General DiscussionSo what determines "dotabuffs" skill rating?

Normal - Nothing
High - Subscribe to DotaBuff for 6 months or more
Very high - Subscribe to Dotabuff for 1 year or more, or is a verified player

I was referring to the skill rating given in matches. Sometimes I get normal skill when I play a hero, sometimes its high skill etc. what constitutes to getting that rating?

@Mushi please don't intentionally answer legitimate questions in a misleading way.

To answer the original question, Valve determines the matchmaking skill of a match based on the skill of the players involved. To be clear, it's for all players in the match, not just you.

You'll see the skill of your matches go up as your personal skill increases, but it's also subject to other matchmaking conditions: playing at a busy time, or on a busy server may result in a different skill bracket.

ah. thanks! wouldve been cool to know what basis is the skill aspect coming from. probably kdr? gpm?

@Jason That "legitimate" question could be stemmed from personal ego questioning the matchmaking system to mostly put him into Normal skill matches. And this kind of question is asked for so many times yet there are no easy links to the answer, especially in your FAQ which i see fit to be in there, if not somewhere else.

OP, skill does not only refer to stat-wise things like KDA and GPM, but also your contribution to the games you are in. It can be damage, heals and debuffs (yes they do know your total stun/slow/etc time inflicted on your enemies by you, but yet to be proven to have effect on determining your skill). There is a hidden MMR for normal matchmaking which you will not be able to see, but changes as you play. The more you play, the less likely this will have to change by a big value, hence the higher of the certainty of your hidden MMR.

@Jason, Can you please pin a topic explaining skill brackets. There are about 5 people every day who come here asking about them. DotaBuff displays them, so it would really be nice for new users if the information was displayed somewhere on the website.

As it is now the only way for people to find out is to post a question, that has probably been asked over a thousand times on these forums. Because of this the people who regularly post here have seen the same question so much that they either don't want to answer at all, or answer with some trolling shenanigans.

You don't even need to write the topic, plenty of the regular posters would be willing to write an explanation of skill brackets. All you would need to do is pin it.