How does Matchmaking and MMR system work in Dota 2?

Multiplayer games are primarily based on one thing: Rank. Dota 2 is the same as its MMR system is coveted by players all over the world.

During the early days of Dota 2, players could only see their MMR or Matchmaking Rank. The MMR of a player is a simple number representing their skill. Winning a game increases the MMR while losing one decreases it.

Dota 2 Seasonal Ranked Updatehttps://t.co/tokxDrXZcM#DOTA2 #DOTA pic.twitter.com/pyj03XgB2C

— Dota 2 (@dota2updates) November 22, 2017

The current system was introduced in November of 2017, where players are allotted a medal based on their MMR.

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The ranking system of Dota 2

To be eligible to play ranked games in Dota 2, players must fulfill two criteria. First, they must have 100 hours of unranked games played, and second, they must link a phone number to their account to be eligible for ranked matches.

Dota 2 now requires your phone number to play ranked matches. What happened https://t.co/3FiGZrWH2A pic.twitter.com/nBFJ6G8vPj

— GameSpot (@GameSpot) April 21, 2017

Once these two criteria are met, players can search for ranked games.

To play such matches, they need to select a role from the available options:

• Safe-lane
• Mid-lane
• Off-lane
• Soft Support
• Hard Support

Initially, players are given a small amount of role-queue games, using which they can play any role they desire. Without a role-queue match, players must either play as a Support or select all five roles.

The first ten games of a new player are calibration games. Players are not given a rank or MMR before these ten matches, and they earn their rank after completing these calibration games.

Ranked games are also of two kinds: Solo and Party. Solo matches are worth 30 MMR, while Party matches are worth 20 MMR.

There are eight possible rank medals in Dota 2. They are, in order:

• Herald (0 - 770 MMR)
• Guardian (770 - 1540 MMR)
• Crusader (1540 - 2310 MMR)
• Archon (2310 - 3080 MMR)
• Legend (3080 - 3850 MMR)
• Ancient (3850 - 4620 MMR)
• Divine (4620 +)
• Immortal (Leaderboards)

Every medal has five different divisions within them. For example, Herald players can be from Herald I to Herald V. The only two exceptions to these rules are Divine V and Immortals.

While most ranked medals have an upper ceiling, Divine V does not. It is the highest attainable rank without getting on the regional leaderboards.

Regional leaderboards are maintained by Valve and only include the best players in the region.

The highest MMR medal of Dota 2 (Image via Valve)

Players on the leaderboards get the Immortal Rank. The top 1000 players in every region have their leaderboard rank displayed on their medals.

After gamers unlock their rank, they can continue to grind ranked games to increase their MMR. A solo game increases or decreases their MMR by 30. A party game increases or reduces the MMR by 20.

Increasing the Dota 2 rank is a very stressful affair. But that doesn't stop hundreds of thousands of players from grinding for hours to earn MMR. After all, there is nothing more satisfying than ranking up after a grueling game of Dota 2.