Matchmaking for events a little off?

stikxs
stikxs Posts: 533 Critical Contributor
in MtGPQ General Discussion
I've noticed in the EmO and FinF events I keep seeing the same names picked for my opponents. These players are also a solid 5-10 levels high on PW and some of them are sporting near fully rare creature sets. It seems like matchmaking shouldn't be putting some of these decks against me, with my level 12 PW and maybe 1 rare per color.

Comments

  • shteev
    shteev Posts: 2,031 Chairperson of the Boards
    I'll let you answer this one @Brigby
  • Matthew
    Matthew Posts: 605 Critical Contributor
    edited April 2017
    The way the current matchmaking system works, that is an unfortunate and unavoidable byproduct.

    Right now, you can theoretically match up against any PW belonging to any player who is in the same tier and bracket as you.

    Normally, you would expect that to mean that you will face PWs of similar level. However, since there are many players who do not max out their PWs, it's conceivable that the system would force you into mismatched games simply because it couldn't find an appropriately leveled PW for you to face.

    The other possibility is that you are playing people who entered into the event at a comparable level to your own, but who have put runes into their PWs to boost them up over the players who are at that same level.

    An example is this: Let's say you've decided to buy a new PW so that you can use them in an Arena event for the weekend because they are a requirement to participate. You buy them at level 1 and immediately go register them for the event. Then you dump about 50K runes into the PW to give them a significant boost. The side effect here is that your now beefy PW is still sitting in an event slot appropriate for the level they were at when you signed them up. This is currently a way to cheat/game the system.
  • hawkyh1
    hawkyh1 Posts: 780 Critical Contributor
    what tier are you in? is there a reason why you only
    have a level 12 pw? remember matchmaking is not
    a miracle code, maybe there just aren't that many
    suitable candidates.

    HH
  • stikxs
    stikxs Posts: 533 Critical Contributor
    hawkyh1 said:
    what tier are you in? is there a reason why you only
    have a level 12 pw? remember matchmaking is not
    a miracle code, maybe there just aren't that many
    suitable candidates.

    HH
    Bronze tier. They are still low because 1) I had read on here it's better to not inflate your PW level when you don't have the card set to support playing higher level PWs, and 2) I've been generally using the level up as a refill of sorts to get around the recharge timer when losing a match. I just assumed there would be more than a handful of low level bronze out there, but I guess if the event only has maybe a couple thousand participate maybe that handful is accurate.

    I'm fine with the matching against somewhat higher level PWs as I can reason and plan my cards better than the AI generally (and we're all at the mercy of color gems, as suspect as it may feel at times lol), but being completely outclassed on cards makes it near impossible unless all the planets align in my favor. I will say it doesn't happen 24/7 so that's good. Just something I noticed that seemed off
  • hawkyh1
    hawkyh1 Posts: 780 Critical Contributor
    if you decided to keep your planeswalker at a lower
    level to avoid decks with more powerful cards then
    the only realistic solution is to improve your chances
    of acquiring better cards. there are faults with the
    matchmaking. maybe consider joining a coalition that
    could help you work towards improving your card
    collection.

    HH

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