The way the best Dota 2 players play their ranked matches changed drastically after Patch 7.33 launched last month. Now, each team gets assigned a captain and they draft the remaining eight players to their side, but this hasn’t been a smooth process so far.
According to player reports on May 9, some individuals have been falsely advertising themselves as versatile players, capable of taking on multiple roles, only to reveal they can’t play any of those roles when they’re picked.
Related: Dota 2 Ranks, MMR, and ranking system explained
In Immortal Matchmaking, selecting roles is optional, meaning players can’t report others for not playing their stated roles. While this may seem like a non-issue at first sight, it changes the dynamics of each Immortal match.
A carry player, who is Immortal ranked, may not be at the same level when they play in the offlane, and this puts a team at a great disadvantage. Players causing role mismatches lead to teams having clear weaklings, which can be exploited to secure easy wins by their enemies.
Immortal Matchmaking hasn’t been a complete failure, however, since it also introduced a more controlled experience for high-level players. Dota 2 players have been especially pleased by the team-building aspect of the new system thanks to it allowing them to create more balanced teams while playing with players they like.
Considering this is the first major matchmaking change in recent years, it may take some time for Valve to perfect the system. At the time of writing, adding a way to hold players accountable for their stated roles can help bring order to matches. If that’s not an option, it could be useful for captains to have a more detailed interface that showcases other players’ statistics.
