PvP event limiting pool of potential players

shteev

I've noticed you don't seem to be able to play all the players in your bracket in a PvP. In fact, I seem to be limited to a very small amount of them.

A few Events ago, I just played one player, all the time. Couldn't get anyone else, no matter how much I quit out of nodes and re-entered, or how many games I played. This last event started the same way, with me only being able to play one player, but gradually, as the number of players in my bracket grew, I was able to play a second, then up to 4, and finally, at the end of the event, I could play about 10 different people, in a bracket of at least 180. I kept a list of their names just to be sure, and I quit and re-started a lot of levels to be even more sure.

Come to think of it, this would explain why I had to play EDHDad's Kiora deck so many times in the first NoP (it's a shocker of a deck, I don't mind telling you!), and it might also explain why sometimes people enter the event and can't find any opponents to play (which hasn't happened to me but I've seen reported a number of times).

What's going on? It's even been suggested to me that this is because there are large numbers of fake players in the game, but I suspect that's a little paranoid.

Rootbreaker

Yeah, it seems to me that I'm often picking between 5-10 different decks, as opposed to the hundreds in my bracket.

Ekkias

I've noticed this as well. Same 6-10 players show up.

madwren

Yup, same here. I originally thought it was players online at the same time as me, but that would be a lot of coincidence to be the same handful of players every time.

shteev

madwren wrote:

Yup, same here. I originally thought it was players online at the same time as me, but that would be a lot of coincidence to be the same handful of players every time.

Yeah, I wondered maybe if the limit was geographical, but since we're not playing real time PvP against humans it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense...

glggwp

always playing with the same bunch of people, always getting the same dupes, always not getting some other cards...

Pqmtg-

shteev wrote:

I've noticed you don't seem to be able to play all the players in your bracket in a PvP. In fact, I seem to be limited to a very small amount of them.

A few Events ago, I just played one player, all the time. Couldn't get anyone else, no matter how much I quit out of nodes and re-entered, or how many games I played. This last event started the same way, with me only being able to play one player, but gradually, as the number of players in my bracket grew, I was able to play a second, then up to 4, and finally, at the end of the event, I could play about 10 different people, in a bracket of at least 180. I kept a list of their names just to be sure, and I quit and re-started a lot of levels to be even more sure.

Come to think of it, this would explain why I had to play EDHDad's Kiora deck so many times in the first NoP (it's a shocker of a deck, I don't mind telling you!), and it might also explain why sometimes people enter the event and can't find any opponents to play (which hasn't happened to me but I've seen reported a number of times).

What's going on? It's even been suggested to me that this is because there are large numbers of fake players in the game, but I suspect that's a little paranoid.

My theory is there is some (very bad) player seeding going on. I'm never up against weak decks. And I know they exist because my friend gets them all the time.

madwren

Pqmtg- wrote:

shteev wrote:

I've noticed you don't seem to be able to play all the players in your bracket in a PvP. In fact, I seem to be limited to a very small amount of them.

A few Events ago, I just played one player, all the time. Couldn't get anyone else, no matter how much I quit out of nodes and re-entered, or how many games I played. This last event started the same way, with me only being able to play one player, but gradually, as the number of players in my bracket grew, I was able to play a second, then up to 4, and finally, at the end of the event, I could play about 10 different people, in a bracket of at least 180. I kept a list of their names just to be sure, and I quit and re-started a lot of levels to be even more sure.

Come to think of it, this would explain why I had to play EDHDad's Kiora deck so many times in the first NoP (it's a shocker of a deck, I don't mind telling you!), and it might also explain why sometimes people enter the event and can't find any opponents to play (which hasn't happened to me but I've seen reported a number of times).

What's going on? It's even been suggested to me that this is because there are large numbers of fake players in the game, but I suspect that's a little paranoid.

My theory is there is some (very bad) player seeding going on. I'm never up against weak decks. And I know they exist because my friend gets them all the time.

You're right in that's probably part of it, I agree. I'm almost always in the top 20 on these events, and I'm always matched repeatedly with people who are in the 1-25 range unless I cycle through 8-10 opponents or so.

shteev

Naah, I'm being matched against players down at the bottom of the table as well, sometimes players with 0 pts and low level planeswalkers when mine are all level 60.

jimilinho_

shteev wrote:

Naah, I'm being matched against players down at the bottom of the table as well, sometimes players with 0 pts and low level planeswalkers when mine are all level 60.

It's another strange feature in these events, My pool is around 5 or 6 different players and after a while you know which decks to play against and which to avoid. It's useful in one aspect but it does make the events stale pretty quickly (Insert Yawning Emoji here)