4Game

To this date, i don't understand why Valve did not simply create 2 different Rank sets for Solo and Party with separate Leaderboards and Rank Icons. The effect this change had on the whole game and its "MMR Economy" is just absurd and has to be addressed. And if you came here to say "Just play Unranked" this post is not for you. There are many that still want to play Party, but enjoy the competitive aspect of the game and win MMR. By putting Solo and Party together, Valve tried to encourage more to play Party. This idea completely failed however and caused the complete opposite.

Problem #1

It obviously benefits Boosters and Account Sellers. They can easily boost 5 Accounts at the same time or create fresh ones to sell them later. Due to Valve also increasing the calibration cap 6k Accounts can basically be created en masse.

Problem #2

Playing against Boosting Stacks. This is the obvious result of Problem #1 but i can't even tell how many times i saw some 5k player whose profile and Dotabuff shows that they, for example, only play support suddenly pick Lycan, Brood, Meepo etc. in Party Games. I also sometimes check if the Players in the opponent Party are even friends, and very often they are not.

Problem #3

Accounts are as cheap as ever and keep getting cheaper. The reason is pretty much what i said in Problem #1.

Problem #4

Not all higher ranks that play awful in Solo are Account Buyers. Almost ALL active party players i know don't know how to win solo games. Like a 6k Party Player would probably struggle winning a 5k solo game. The reason for that is simply that Solo games are completely different from Party games, where you usually communicate on voice, pick around your team etc. Solo and Party are simply two different worlds which is why it makes absolutely no sense to have the same Rank for both game modes.

Problem #5

Way fewer people are down to play Party than a few years ago. Valves idea to put Solo and Party together was probably to encourage more players to play party. In my experience, however, it had the complete opposite effect. Almost everyone i know that is aiming for a higher rank does no longer play Party Ranked because there are often players that don't really tryhard, are pretty low rank and it is very likely that you face the stacks mentioned in Problem #2. Before the change i pretty much always found people for a few Party Ranked games but these days I'm not even trying anymore.

Dota is a team game that is meant to be played together, yet the Matchmaking changes over the past years have turned everything to the worst. Even tho we had the "Anti-Smurfing Update" Matchmaking has never felt as bad as it does today. I really hope that Valve has plans to improve the overall Matchmaking experience in upcoming updates because this is simply not fun anymore.