How do matchups work?

Unknown

I keep getting matched up against max level 4* wolverines and two other 166's. I only have two lvl 166 champs. Losing 100% of my games doesn't seem to make it any easier so it doesn't seem to be on a win loss ratio. It gets a bit frustrating when I play one pvp match that I MIGHT win and even if I do I have to use 3 heals to attempt another.

MaskedMan

When you start an event you fight lower level heros of the people above you.

As you progress you fight tougher foes.

Once you reach a certain level you see only 166s and those without have to give up.

That is how it works.

JamieMadrox

There's two factors in determining how you're bracketed and matched with other players. MMR (match making ratio) is a number that is essentially a win/loss ratio. When you start, your MMR is low and you get other low MMR players as opponents. As you win more matches than you lose, you get matched against other players with higher MMRs and, presumably, better teams. When you lose a match your MMR goes down and you see easier opponents again. At a certain point, your MmR will be so high that all of your matches are against high level opponents that also win a lot.

This is where "tanking" comes in to play. Tanking is a process by which your intentionally lose a match against an opponent to lower your MMR. It's a long process, but lots of players do this regularly to get their MMR low for the beginning of an event so they can face more easier opponents early and climb faster without being attacked. This is a great strategy for newer players with transition teams that will struggle more in PVP as their MMR goes up. Personally, I think top tier players that tank need to man up and grow a pair and I haven't tanked since season 2 when I was still in transition, but doing well due to strategic team building (LThor UDaken FTW!).

MMR is only part of the equation though. Sharding is the second part. Sharding is the process by which players that do better in events get put in to brackets with other players that also did about as well. For the most part this works and provides a good range of high, medium, and low level players in any given PVP bracket. For example, if I win a PVP, the next PVP I join will have a ton of other bracket winners in it. This is how you get "death brackets" where a top 10 finish is over 1300 points and a top 5 is over 1500 points. If, in this death bracket, i finished top 5, then my next PVP bracket would be with other top 5 finishers. I'm sure there's other things (like MMR) that come in to play so that someone that wins a PVP with 500 poins doesn't get bracketed with guys that won with 1500+, but that's the gist of it.

tl;dr: Win more, face harder teams, and get bracketed with stronger players.

Any questions?

Unknown

I think tanking only works to a certain extend. If you get pass 700 tanking has little impact on the opponent you'll face, at least based on my experience. I used to tank for hours during my 2* to 3* transition period and still couldn't get pass 800 without 3hrs shield hop and max boost.
About sharding, it seems i'm always in "death bracket" nowadays, so it doesn't concern me anymore, lol. Just hope I won't have a season "death bracket". That'd suck big time.