syndereN on the Dota 2 rating reset: “One of the most significant changes in over the past five years”

syndereN: Arguably one of the most significant changes in over the past five years is that MMR has finally been reset. They should have done this three or four years ago. After the introduction of double tokens, the rating spread became absolutely insane.

There are two problems here. Of course, if you play enough, things will normalize over time. Let’s say, overnight, 20 players magically gain 5,000 rating each and end up significantly above their true skill level. If they continue to play actively, they’ll gradually drop back to their true ratings. This extreme example clearly illustrates that a rapid rise in rank—whether through matchmaking abuse, double-stacking, or genuine skill—creates a huge gap between those who played a lot during that period and those who didn’t. Imagine that everyone starts with, say, 10,000 MMR, and then doubling tokens are introduced for six months. Some people exploit the system, others don’t; some play a thousand games during that time, while others play none. The gap becomes enormous.

syndereN: Essentially, this is a very small patch. In my opinion, it only slightly shifts some heroes from the S tier to A+, and perhaps a few from B to A-. I expect the meta for The International 2026 to remain roughly the same as it has been over the last couple of months, and that’s disappointing. To be honest, I was hoping for a more significant shake-up—this update doesn’t seem ambitious enough to me. But I understand Valve’s position: so close to the tournament, they want to proceed cautiously so as not to accidentally break anything with drastic changes.

Still, I don’t think the starting point from the last patch was exactly amazing. In my opinion, many heroes weren’t being played at all. When they didn’t release a major update a month ago, I thought, “Well, that’s it—it’s too late now.” After all, it’s not just about balance—it’s almost certain to introduce unforeseen bugs that could really ruin everything.

SUNSfan: You don’t have Immortal Draft anymore, but that’s what you wanted, right?

syndereN: Yeah. I think it should just be removed. When they announced the rating reset, I hoped—or thought—that maybe they’d disable the system. I just don’t think it’s a good system. And now that it’s gone from my games, I don’t miss it at all. I get thrown into a match, assigned a role—and that’s it. The skill factor remains the same, but now the game itself tells you who you are in the match. And that’s great.

It stops working at ultra-high ranks because, quite simply, there aren’t enough people in the queue. That’s the problem, right? I think a good solution would be to require players to select three roles when searching for a game. If you’re playing at such a high level, your overall understanding of Dota 2 implies that after tens of thousands of hours, it’s naive to assume you can only play one role. I don’t buy that. The world’s best carry is capable of performing at a decent level as a support. Maybe not as brilliantly, but they can handle both support and another key position in matchmaking.

If everyone were required to select three roles, the problem of player shortages would disappear. And then, it seems to me, it would make sense to set up a priority system based on rating: The player with the highest MMR in the lobby is guaranteed to get their primary role; the next highest player gets theirs as well, if possible, and if not, their second-priority role, and so on in descending order. I think that would look pretty elegant. The only potential problem is that the top-ranked players will always get their role, and then it’ll become even harder to catch up to them. But don’t you think that would be cool, too?