern for high MMR players
There’s no denying that this is a major oversight from Valve and greatly undermines the matchmaking system for high MMR players in Dota 2. GOD_Z suggested that the players behind this exploit were teammates. He also added that Sccc had discussed this phenomenon on stream, but the concerns surrounding the issue hadn’t yet made their way into the western Dota 2 discourse.
The good news is that the overwhelming majority of Dota 2 players don’t have to worry about this phenomenon. This exploit effectively relies on having a very high MMR and being able to reliably queue at the same time as the avoided player. Sccc certainly has a very high MMR as a former elite mid laner, and players are able to queue against him based on his live streams.
Players who aren’t immortal-ranked won’t have to worry about this issue. Anyone that is that highly ranked and is concerned about this can prevent it from affecting their games by not broadcasting when they are queueing and by hiding their online status on Steam.
