So... what the hell is up with matchmaking?

Unknown

Okay, someone explain this to me. I'm at around 650 points here, and whenever I go to enter a match, I get one of the same 5-6 people. All of which have maxed-out top tier 3* teams, which I have about as much chance of beating with my 2* roster as B4con Magic does.

What.

The.

****?

Seriously, am I the only one here? Did I do something wrong? Did I break something? Am I winning too much with my 2* team (I basically never fight 3* teams, so it can't be that the game is seeing "oh, this guy is winning against real contenders, better give him a hard set of matches")? Am I just ****? What can do I do differently? Like, I have another 6 hours on this event, and there is not a single match I can actually play. Literally the only ones I can possibly win at this point are retaliations against people with worse scores than me. What the hell is even up with that? Who designed that? Whose idea was it to say "Oh, okay, let's make sure that at some point, our matchmaking lets people just get stuck playing against people they don't stand a chance in hell against 24/7, at a point well before they're going to get any decent rewards for their placing"?

WilsonFisk

MMR is definitely broken, when I get around 950-1000pts I start seeing these teams


And then have to waste hundreds of iso skipping to get something with value.

What you may be seeing is the top end of the score range for your roster level though. I have a full 3* roster, and I tank heavily, but I start seeing the 3*s at around the same point level as you

Unknown

I found an easy solution - just take 2 months off! I took off Season 2 and 3 from any real PVP - I think I scored under 1k in each of them. I finally decided to give PVP a shot again with the BP PVP and have been matched up with non-maxed 2* teams and was put in a bracket with the 1st place (me) at 580 points and 2nd place at 400 points. 10th place as of this morning was in the mid 300s.

Seriously - this form of MMR is based off some weird stuff. Apparently not playing for long periods lowers it for some reason? Its not like my team got weaker while I wasnt playing, they are still in the middle of the 3*** transition, why should it be taken into consideration? If I take off the next year will I all of a sudden be matched up against 1* teams?

Unknown

Well it makes sense for you to start running into maxed-out 3* teams early on - after all, I spend my entire bracket slogging through people with the same level as me as well. Not a whole lot of 1* teams coming my way. I spend the entire bracket fighting maxed-out 2* teams - AKA exactly what I'm using. And then I hit this wall. Normally it's around 800, which isn't awful, but 600? What the hell happened? How can I stop this from happening again?

Unknown

Come on, those teams you posted aren't that bad.

I'm a 2-star player as well, and this is what I'm seeing today for the BP event (at 600-700 points):



Let me know if you want to switch spots.

Unknown

Functionally, the difference between that and BP+Sentry+Daken is nil - I'm not going to kill Sentry or BP before one of them throws out an attack that just murders my entire team.

SnowcaTT

DuffManOhYeah wrote:

Come on, those teams you posted aren't that bad.

I'm a 2-star player as well, and this is what I'm seeing today for the BP event (at 600-700 points):



Let me know if you want to switch spots.

I was going to say - only a 119 BP in the second post (first pic)? I wish I could see those.

Same deal, 2* roster, never take on any secondary characters above 94, and I see majority X/166/166 as soon as I hit 500 points.

This MMR is horrible, just awful. When I was 1* getting beaten by 2*'s I thought: some day that will be me, taking out the 1*'s. But nope, I never see 1* rosters, instead 3*'s destroy me throughout the day.

How about only being able to see folks in the same 100 range as yourself?
How about only being able to see the people in your specific bracket, not all brackets?

A couple of suggestions that would help. Having any metrics that base matchups based on days played, play time, or previous event scores: these just beg for the terrible matchups we see here.

mjh

this **** has to change. this seasons matchmaking is just nonsense. I have never before seen top10 all high 900 and mostly 1000+

there is no sensible reason for a 2* team to be matched up with these 3* monster teams. and likewise they shouldn't be able to beat up on such weaker guys either. something drastic has to change

Arogntbastrd

WilsonFisk wrote:

MMR is definitely broken, when I get around 950-1000pts I start seeing these teams

Pump your brakes kid, that girl's a national treasure

Pylgrim

It happened to me as well. The solution? The thing got so ridiculous that there was a whole PVP event where I saw nothing but the most ridiculous teams. I lost and lost and lost and lost and almost broke my phone in frustrated rage. Losing that much seemed to do the trick and next PVPs have been more forgiving, but I have no illusions that it won't climb up again back to that point. MPQ, the only game where victory is punished instead of rewarded.

mohio

This is actually the first time those 3-6 point matches have started showing up for me around 1000+ points. Whatever they changed in matchmaking doesn't seem to be good for anyone (at least not any of the players). It obviously wasn't great before, but whatever they've tweaked has made it worse, not better.

Unknown

Ever since I quit my alliance for awhile between seasons 2-3 I've just been crossing my fingers when I enter pvp and hope to get in an easy bracket. Then I aim to score around 600-900pts. Never over 1k even if I got in a death bracket where top scores require over 900 points. And so far my MMR has stayed somewhat tolerable.

I do agree though that if you have to think too much metagame just to stay competitive, then the game's MMR structure is seriously flawed. Current system does eventually punish you if you fare "too well". It's silly to the boot.

HailMary

HawkeyeSucks wrote:

this **** has to change. this seasons matchmaking is just nonsense. I have never before seen top10 all high 900 and mostly 1000+

Then you got real lucky in S1 and S2. 950+ for T10 was a common sight for me.

Also, having skipped gnikaido's Big Fury team more than a few times in the last PVP, he was definitely an outlier in my node rotation. I only saw maybe 3-4 L249 BPs, but a whole lot of L120+ BPs after I hit ~800 points.

Unknown

At the advice of several alliance members, I spent all day mulching my roster through the shield simulator. And my reward? The same **** teams I couldn't beat from the LAST PvP!

Vinmarc43

BROKEN GAME......they should change the matchmaking system.....just have a open 10 matchup team to fight from very easy to very hard and the harder you pick, the more pts you get base on your team value, but also, you need to pick your three fighters before they give you matchups, similar to card games. This would also promote team variety, ex : i could pick patch 166/ storm 94 / ms marvel 40 to try her out and your matchups would be based on this team.

Unknown

Yeah, seriously, who the **** thought this out? In order to get rewards, you have to compete against people you have no chance of beating AND who don't **** need the rewards anyways? I mean, maybe if the matches it gave you were more random, but they aren't - it's often the same 5 **** guys over and over and over again - the same 5 **** guys who you just can't beat. Like, it's virtually a mathematical impossibility for you to beat them - you'd need damn near perfect luck through the whole game. What the hell? I mean, past a certain point I could understand this, but like this? Ugh. Completely broken.

Unknown

Yeah, I seemed to have noticed the same thing. It used to be that the incredibly hard stuff didn't start until like the 900's. But now it seems like at around 600 I already start fully maxed 3* teams that are impossible for me (I've been in 2* ->3* transition for months!) I don't even have one fully maxed 3*, or anyone even close. I have a couple of 3*'s with like 10 covers, but I doubt that's gonna do much against a team of 166's.

Anyway, I just wanted to also throw in that I've seemed to notice a change in MMR once you reach around 600 or so.

scottee

Part of it is that a larger and larger percentage of the player base has maxed out 3*'s now. Before it was only people who got in the game early. Many people who joined once the game started getting more popular are now at that point in their progression. That means you'll have to face more maxed 3* teams when competing at the upper tiers of competition.

Unknown

scottee wrote:

Part of it is that a larger and larger percentage of the player base has maxed out 3*'s now. Before it was only people who got in the game early. Many people who joined once the game started getting more popular are now at that point in their progression. That means you'll have to face more maxed 3* teams when competing at the upper tiers of competition.

...Which is why the matchmaking system here is so fundamentally broken.

Seriously, why am I competing for the same rewards with The Valeyard, Twysta, or GYPSY_DANGER? I mean, on one hand, they worked for it (or bought it *cough* P2W *cough*), but I have exactly 0 chance against them. The moment the matchmaking system says "time to set him up with 3* players", I'm just done - I can stop, because I cannot win. Full stop. I cannot possibly win. I can run MNMags+CStorm with +9 Blue and Purple (yeah, this is a thing), and still not stand a chance. What should I do? There's another 30 hours in the event - should I drop 450 hero points to stay at 600 points? What the hell is going on here?

scottee

Budget Player Cadet wrote:

scottee wrote:

Part of it is that a larger and larger percentage of the player base has maxed out 3*'s now. Before it was only people who got in the game early. Many people who joined once the game started getting more popular are now at that point in their progression. That means you'll have to face more maxed 3* teams when competing at the upper tiers of competition.

...Which is why the matchmaking system here is so fundamentally broken.

Seriously, why am I competing for the same rewards with The Valeyard, Twysta, or GYPSY_DANGER? I mean, on one hand, they worked for it (or bought it *cough* P2W *cough*), but I have exactly 0 chance against them. The moment the matchmaking system says "time to set him up with 3* players", I'm just done - I can stop, because I cannot win. Full stop. I cannot possibly win. I can run MNMags+CStorm with +9 Blue and Purple (yeah, this is a thing), and still not stand a chance. What should I do? There's another 30 hours in the event - should I drop 450 hero points to stay at 600 points? What the hell is going on here?

Maybe try different strategies? There's more than "0 chance" to beat maxed 3* teams, even with a 2* team. In fact, if you want to transition from 2* to 3* in a decent amount of time, you have to win these battles. Look at the board set up. Deny enemy colors. Look at what matches will be available to the AI after you make a move. Track their AP and make sure they don't get big abilities off. Heck, just use overpowered OBW and steal their AP before they get to use it.

It's a competition. That's why you're competing for the same rewards. No one's making you compete against them. You can compete for for top 200 instead and try to win OBW. If you want a top 100 prize, you have to show yourself to be better than the other 400 people in your bracket who almost all have maxed out 2* rosters as well.

You perceive that the game is too hard for you right now. You can either work to become better at the game, keep doing what you're doing, or quit. People are telling you it's possible. But no one can do it for you. It's like taking your first at bat in the major leagues and complaining the pitches are too fast. No one's going to throw underhand so you can get a hit.

Unknown

scottee wrote:

Maybe try different strategies? There's more than "0 chance" to beat maxed 3* teams, even with a 2* team. In fact, if you want to transition from 2* to 3* in a decent amount of time, you have to win these battles. Look at the board set up. Deny enemy colors. Look at what matches will be available to the AI after you make a move. Track their AP and make sure they don't get big abilities off. Heck, just use overpowered OBW and steal their AP before they get to use it.

All it takes is one bad cascade. One. And suddenly the game is over. This became especially clear in the Black Panther event - a high-level black panther will deal enough damage in one attack to kill your entire team, and sometimes you just can't prevent that. Sometimes there isn't much you can do. Statistically speaking, you're often **** outta luck.

It's a competition. That's why you're competing for the same rewards. No one's making you compete against them. You can compete for for top 200 instead and try to win OBW. If you want a top 100 prize, you have to show yourself to be better than the other 400 people in your bracket who almost all have maxed out 2* rosters as well.

Yeah, more OBW covers - I mean, sure, I have 2 3/5/5 OBWs already, but they're useful somehow...

Look, the only way to progress in this game is to win at events. At least top 100. If you can't pull that off, then you're going to get nowhere.

You perceive that the game is too hard for you right now. You can either work to become better at the game, keep doing what you're doing, or quit.

**** you. I'll tell you what - I'll work at getting "better" at the game, and you tell me how the **** I'm supposed to fight a random cascade giving my opponent a shitton of AP of a color. Sure, I get that every once in a while... But for me, a bunch of AP means knocking off a quarter of one character's health or delaying them temporarily. For them, 10-12 AP means winning the match. If they get 11 red AP, I'm dead. If they get 12 black AP with BP, I'm dead. This isn't some conundrum here - it's not "hard", it's "better than 50/50 odds of getting **** in the **** by random chance".

It's like taking your first at bat in the major leagues and complaining the pitches are too fast. No one's going to throw underhand so you can get a hit.

No, it's like being 10, and your team just won the little league tournament, so your next match is against the New York Yankees. You can't **** hit a 90-MPH fastball! You're 10!