Upcoming Versus Matchmaking Test

Unknown

Playing day: 255
Event: Category -5
Ending Time: 1 AM
Rooster 1st page: 166lvl Daken, 166lvl Hulk, 166lvl Patch, 152lvl Blade, 137lvl CapAmerica, 137lvl Human Torch, 137lvl Psylocke, 137lvl Storm
Points in event: 106pst atm.
In game name: Hector83

How I feel about changes: Right after defeeting 1st seed team I get much stronger oponents then usually. after defeeting 1st seed team I needed to skip 2 times to get someone I could defeet, because I get maxed 3* teams or even stronger like 201lvl Storm / 250lvl x-force / 166lvl Magneto...
So I decide to defeet 2nd seed team... and it was same I get 191lvl Storm / 166lvl Hul /166lvl CapAmerica...
So I decide to defeet 3th seed team... and I get 80lvl Storm / 166lvl Hulk / 140lvl CapAmerica...I decide to fight against this third one... more info will come...

conclusions: climbing was much harder, after 3 seeds team, I saw maxed or almost maxed 3* teams... from time to time there was maxed X-force.
I spend lots of ISO to skip. To find someone who is wort to attack I usually needed to skip from 5 to 10 times. I took me 8h to climb from 0 to 673 points... after that I saw only teams who I could not defeat, no matter how much times I use skip.

So for me this change was really really bad.

In Season X I used to:
1. Climb from 0 to 700+ in 2,5h before I hit a wall - now It took me 8h to climb 673 points and I hit a wall.
2. I didnt need to use almost any ISO to skip while climbing - now I need to make 5-10 skips after every fight.
3. I used much more Help Pack because I need to fight much harder teams from the beginning.
4. After climb close to 700 points I hit a wall with 270lvl Thoressa / 270lvl X-force - and now I hit same wall around 650 points


I hope changes form Category -5 tornament wont be implemented.

Unknown

heroguy35 wrote:

2nd slice

My roster consists of a level 200 xforce and 5 166s. I usually get to around 600-700 before the xforce/4thor wall comes my way or I can at least use some iso to skip those until I get to 600-700. Not the case with cat5. Hit this wall at 300 points. Went to close to 700 last night and the climb never got easier.

I'd rather not hit the 270 wall at 300 but whatever. It doesn't stop me. It just makes the climb longer and I consume more health packs. Don't get me wrong I'd rather not see it until 600-700 like it was before. That made the experience more enjoyable and less stressful. The major problem that I was concerned about was...now that this wall comes so early nearly all the teams on my climb can retaliate so this could be a hot mess. Well my concerns were spot on. Went to sleep just under 700 points and had over 100 points in losses when I woke up. I usually don't use my first shield until I'm over 800 points and now I'm getting lit up at under 700 because every one I best to get there can and will retaliate. I usually will take 1 or 2 losses overnight when I'm around 700 points but this was a page of losses so long I couldn't even view them all.

Same slice, same level 200 X-Force (fully covered though). The rest of my first page is 166 Hood, Hulk, and LThor, and a 136 Patch. Very similar experience. I pre-joined. Board leader has 1023, no other player has 1k. I am at 10th with 826. I did hit the 850 progression, but was losing more points than I could keep. Fell to 700 is and climbed back up for placement.

At about 250 - 300 matches started having some serious pop, 166's or higher mixed with a two star toon. At about 400, the 2* were replaced with 166 plus moderately leveled 3* (but usually not a high level Storm). By the late 600's almost all teams had a 200+ 4* and I started to see more and more 270 X-force 4thor teams. After 725, the matches were all 13-17 points and I was getting tagged for 30-40 plus retaliation. Skipping could eventually get me a playable match, and by that I mean one with points that justified the risk. I should note that if you take a 13 point match against a max roster and lose you lose lots of points (25+). That is devastating if you add on a regular q loss for 30 - 40 and a retaliation loss for 20 - 25 all happening at the same time.

One question for the developers, how is the 1k reward relevant in a bracket like this? Only 1 person makes 1k (it appears, although some could have made it and fallen back down). You have a 1st place reward, so it would seem that final progression should not be exclusive to one or two people per bracket. How are match points determined? If only 1 or 2 people are making it to 1k and only 13-17 point matches are available above the 725 mark, how do you advance? It seems the only way you hit that 1k progression is if you don't already need the 4*, which slows, but doesn't stop the onslaught of attacks/defensive losses. Hopefully, the token lottery will shine on me soon.

SnowcaTT

Roster: 5/4/1 X-force maxed (217, not yet used in this event), 5/5/1 and 5/4/2 at level 140 (3*s), something like 20 at 127: including Storm, who has max covers.

Climb to 300: 25% tanking teams, 25% 2* teams, 50% teams with two or less 94's - often no 94's, almost like fighting seed teams.

Went 300-400 yesterday: everyone can tell this (Storm) is the test, and they are sitting low. It put me from 150th to 50th. One team attacked me (all 166's), I skipped it - and saw the 166 wall immediately behind them, before hitting 450.

I would HOPE it isn't taking an average of my top 3 - having levels on characters is not the same as having COVERED level characters.
I would HOPE it isn't taking my total levels or total covers - having lots of characters with lots of covers is not the same as having LEVELED characters.
I would HOPE it isn't considering storm at 191 - having covers or levels for the FEATURED character shouldn't be held against you (there is PVE for that).
I would HOPE it isn't considering my current ranking - teams that aren't full of maxed characters can't PUSH as far at the very end.
I would HOPE it isn't putting me at the 166 "WALL" (and with that roster, it is still a wall) simply because I was countered or attacked once.
I would HOPE that if this change was made, PROGRESSION rewards would be vastly lowered once again - even 550 is no longer achievable for me.

I sincerely hope this change isn't continued with, it is terrible. Team-mates with solid 166 rosters are saying counters are coming fast and furious well before the end of the event, and they cannot reach levels previously possible for them.

Unknown

Went in on second slice, started playing around 7:45AM PST. Went with an 82 storm, 209 Goddess and 204 xforce. It seems like the 25+ opponent pulls were much more consistent this time with few bouts where I had to skip more than 5 times.

Unknown

much much less points than before i hit the wall at 450 points ?! kidding us?

Wobby

Playing day: 415
Event: Category -5
Ending Time: 9 AM
Roster 1st page: 209 XF, 166 Daken, 166Thor, 166Patch, 166Blade, 166Rocket, 166Sentry, 166Punisher, 166BlackPanther, 166CapAmerica, 166Deadpool, 166Magneto, 166Daredevil
In game name: Wobby

I found matchmaking to be quite awesome. I beat the first seed, next team I saw had a 166 on it, worth 40+ points. I ignored it and hit the second seed, which opened another 3* team behind it, but not maxed. The third seed team revealed level 40-65 2* teams.

I kept climbing, not using any maxed teams, and the level of competition stayed close to the level of the characters I was using. It wasn't until after 600 points I think that I switched over to using 3* characters consistently, and I didn't start using XF until I got over 7-800. I don't remember seeing TGT/XF consistently til I crossed over 850.

Unknown

I find climbing on this PvP much more difficult than usual.

I'm at 537 points right now, S3, IGN Venser2014, 369 days, full maxed roster except Starlord (lvl 94 with 4 covers).

It will take quite long till I can reach 1K.

Same in shield SIM, climbing takes longer because the teams are bigger and it takes more health packs to climb.

So I'd advise people to start early.

DrStrange-616

Roster: 114 3* Thor, Hulk, Blade, Patch and 102 LCap & Falcon, rest 2*s.
Teams played: Anyone with health Usually a combo of Thor/Patch and someone.
IGN: Dr.Strange-616
Slice ending: 2/6, 1 pm Pacific
Event score: 443

Initially, I played against 3 seed teams to 70 points. Then all I saw were max 2* teams with a few 3*s thrown in most below the 166 but above 120. Followed by a series of the worst boards ever. got killed by subpar team and almost killed second time. Opponents were all challenging and I barely got to 400. And it cost me all of my health to do. Was v ugly.

In Divine Champions it was a completely different story. Seed teams gave way to a wide assortment of strange and interesting teams most combos of mid-level 2 stars. I didn't hit the full 2*+ teams until past 400. Same slice.

rixmith

With three hours to go in the event I'm in the same place I usually am in most events, in the 600 - mid 700 range. The 0 - 300 point part of the event was much easier than I'm used to, the 300 - 600 part was much harder, and the 600+ is about the same or maybe slightly harder (seems more difficult to find matches without a huge X-Force/Thor). Overall I feel like the previous algorithm gave me more of a smooth linear climb instead, whereas this algorithm had much more of a step function. So overall I'd give a preference to the previous method, though I'm not adamantly against the test one.

Dauthi

IGN: Dauthi
Time Slice End: 1am
Event: Category 5


I started with 230 X-Force, 180 Storm, and 166 CMags, got 650 before bed, and got hit for 60 points. Found that a bit odd. Switched CMags with 180 Lady Thor and started again in the morning. Received virtually no attacks climbing to 870, mostly retaliates. An hour after shielding I am still being hit randomly by people, in about 15-20 minute intervals.

Throughout the entire play I seemed to pull everything from hard rosters at 30+ points to easy rosters at 15 points, a nice variety. Occasionally would find an easy roster that climbed high, and got easy points from it.

Overall I am liking this. Instead of hitting a point total and being pushed to the front of other player's queue line, I was buried under a mess of people allowing me to do 3-5 battles before getting hit randomly. It seems possible to climb farther now instead of taking 1 step forward and 5 backwards. It also seems to be spreading more points around thanks to being hit continuously after shielding.

TazFTW

In-game name: TazFTW
Joined Slice 5 of Category 5 with about 24 hours to go.

I had a seed team on each node. After beating each seed team (ending up with 70 points) I saw the following opponents.

First page of roster looks like:

I would usually see a loaner with two non-maxed 2* at this point.

Unknown

MarvelMan wrote:

manosinistra wrote:

Gaaaaaah...
<snip>
ALL MY MATCHES ARE SUB-10 POINTS. Some of the nodes keep cycling through the same 3 or 4 matchups for a dismal 3-10 points per match... what am I supposed to do with that?? Every once in awhile I'll see a 17-pointer.
</snip>

This is just about exactly what Im seeing. Well, my XF is only about lvl 200 (but covered) and my matches were all sub 6 points, and at one point I saw the same guy three straight skips. I had to cycle through about 40 to get a non single digit match. Took about 60 before I ran into a 20+ point one. And Im not even the top of my bracket, Im in 3rd by ~300 points.

MarvelMan and I are in the exact same slice/bracket/whatever it's called. He's 4th, I'm 5th. Not sure if it helps to know.

Cabol

Cabol wrote:

Here's my breakdown of Divine Champions at this point:

In Game Name - Cabol
Joined the Feb 3rd - 10P time slice (slice 1) with about 9 hours to go in the event
Front Page Roster *couldn't get the photo to post*:
LVL 104 Hulk 4/1/3
LVL 94 Ares 4/4/5
LVL 94 oBW 3/5/5
LVL 94 Daken 5/4/4
LVL 94 Tiny Torch 5/5/3

Character Selection *couldn't get the photo to post*:
LVL 141 Ares
LVL 141 C.Storm
LVL 141 2* Thor
LVL 104 Hulk
LVL 94 oBW
LVL 94 Daken
LVL 94 Tiny Torch
LVL 94 MNMags

Currently sitting at 38th place with 348 points, 6 hours to go
I haven't hit any sort of evil 3*/Xforce-4hor wall yet, most battles have either been on my level or a step below. I'm seeing mostly 2* battles with the occasional unleveled 3* cover (similar to my Hulk cover). This is the first time in a while that I've been enjoying a PVP event more than PVE event due to the diversity of teams I'm seeing.


Update
About to break 500 points for only the 2nd time since playing MPQ (if I remember correctly). Currently sitting at 9th palce with 488 points. Starting to see maxed out 3* covers and X-Forces, but not full teams (example: lvl 153 Loki-Lvl 166 lazy Cap-lvl 203 XForce)

Update Final
Ended the event in 14th place with a total of 502 points. Last matches in my nodes featured multiple covered X-Forces and near max or maxed 3* covers that I couldn't beat.

Here's my breakdown for the Cat5 event:

Updated Character Selection
LVL 60 lazy Storm x2 (i have 1/0/1 with no ISO investment)
LVL 104 Hulk
LVL 94 Ares
LVL 94 oBW
LVL 94 Daken
LVL 94 Tiny Torch
LVL 94 MNMags

Currently been attacked 5 times with 3 successful defenses. Sitting in 13th place with 415 points, 1 hour, 7 minutes to go.
I've noticed the matches have been worth a lot more points, but are a lot harder as well. After facing a couple of seeded teams I was paired against maxed 2* teams (which is the tier I'm in) and X-Force/max 3* teams. Took a couple skips to get back to max 2* teams, mostly seeing either A.Wolvie-Thor, Thor-Ares, or Thor-oBW teams. Seems like this matchmaking system generally pairs you with people similar to your own roster. Will post a final update when the event ends.

Unknown

Playing day: 288
Event: Category 5
Ending Time: 5 PM
Roster 1st page: Punisher & Hulk 166, Black Panther 150, Magneto 140, Cap' America 127
In game name : same

Like others, my event is a nightmare. After the first seed teams I met some squad like this in average : storm 120, Daken 140, Thor 90 at least. So the fights were quite hard at the beginning. Normally I met 94's team until 500-600 points.
I didn't had anymore health pack when I reached 300 whereas I use none usually.
Arrived at 400 I started to reach the 166 wall. At the end it's almost impossible to climb to the 100 first places. I didnt' care because it's Gamora but I miss the gold..

Unknown

For the Cat5 Event:

I find that the match making is better. It tries to match you with guys near your roster levels. I usually can only get around 400-500, but this time can get a little better 500-600. PvP seems a little bit more enjoyable when your not constantly getting hit by lvl 166 or higher guys.

Though I can see from the perspective of higher level players(3 stars lvl 166 +), that the climb being harder now, since it tries to match you with opponents near your level, for a newer player such as myself, this change

For those higher players, maybe an alternative is for the game to seed them? like based on their roster, give them 200 or 300 starter points or something similar, so the climb is similar to before, while still improving the experience for other players. Dunno. Just a thought.

Anyways currently in slice 4. My Roster is mainly maxed 2 star.

yogi_

You are kidding me right...

Just playing last hour of the event in Slice 3 for a little ISO, as no time to play much longer.

3 seeds teams and then my first 3 real teams include a 229 X-Force, 105 X-Force, 125 3* Thor and a 120 Daredevil.

My roster is lower than this.

Why do I bother...

***
And lower your 3* rewards to 150 or even 125.

morph3us

morph3us wrote:

Event: Cat 5
Slice: 4
Me: Day 177 player, IGN same as my Forum username
Page 1 roster:
- Black Panther, 166, 5/3/5
- Captain America, 166, 3/5/5
- Thor (Modern), 166, 3/5/5
- Patch, 166, 4/4/5
- Rocket & Groot, 142, 4/4/5
Current score: Approaching 800 (with any sort of luck)

Feedback:
The climb up to 300 was markedly different. Seed teams first, then a really varied mix of 1*, 2*, and transitioning 3* teams. Some of the 1* and 2* teams were maxed, most were not (including one very newbie team with a level 1 IM35, and a level 15 MNMags - had to double check to see I hadn't weirdly hit another seed team; this was in the high 200s). 300+ was mostly maxed 2* teams, with occasional transitioning teams in the process. 400+ was all combinations of X-Force (200+) with either 4*Thor, or a maxed 3*. Subjectively, the early climb felt very easy until 400. It seemed like I hit the 270/166 wall sooner than I usually do (which is usually when I break 600 points).

It also felt like my equilibrium point was a bit different. I can usually park unshielded for the (Australian) night a little below 600, if I'm a fair way out from the end of the event, and expect on balance 20-40 points of losses overnight, but this time I lost nearly 100 points overnight. It also feels like I'm getting more incoming attacks (which I expect, being a relatively soft target with that roster) when I clear 500 points with the new system, compared to the old system. As rough point of comparison, the rate of attacks over 500 points with this test system seems comparable to the rate of attacks I'd expect with a score of over 600 points with the existing system. It kind of makes sense, though, it feels like there were a greater variety of targets being exposed to me on my initial climb, so it makes sense that I'm rotating in as a target more frequently too. Actually reaching my first shield point seemed a bit harder too (which is usually somewhere in the 700s) due to incoming hits, but I was still gaining more than I was losing until I broke 700.

Over 700, in terms of target selection, it feels pretty similar to how it does under the existing system with shield cooldowns. There's a very limited selection of moderate value targets at this stage (in the 20-30 point range), all with X-Force/Thor, or X-Force/166, due to the infrequency of people unshielding, due to cooldowns. It's hard to comment on the availability of high value targets at this point, given that no one has climbed to 1000 points at the time I'm posting this.

Update:
Have shielded to finish the event with a score of 1009.
Shield hopping from 750 plus doesn't feel any different to the existing matchmaking system.
The client presents me with the usual selection of relatively low value targets, due to everyone being shielded at the top end, and it's just a matter of intermittently checking to see if anyone up top has unshielded, so I can queue them, then wait for them to reshield before hitting them.

So, in summary, the main differences to me are the increased number of 1* teams and non-maxed 2* teams early on, and hitting the 270/166 wall earlier than normal. All in all, I think I prefer the existing matchmaking system to the test system. I don't want to be hitting 1* and non-maxed 2* teams, and hitting the 270/166 wall early means I get a ton more retaliations, which means it's difficult to reach my first shield point, if I'm trying to reach the 1000 point progression reward.

Ducky

I had no issues or perceived changes in Divine Champions (played in slice 4). I played in slice 2 for Cat-5 and saw maxed feature+xf/femthor from the first match.

I am at 367 days played. Same ign as forum name. My first 2 roster pages are spoiler tag hidden.

Unknown

My roster is 4hor lvl 222, xf lvl 210, max 3*: BP, lcap, lthor, daken, sentry, hood, c mags, DP. IGN is same as forum name.

Divine champs seemed reasonable though it was difficult to gauge since I can't recall any previous experience with this event. I finished 10th with low-mid 700's score. Took some defensive losses, but it didn't feel atypical. I can't recall anything noteworthy in matchmaking as this event is atypical from a regular PVP experience.

Cat-5 was a different story. I ran xor/mororo as my primary team. I finished 25th with nearly the same score as divine champs, around 725. But I needed to shield and work much harder to achieve this result. My mororo is fully covered but only buffs to lvl 135. I took so many defensive losses in the last hours of the event while I was trying to grind down nodes in sub2 of the groot PVE that I put up a shield (that I didn't really want to use) simply because I was getting annoyed by the never ending defensive loss pop ups that I received while trying to focus on PVE. It's sad when you throw up a shield just out of annoyance at pop up menus. (In my mind I started to imagine a nightmare version of MPQ where u need to pay HP to shield yourself from advertisements). Also, I took 200 points in defensive losses over an 8 hour work day earlier in this event while away, but didn't have any red icons in my nodes to retal against when logging back on, so somehow during this event much of my ability to retal was dropped. Frankly, this event was no fun at all, even annoying. Divine champs was comparably more fun. But who knows what accounted for the difference.

Unknown

I haven't noticed a real difference quite honestly.