Sinking Feeling: How to Drop MMR

If you’ve already clashed with other players in the arena, you know how competitive it can get. Once you reach the moderate to high matchmaking ratings (MMR), your team may not be as strong as it was.

You may see signs of struggle or start to get unfavorable win/loss ratios. You may even get frustrated because you can’t seem to win against your opponents.

If you’ve hit a wall and have no means of getting past it, you can try dropping MMR.

DISCLAIMER: This article is strictly for informational purposes only. Intentionally dropping MMR could be considered as wintrading, a bannable offense. If you still plan to continue, I am not responsible if your account gets banned.

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Why Should I Drop MMR?

While dropping MMR may seem counterintuitive if you plan on earning more SLP, there are some perks.

Higher Win Rate

If you have a strong team that placed you in high MMR but cannot fight toe-to-toe with the other players in that rating, dropping a few points or brackets can make winning easier.

Because players in lower MMRs tend to have less competitive teams, they are easy pickings if you have better quality Axies.

Less Time Spent on Arena

Dropping your MMR to where you can fight easier opponents can save you a lot of time and effort. If your team is way stronger than your opponents, you don’t need to think and strategize as much.

If you don’t have much time to play or you need to finish your arena matches quickly, fighting in lower MMR is an option.

Less Energy Wasted

Because you fight opponents that may have significantly weaker Axies than yours, you’d waste less energy from arena losses.

De-ranking when you’re out of energy, then playing the next day in low MMR means that winning would be easier, making the energy you spent less likely to be wasted.

How Can I Drop MMR?

After you’ve used all your energy for the day, playing in the arena and intentionally losing is the most efficient way of dropping MMR. This method ensures that no energy is wasted.

As previously stated, intentionally dropping to lower MMR could be categorized as wintrading. If you still plan to drop, I suggest losing by small margins so it wouldn’t be as obvious. 

Playing a few cards and losing in later rounds could possibly prevent you from getting caught.

It’s important to note that you should only drop down a few points or brackets at a time in order not to sink to MMR that only gives a few SLP. This could also prevent you from attracting the attention of the ban hammer.

Here is the list of MMR brackets and their corresponding SLP reward:

MMRSLP 
800-999
1000-10993-4 
1100-12996
1300-14999
1500-179912
1800-199915
2000-219918
2200+20

Keep in mind that the bracket is the average MMR between the two players, meaning that rewards could vary if your MMR is barely in the bracket.

Conclusion

Players choose to drop their MMR if they’ve hit a wall with their team in higher levels of play. Because Axies get more and more competitive the higher your MMR is, the harder it becomes for players to win.

While it may not be considered unsportsmanlike conduct and is frowned upon by a good chunk of the playerbase, many players still continue to drop MMR.

Personally, I’ve never intentionally dropped MMR nor do I have plans to. This article only serves as an informational guide and by no means endorses the practice of MMR dropping.

Pro Tips:

  • Invest in competitive Axies so you don’t have to reduce your MMR in the first place
  • Be cautious when dropping your MMR because it might get tagged as a bannable offense
  • Try to delay your loss as much as possible, losing before the 5th round could result in the match being tagged as a traded win
  • Don’t drop too much because you can lose out on gaining SLP from an MMR bracket your team can handle

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