43492140 , shiv steals my sinners sacrifice, i call him a prick , he tells me to kill myself, calls me an inept dog, etc. then leaves. we win shortly after he stops feeding the enemy team.
43651621 , upon rewatching the replay wondering where the map pressure is, i realize mcginnis and mina are sitting in our jungle the whole time until they full on throw at 30 minutes walking into the enemy base, into 5 players. I'm curious why we're 5 kills ahead at 30 minutes yet still like 15k souls down.
I can't farm faster than the mina and mcginnis who are soaking up the entire jungle and not doing any damage. (oh they're also feeding the sapphire flame kills, i forgot that their deaths outnumber my kills in duplicate)
YET, i am still 3rd in soul count by the end of this game, despite spending much less time farming or fighting than any other player. My damage is among the top on my team, how can i be performing better? all of my matches consist of losses like this, where noone communicates at all, or me micromanaging my team to be able to do ANYTHING on the map. I LOVE DEADLOCK BUT WE NEED A CASUAL OR A LEARNER MODE FOR PLAYERS WHO DONT KNOW THE MAP OR MACRO.
I am taking a break from the game because even though i am improving regardless of wins/losses, the matchmaking is absolutely unplayable, and it's been this way since december. I have a fine win rate, i've tried all of the heroes and my MMR has remained static, at seeker 4, since it was first assigned to me ALLL the way back in november/december 2024. I have done nothing but gain wins since then, but only lost rank.

the extreme variance in rank towards the end is me playing with higher ranked friends (i kept up MORE than fine, my skill level is potentially at or above theirs, especially when i have someone who knows what they're doing for once)

i dipped down near the red in wintrend because my matchmaking was so poor, and i don't play m1 carry heroes so i'm completely at the mercy of the game director's hero/rank draft. It's just not a fair or fun experience for anyone involved, at any skill level, at any time. as much as it seems like the players may be insolent or petulant, we plead for you to hear us on this.
I only write this lengthy yammer in this thread in hopes a dev sees this and has a conversation with the team about what to do, even if they don't do anything for a while. please just let us know that you know that we know that you know there needs to be changes, and they're on the horizon, however far.
Also, rank decay fucking sucks by the way. I can't play 8 matches a day, nor will I, I have better fucking things to do with my time. Let me rank up, please.