Hearthstone Battlegrounds Rating System. How do MMR and Matchmaking work?

Hearthstone Battlegrounds has entered its second season, and it’s time we cover how the rating system works. While it seems simple at first glance, Battlegrounds Rating System has many secrets that might help you understand the ratings you get after each game. Let’s jump right to it.

To begin with, we must say that on top of your visual Rating or MMR, each Battlegrounds player has a hidden MMR. The visual MMR is easily identifiable when you enter the Battlegrounds tab or even on your friend list if the system considers it to be “higher” than your Standard or Wild rank. They both fluctuate depending on your game results.

While in most circumstances, the hidden and visual MMR go hand in hand this is not always the case, and there is a good reason for it. Whenever a Battlegrounds season ends, the visual ratings reset, but the hidden MMR stays the same. After a certain amount of games, both would end up matching, but that is not the case at the beginning of each season.

So, why does hidden MMR doesn't reset with each season, and why is this important for the system to work? This design feature helps with Matchmaking. We will dive into this in a bit, but the idea is that after Seasonal resets, players still face opponents of their same skill level. 

Despite you seeing a 0 as your rating, and that might be the same as a pro player, you will only be matched if you have a similar hidden rating. This hidden rating should be the same as the visual rating for the previous season in most cases.

If you paid attention, you might have noticed that after the Battelgrounds Seasonal Rating Reset, MMR gains are much higher than the ones you had before. This happens because the more difference you have between your hidden and visual MMR, the Battlegrounds Rating System will try to help match them. 

That is why at the beginning of the season, you might see +300 MMR points after the first place. Then the closer you get to your hidden and visual ratings get, the fewer points you will win. The expected MMR gain for a win is +100 points. However, some factors might influence how many points you get for a win or loss after a defeat.

As we previously mentioned, the Battlegrounds Matchmaking system relies on the player’s hidden ratings. In normal circumstances, you will face opponents with your same or similar hidden MMR. This assumes that the system will match players with the same skills and create better game experiences.

However, it is not always possible to find other 7 players with the same rating in less than two minutes to complete a lobby. This happens especially at very high ratings (over 8,000) or odd hours when there are fewer players online. What happens then?

In this case, the system will start including players that are close to your MMR and expanding those search parameters the longer the wait gets. This might end up causing players over 12,000 to be paired against others who are near 9,000. While it might seem not fair, it is a trade-off for the queueing system to be fast. On top of that, there is a feature that helps compensate for those differences.

To compensate for this, the Battlegrounds Rating System adjusts how much MMR players gain/lose depending on the lobby composition. Higher-rating players are expected to defeat lower-rating players, so they will win much less than +100 for first place. On the contrary, defeats for higher rating players are punished harder. This is why is extra hard to climb when you are at the top.

For the lower-rating players, it works the other way around. Since they are not expected to win as much, they will get a bonus gain or a lesser loss. While these changes are more noticeable for the first and eighth places, they apply for every placement. In a way, it works the same as in sports betting, the higher the rating, the better the odds, and the lower the reward.

What does the Battlegrounds Rating system serve for? Well, besides all the Matchmaking applications and the indubitable bragging rights of having more internet points than others, the Battlegrounds Rating System is used for Esports competitions.

Each month the top 16 players from each region qualify for the $50,000 Lobby Legends events. 2022 saw the debut of Battlegrounds’ official Esports ecosystem, with a total of $500,000 in prizes distributed in different events.

Now you know everything you need to know about the Battlegrounds Rating System and how MMR works. If you also play standard feel free to check out our guide on how that Ranking and Rewards system works!

Stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Battlegrounds news and guides. See you next time in Bob’s Tavern.