Upcoming Versus Matchmaking Test

Unknown

I had the same experience that a lot of others are reporting. I late started the slice ending at 3pm cst about an hour before it ended.

I usually play up to 400 points to get the hp award but I didn't even get 200. After 9 seed teams, I went right to maxed 2* teams and teams with > 100 3*. I can handle these teams but usually see them after scoring 400 pts or so. There was no ramping up from the seed teams and after a couple of losses, I quit and went back to pve.

I didn't notice anything abnormal with the divine champions event. Although I did take top 100 for the first time since the last changes were made.

Ryz-aus

In game name: Ryz

Roster: Maxed 4* Thor and wolverine, along with a 221 fury and a whole lot of maxed 3*s

Divine champions - I'm not sure what my score was; probably in the 800s somewhere. Played in time slice 3 - climb was a bit easier than usual. It wasn't obvious if this was due to matchmaking changes or more players using boosted ares and 2* or 3* Thor during an off-season.

Category V - After the seed teams, I've been seeing maxed 3* teams or better - there wasn't any sense of progressive difficulty until I was over 700 and saw mostly maxed 4* teams. This made the initial climb less fun. Current score is just over 800, playing in time slice 5.

Unknown

my in game name is afroless. I have 10 3* 166s several other well leveled. for 4 stars I have a 145 5/1/5 goddess and nothing else of significance.
Divine champoins: I played slice 1 and noticed no changes. things escalated quickly as there were a lot of boosted characters but I can't think of anything significantly different
Category-5: I've encountered teams of 166s since I completed the seed teams.

This was probably working as intended however here are my two cents.
Like in this article: http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazi ... aily/mr11b
I do not consider myself a strong tournament player. I enjoy playing and mixing things up, this includes using my 2* star teams or hybrids in various ways while climbing as I find this fun.
I rarely win events but I'm fine with this as I play for the enjoyment more than victory. The change to having to play the 166 teams limits my ability to use the roster diversity I have built and is not anywhere near as fun. More specificall,y in limiting the creativity I can apply to achieve victory throughout the first 3 to 4 hundred points has made the game less enjoyable to play and more of a feeling of grinding using the same team or two over and over again despite my opponents. If I am trying to win an event fine. xforce gthor on every team is what it is. But I feel for my high end roster the climb was less enjoyable

Spoit

The MMR in Cat-5 was....weird.

I prejoined slice 5 like 4-5 hours before it started, but didn't actually start playing until about 4 and a half hours before it ended (and managed to scrape together a 1k without shielding).

Immediately after doing the 3 seeds, I was seeing 166/low 200s x-force teams worth 30-40 points, and at just under 200 had to skip like 5 times (and did IIRC 2 fights against) to get past a ton of different people with 2x270 xor teams, but tanked a bit and went and just ground through it, and after 300 it was back to 166s.

Intermittently I saw some really weird teams, like a 270 x-force and a 2* thor or obw, and for some reason BP patch seemed really popular too. The really weird thing was around the 8-900s I saw multiple people running x-force-lazy thor, which I don't recall seeing any of in the past. And also saw a lot more x-force hood teams than usual too. Obviously there were lots of maxed xor teams, but I think I had a longer streak of back to back 249/270/270 teams at that 200 point bubble

Nellobee

I have no idea what was going on, but the gods PvP went better for me than the storm one.
I have 3 166's, no 4*'s with more than 7 covers.

lukewin

I wanted to wait til I got both done before leaving feedback.

In game name - lukewin

Divine Champions
Slice 1
714 pts
No shield
Don't remember rank

Category-5
Slice 4
592 pts
3 hr shield
57th rank

Roster, first 8 characters

156 5/5/3 Nick Fury
147 2/2/3 X-Force
131 0/1/4 Devil Dino
128 4/4/5 She-Hulk
128 5/4/4 Hulk
128 4/3/5 Thor
128 5/3/3 Patch
121 2/3/5 Rocket & Groot

I joined slice 1 of DC because there was feedback in my alliances, that it was an easy climb. And I found that to be the case. I beat the seeds, saw a mix of 1*, 2*, and 3* teams. I ran into the occasional max team, but was able to skip it, and then the mix of teams came again. Was pretty happy with the climb, the matchmaking, the ability to skip max teams and see new lower teams replaced it. I don't think I saw any attacks, so if I did, it wasn't many. Whatever went on in slice 1, I'd like to see made permanent. Maybe I'm just biased. I mixed up the teams a bunch, scored well. I don't think I placed T50 though, so T100 was fine with me. Allowed me to get my Mohawk to 5/3/5, exactly how I would want her built, and give me a leg up in the Cat-5 PVP.

I waited to hear feedback on which time slice was similar to slice 1. It came down to 4 or 5. I chose 4. Apparently, I chose poorly. 4 was a freakin nightmare. It seemed like it was the current system, but amplified what everyone hates about it. I ran into the wall in the 400s all the way to my final climb. I wasted a bunch of ISO trying to find targets that weren't all 166s. I was able to find a few, but kept wasting ISO in between matches trying to find more. And the same names kept popping up. I already skipped them, why do I want to pay another 10 ISO to skip them again? It sucked balls. When I was lucky enough to find some non 166 3* teams I could beat, I'd beat them. I hit a patch where I found a random 2* teamed up with a 3*, and if the 3* wasn't 166 or well covered, I took it on. My final climb was horrible. All I wanted to do was hit 575, grab that HP and shield til the end. I kept climbing, then getting attacked, climbing, getting attacked, rinse and repeat. Did not want to shield with a score in the 500s, because I didn't know if it'd make the cut for T100. There were 2 times I got over 575, and came out to 2 attacks both times. I felt sorry for this one guy that kept popping up while I kept rising/falling. I think I hit him like 3 or 4 times. I finally hit 592, collected the 25 HP and shielded to the end, which was less than 30 minutes. I had been climbing/falling for over an hour. I had 6 attacks bounce off my shields.

Maybe it's because no one wanted Mohawk, and people wanted Gamora, but slice 4 in Cat-5 sucked. It felt like the current system, or a version of the current system that sucks even more. I almost wanted to tank in the Sim to try to get my MMR down, til I realized that this was an offseason event. If PvP is like slice 4 from now on, I wanna say fug this shizz. If it is like slice 1 in DC, I would gladly continue to play and burn thru my HP on shields. I am usually content with a score in the 600s-650s, before I shield. With the lower progression rewards, I'd like to aim for 650. I would've tried for 725 in DC, but I ran out of time.

That's my feedback, please do whatever you did in slice 1 of DC.

Unknown

Yesterday I played pvp on Cat5 event shard 3 (started with less than 2h to end and got a bracket with less than 100 people) and saw something unusual. After the seed nodes the very first opponents were people with high scores (worth 25~45) but not using 166 teams. High level like 120~140 though. After some skips I started seeing what I see normally when I'm around 400 score, that is maxed 2*s, low 3* and a mix of both on same team. This as early as first human teams.

With some iso it was possible to find, after not many skips, beatable teams, just very few were really easy.

This might be reflect of some change or just because I started late and got a new bracket on an off-season event, as the #1 had 813 and #10 had 571.

Now about the event itself experience, this is what I would like to see regularly, being able to get #28 with a score that was kinda low even for me, when my usual score could keep me near T10.

I could have moved higher but the game closing as soon as I started I fight, making me lose score, boosts and right after using a couple packs motivated me to not go farther.

cat-5, shard 3; 3h shield in the last 30mins
http://i.imgur.com/U0vsNoB.png

Vohnkar

Category - 5 vs Event
Ingmae Name: Vohnkar
Rank: 11/500
I joined yesterday around 18:00 Spain time in the slice that ended at 1:00 Spain time.

For me its been a litle bit more dificult than usual. I only did 475 points (got out of healthpacks and couldn't push a litle bit more before the end, I was ranked 8th). I usually get 2* maxed teams until around 400-500 points, on this event I was fighting lvls 100+ almost from the begining and got some 166+ that I could skip. I was playing with a lvl 100 storm, 166 3* Thor and 166 Xforce.

As I said the impresion was that It was a bit more dificult to climb, facing harder oponents than other events and getting less points. When I join so late I usually go from 0 to 200-300 facing maxed 2* that gives me 40+ points. Yesterday I could get some 40+ matches but were against 3* 100+, and I had to skip a bit to get those, because I was getting some 18-24 matches (usually 2*s). I don't mind to get 3*s 100+ at lower points as long as they give 40+ but fighting maxed high levels from the begining for 20-30 points was hurting a lot, by the time I was at 300 or so points I was out of healthpacks and had to stop playing. Regeneraet and play again before the end time to do a final push, although couldn't push as hard as I wanted, I was planning to get to 550-600 to secure top 10 and maybe a top5

Just giving my 2c, in case you can get some usefull data from it.

Top 8 Chars of my roster

3* thor 166 (5/4/4)
x-Force 166 (5/3/4) would like to lvl him more, but afraid that will ruin my PvE experience, I hate scaling so hard
Punisher 140 (5/4/4)
The hood 130 (5/4/4)
Spiderman 130 (3/4/5)
Daredevil 130 (5/2/4)
Panther 125 (5/4/3)
Ironman 120 (5/5/3)

BigOldBob

Ingame Name: BigOldBob
Rosterlevel : 270, 250, 222, 12*166

DC:
Slice 5
Joined 7 hours before the end as #120
Top 5 with 900+ points

Saw mostly maxed 2* and unmaxed 3* teams until 400. Maxed 3*s, unmaxed 4*s until around 600 and after that a mix out of maxed 4*s and 3*s.
Until 400 I could find 30+ matches very easy. Between 400 and 750 I had to skip sometimes before I found someone with good points. Above 750 most of my matches were only worth between 15 and 25. It was still possible to find specific players with then they announced their unshielding or I saw them unshielded in my bracket.

Cat 5:
Slice 2
Joined 5 hours before the end as #250
Top 10 with 900+ points

Battled maxed 3*/unmaxed 4* from the beginning. Found the first maxed xf/4thor team already at 400 points. I had the feeling that I needed fewer matches for my climb, but I skipped more than in DC. After 750 points the Slice dried out again.

Pylgrim

Pylgrim wrote:

Me: Player for close to 400 days
Roster: 170 X-force, 3 maxed 3*s, and every other 3* (except the newer ones) between 100 and 150

The only difference I noted is that now instead of having the climb to 300 include lots of seeds and 2* teams, now it includes lots of **** 3* teams. On the positive side, I'm getting more 30+ matches than previously when they drained out even before I reached 300. Around 5-600 I start seeing maxed teams, so that part hasn't changed.

So, if this all is an intended part of the change, I guess I'll give it a thumb up.

UPDATE: Whelp it is clear that the first PVP was the "placebo". Category 5 was godawful. The main difference was that - you know how when you pass like 600 points and there are 3 hours left in the event and you are unshielded, you are attacked like crazy? Well try that ALL the time, once clearing 300 points, with tons of time to go in the event. It felt as though reaching 600 would require the amount of shield-hopping that you'd think necessary for 1k, so I just dropped it after losing 70 points in defeats... while only at 400!

trey9

Main difference I saw was constantly getting people worth less points than me, but still having good enough rosters to beat my max xforce hood combo in Cat 5. Storm was boosted to 135. There were clearly people unshielded sitting higher than me and I just could not get them in my nodes. Was not fun. Wasted a lot of iso skipping.

Unknown

Grizzlegom wrote:

Name: Grizzlegom
Top of Roster: Modern Thor (166), Devil Dinosaur (166), GSBW (166), Captain America (166), Daken (166), XF (166), Hulk (153), Patch (153)
Fought majority of my matches with Modern Thor/LDaken/Patch
Event Score: 742

I didn't notice a difference. The climb to 600 was quick and painless. Getting from 600 to 700 was annoyingly painful as every team was worth 15-19 points (side note, I find myself to be extremely annoyed with this section. I'll use skips until I find a fight that's worth at least 17 and virtually every time, I go into the fight with it being worth 17, and I come out and get closer to 13). Started seeing maxed XF/4hor teams at about 700. Others in my alliance reported not seeing that until 800 but I saw it right as I crossed 700 as per usual.

My experience in Cat-5 was significantly different. I started seeing 3*/XF teams as soon as I crossed 300 and spent the entire climb from 300 to 600 facing teams that consisted of XF (lvl 180-250), 166, Mohawk (levels varied greatly). This made the climb much harder. Since I tend to play PVP about 200 points at a time, this didn't upset me too much but I found that I couldn't sit unshielded. Once I crossed the 500 point barrier, my normal defensive teams of Patch/Daken, Thor/Daken, or Patch/Hulk didn't seem to scare anyone off as I was constantly getting knocked down. I normally can sit at 600 or so until the final three hours, make a push to 700/800, and then shield but since I was getting attacked so hard, I couldn't push past 650 or so.

esoxnepa

Nightmist wrote:

my in game name is afroless.
This was probably working as intended however here are my two cents.
Like in this article: http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazi ... aily/mr11b
I do not consider myself a strong tournament player. I enjoy playing and mixing things up, this includes using my 2* star teams or hybrids in various ways while climbing as I find this fun.
I rarely win events but I'm fine with this as I play for the enjoyment more than victory. The change to having to play the 166 teams limits my ability to use the roster diversity I have built and is not anywhere near as fun. More specificall,y in limiting the creativity I can apply to achieve victory throughout the first 3 to 4 hundred points has made the game less enjoyable to play and more of a feeling of grinding using the same team or two over and over again despite my opponents. If I am trying to win an event fine. xforce gthor on every team is what it is. But I feel for my high end roster the climb was less enjoyable

I really hope you get a lot more upvotes for this. The article does a great job of explaining the different player types. I also think you are one of the player types that isn't often heard from on the forum. Someone who wants to enjoy being able to play the diversity of their roster and still progress in the game.

Unknown

Demiurge_Will wrote:

This can make Versus unplayable for those players or give them an unfair advantage.

If you're really concerned about unfair advantages, how about you fix the bug that causes people to cycle through the same 3-6 people when skipping in PvP even though many around those people on the points ladder are unshielded.

I can't count the amount of iso I've spent looking for a target I know is unshielded as per the ladder but see the same 18-22 point targets. Meanwhile people in my chat are queuing people with no problem.

And before you suggest a reset, been there and done that. I suspect this is your MMR tampering. The only "MMR" you need are points.

When looking for targets, make it so I can see people 25% below and above me. BOOM, mmr solved. You're welcome. If they have the score to be that close then its a fair match.

Unknown

papa07 wrote:

Name: Papa07
Front page-ish: 12 @135 (with 12 or 13 covers) - BP,Blade,Cap,Daken,Falcon,Hood,Hulk,HT,Patch,Psy,Sentry,Thor
Team: Thor (boosted@203) with (early) Storm (141) and Blade (135) or (late) Hulk (135) and Patch (135)
Final score: 582 (Peaked over 650) - Slice 5

Points were a little easier to get. Climbed to 500 against all 94s (or boosted at 141), but instead of points being 25 starting at 200 and shrinking to 17, the points started around 30 or 35 and shrank to 25-27 as I climbed. Once I got to 500, the 3stars started getting mixed in, but with plenty of Ares/Thor and Storm (all at 141). Past 600, I started seeing some 166s (and boosted 249) but no 270s, just some underleveled 4stars.

It seemed the wall was pushed back a little, but I personally did not push as hard as during the season. Better still, my matches were being made against people with more points than me, rather than someone 100 below me. That was a refreshing change.

Cat-5 was a different animal. I was in slice3, but did not play enough. I was destroying my roster on PvE, and did not put in the time. Peaked at 530, finished at 490. I thought the match ups were pretty good. I saw a wide variety of teams on the climb up, anything from unmaxed 2* to level 270s. When I skipped, anything was possible to be next. The biggest difference was that they were mostly worth 25-30 points.

With hindsight, it feels like Divine Champions was the same old-same old, as I saw lots of 94s, but due to the nature of the event, they were scoring higher than usual and were worth more points. Cat-5 seemed to throw MMR out the window and match me up with teams based on their current score. I liked it, but not sure if I would have been as happy if I had pushed for another 150 points as the attacks were coming in fast at the end.

Unknown

In cat-5 I started to see lvl 270 after I have reach 100 point. But it jump back to lvl 94/166 wall in 200+ point. Totally unplayable when I have reach 300+ point. The matching is really bad for me

BillyBobJoe

"&#91 wrote: »

"]

Demiurge_Will wrote:

This can make Versus unplayable for those players or give them an unfair advantage.

If you're really concerned about unfair advantages, how about you fix the bug that causes people to cycle through the same 3-6 people when skipping in PvP even though many around those people on the points ladder are unshielded.

I can't count the amount of iso I've spent looking for a target I know is unshielded as per the ladder but see the same 18-22 point targets. Meanwhile people in my chat are queuing people with no problem.

And before you suggest a reset, been there and done that. I suspect this is your MMR tampering. The only "MMR" you need are points.

When looking for targets, make it so I can see people 25% below and above me. BOOM, mmr solved. You're welcome. If they have the score to be that close then its a fair match.

This is my biggest complaint. It would seem that only about a dozen people play MPQ, based on the fact that when I skip an opponent I see that same 10 or 12 people showing up on my queue. And they are only worth 10-15 points. After paying the skip tax 50 times, I may get lucky and catch a 25-30 pt opponent enter my queue.

The matchmaking seems to take into account who is currently active. This leads to the speed playing/shield hopping. People want to keep their 20 pts they earned from one match, praying that they don't get walloped with -60 pts when they finished one match because they were attacked by 3 people.

In my experience, I can be shielded for 8 hrs and only get attacked twice, but the minute I play one match, I get nailed 3-4 times and lose 60-100 pts (versus my 15 or 20 pts I gained during the match).

I don't know if activity is part of the matchmaking at all, but this is my observation, and it is seriously frustrating.

whitecat31

Was this match making implemented during the season with update 71?
Since update 71 there have been teams with two star rosters that are basically invisible to me in lightning rounds and season events.
Are we punishing players for having good rosters?

Unknown

"&#91 wrote: »

"]

Demiurge_Will wrote:

This can make Versus unplayable for those players or give them an unfair advantage.

If you're really concerned about unfair advantages, how about you fix the bug that causes people to cycle through the same 3-6 people when skipping in PvP even though many around those people on the points ladder are unshielded.

I can't count the amount of iso I've spent looking for a target I know is unshielded as per the ladder but see the same 18-22 point targets. Meanwhile people in my chat are queuing people with no problem.

And before you suggest a reset, been there and done that. I suspect this is your MMR tampering. The only "MMR" you need are points.

When looking for targets, make it so I can see people 25% below and above me. BOOM, mmr solved. You're welcome. If they have the score to be that close then its a fair match.

This. When I'm in 7th place and can clearly see #2 unshielded but cannot bring him up on my queue after 500+ iso skips....where's the logic in that.

That's really my only gripe with matchmaking. Same 5-6 players when there are plenty of others ripe for the picking.

Unknown

Were the changes in match-making supposed to deal with the problem the game creates were it traps you with 5-10 more teams in a bubble? Ever since I started playing again (2 weeks ago), once I get to 650+ I see the same opponents, no matter how many times I skip. Sometimes the teams each node gives you differ, but it's possible to see a team on all the nodes if you skip enough. What is the logic behind skipping (it goes as far as to cost ISO) if you can't find different teams? I remember that the game had this problem 7-8 months ago when I took a break and is still present. I find hard to believe that after 650 there are only 10 teams with the same MMR as mine.