Let’s talk about matchmaking

Battlegrounds are an interesting and well rewarding aspect of the game. Unfortunately, the truth must be told. Matchmaking does not work as it should. The current system forces players to drop down to lower divisions in order to gain bg coins quickly and easily. This is most detrimental to honest players who want to compete and fight according to the spirit of fair play. I am currently a paragon with a total Base hero rating of 1,700,000+
I have played 26 matches so far. After each match, I checked my opponent's account. Only 3 of them had lower TBHR and Summoner Prestige. Average TBHR: 3,050,000 It appears that I am forced to compete against opponents who have practically double the value of my account. Why hasn't the BG system lived to see a fair and effective MM system until now? After all, there are many online games where implemented solutions have been used for years and brought the expected benefits. Why won't this be made a priority, so as not to force players to combine in what is the easiest way to get rewards from this entertainment system.
At the most, the only thing left for me is to give up, wait out this season and farm inferior players next season already in lower divisions.

Comments

mgj0630

Multiple times a season, ever since Kabam took the training wheels off of matchmaking, many people want to "talk" (complain) about it.

The system is designed to reward the best players, and a harsh reality of that, is that roaster strength is a factor in that.

This means that as you climb, you will face stronger competition.

Another harsh reality check that should be pointed out is that a 1.7 million rating is frankly, extremely low. With the Valiant title only just becoming available last week, many Paragons have hero ratings in the 4 to 5, and some even 6 millions.

The last harsh reality is that you have likely reached your ceiling, and need to seek other avenues to expand your roster, not ask Kabam to change a system that is working as intended.

DNA3000

Battlegrounds are an interesting and well rewarding aspect of the game. Unfortunately, the truth must be told. Matchmaking does not work as it should. The current system forces players to drop down to lower divisions in order to gain bg coins quickly and easily. This is most detrimental to honest players who want to compete and fight according to the spirit of fair play. I am currently a paragon with a total Base hero rating of 1,700,000+
I have played 26 matches so far. After each match, I checked my opponent's account. Only 3 of them had lower TBHR and Summoner Prestige. Average TBHR: 3,050,000 It appears that I am forced to compete against opponents who have practically double the value of my account. Why hasn't the BG system lived to see a fair and effective MM system until now? After all, there are many online games where implemented solutions have been used for years and brought the expected benefits. Why won't this be made a priority, so as not to force players to combine in what is the easiest way to get rewards from this entertainment system.
At the most, the only thing left for me is to give up, wait out this season and farm inferior players next season already in lower divisions.

You're mistaken in several ways.

First off, the way most ladder based competitions work, even in many other online games, is by ratings based match making. Which is essentially the system used in the Gladiator Circuit. In ratings based matching you are matched against players with similar win/loss ratios. You are not insulated against matching against someone with much stronger or weaker rosters. You match against similar ratings, and that's all. And you win or you lose accordingly. This is also how Alliance war works in MCOC.

Second, when opponent strength is factored into matching in other games, there's usually a specific reason for doing so. There's often different reward ladders for different strength opponents, in other words you don't match against higher opponents, because you don't get to compete for their rewards. MCOC doesn't do this because a) there might not be enough players to do this consistently, and b) this kind of segmentation doesn't just protect players from stronger players, it also makes it literally impossible for lower progress players to compete for higher rewards no matter how good they are. My Cav alt has gotten into GC more than once. My UC alt has almost gotten into GC. Anyone can compete for top prizes under the current system in theory. You're unlikely to get there, but you can try.

Third, it is not like Kabam hasn't done this before. They did roster based matching in Alliance War, and they did roster/progress matching in Battlegrounds. In both cases this generated absurd results, if you believe the point to competitive ladders is to reward the strongest players. When roster based matching was implemented in Alliance War you had alliances with tiny accounts reaching master level rewards because they never had to face the strongest alliances. They could simply compete in a tiny pond of low progress alliances, beat them all, get a high war rating and point multiple, and then rise to the top of the leaderboards. Some players actually think this is fair; they beat "equal" competition and so should rise to the top. But no competition is about only beating "equal" competition. Competitions are about beating everyone, not just hand picked opponents you know you can beat. It took Kabam years to reverse that one, under a barrage of complaints, but they eventually did.

The same thing happened in Battlegrounds. You had low progress players only playing against other low progress players, while high progress players were forced to play only the strongest players in the game. It could actually become a *penalty* to progress or grow roster, because all things being equal doing those things increased the strength of your competition. Once again you had very tiny accounts placing far higher than vastly stronger accounts, because those players rarely or never had to face strong opponents.

BG match making is the way it is not because it hasn't been fixed yet. It is the way it is because it has been fixed. This is what it is supposed to be. If you want to drop to lower VT tiers, go ahead. In tiers below Platinum battlegrounds still uses progress and roster strength based match making. You will face roughly equal competition in those tiers. It is in the higher tiers above Platinum where everyone must face everyone else in increasing frequency. So there's no such thing as dropping all the way to the bottom and farming wins.

There's also no such thing as dropping to low Platinum and farming wins, because that's now considered anticompetitive and can get you banned. But also, absent a special bonus milestone season, I have no idea why anyone would even want to do that. There's more rewards in winning and rising to higher tiers or GC than there are in the solo BG milestone rewards. And if you are in an alliance that puts a gun to your head and demands farming BG milestone points, that's a problem with your alliance, not with the game.

TL;DR: Kabam is not making it a priority to fix match making because it has been fixed. The way it is now *is* the fix for the problems of doing it in all the other ways some players want it to work, but are demonstrably horrible. They aren't even *trying* to do what you're wondering about, because they did that once and it was a dumpster fire.

Demonzfyre

I read the "truth must be told" and then never read the truth....

PT_99

Repeat after me.
"BG is a competition, BG is a competition."

One more time to make sure.
"BG is a competition."

So tell me why should Kabam allow anyone to compete lower players for same rewards? It's just matchmaking, sometimes you get higher players sometimes lower, the more you climb ranks the harder competition you face.

High rewards = Hard match.

Greekhit

Here we go again 😂
This season though is kinda better with the matchmaking complain posts.
Gradually players accept the reality, that matchmaking is like that for a reason (to ensure BGs are a competitive mode and encourage players grow their rosters), and it's not going to change anytime soon 🙂

ahmynuts

I ain't reading allat, but im 99.99% positive it can be countered with

ItsClobberinTime

God 50% of the threads everyday are about matchmaking when will people give it a rest

Echeon

Repeat after me.
"BG is a competition, BG is a competition."

One more time to make sure.
"BG is a competition."

So tell me why should Kabam allow anyone to compete lower players for same rewards? It's just matchmaking, sometimes you get higher players sometimes lower, the more you climb ranks the harder competition you face.

High rewards = Hard match.

Because your maximum attainable level on battlefrounds should be determined mainly by skill gap and not by money gap

TheTitanium

“The whales have spoken”
I have had the same problem as Echeon and i would like the players with 3 mil rating and 5 rank 2s to try and even win a match with our accounts. It’s like every champ we have, they have the perfect counter. Don’t even get me started on the stubborn AI and countless impossible matchups won by whale paragons who have allready done necro twice.

PT_99

I will never ever, I mean NEVER will understand the entitlement from lower accounts that they deserve the vibranium and GC rewards with their low/medium hero deck, just think for a good second.

Let's imagine, higher accounts have deck rating of 92 out of 100, so why do YOU (70 rating deck) think you DESERVE to win or not face that high deck? Even tho you are competing for SAME rewards?

Rewards are same, so matchmaking will be same.
If yall want to face equal matches every single time then Kabam should introduce the rewards appropriate designed for each progression level. (Just like monthly and event rewards are designed for each progression level and put this thing to rest)

Tldr :- want to progress in BG? Start ranking up champs or attain skills higher than MSD/Karate/your favourite youtuber.

ahmynuts

“The whales have spoken”
I have had the same problem as Echeon and i would like the players with 3 mil rating and 5 rank 2s to try and even win a match with our accounts. It’s like every champ we have, they have the perfect counter. Don’t even get me started on the stubborn AI and countless impossible matchups won by whale paragons who have allready done necro twice.

Someone needs to tell you that what you have defined is not a whale. Might as well be me.

Players with that kind of roster will still get absolutely smacked by larger accounts. There is always a bigger fish (minus Usafa) it's just that people who play the game for a long time understand that and don't b*tch about it 24/7

Demonzfyre

Repeat after me.
"BG is a competition, BG is a competition."

One more time to make sure.
"BG is a competition."

So tell me why should Kabam allow anyone to compete lower players for same rewards? It's just matchmaking, sometimes you get higher players sometimes lower, the more you climb ranks the harder competition you face.

High rewards = Hard match.
Because your maximum attainable level on battlefrounds should be determined mainly by skill gap and not by money gap

Skill can overcome money most any time. But if you're saying a Cavalier player should be able to make it to rank 1 in BG's with 5*'s in their deck, that's just not how it works.

Demonzfyre

“The whales have spoken”
I have had the same problem as Echeon and i would like the players with 3 mil rating and 5 rank 2s to try and even win a match with our accounts. It’s like every champ we have, they have the perfect counter. Don’t even get me started on the stubborn AI and countless impossible matchups won by whale paragons who have allready done necro twice.

The problem is that you think you're in a separate league than everyone else. For some reason, you think you shouldn't have to face any opponent that has a bigger account than you. Can you tell me any competitive sport out there that does this?

And before you say "well little league teams don't have to play major league teams", that's not a fair comparison because they aren't playing in the same leagues. BG's has one league and that's it.

ReignkingTW

God 50% of the threads everyday are about matchmaking when will people give it a rest

I'm shocked people still respond.

Shivacrux

Repeat after me.
"BG is a competition, BG is a competition."

One more time to make sure.
"BG is a competition."

So tell me why should Kabam allow anyone to compete lower players for same rewards? It's just matchmaking, sometimes you get higher players sometimes lower, the more you climb ranks the harder competition you face.

High rewards = Hard match.
Because your maximum attainable level on battlefrounds should be determined mainly by skill gap and not by money gap

If you think people with 3m account are whales,then wait for megs

Ironman3000

It's a competition, not a charity.

mbgibson

Pretty sure multiple streamers have taken their alt accounts into GC. I know Nick136 has a video of "Spot136" in GC last month. That account has a TBHR of around 1.2M mil. He even had some 5* 6/65 champs in his deck.

That just goes to show that skill and game knowledge are still very much a factor in BG progression. People often underestimate just how much skill gap there actually is.

laserjohn26

Battlegrounds are an interesting and well rewarding aspect of the game. Unfortunately, the truth must be told. Matchmaking does not work as it should. The current system forces players to drop down to lower divisions in order to gain bg coins quickly and easily. This is most detrimental to honest players who want to compete and fight according to the spirit of fair play. I am currently a paragon with a total Base hero rating of 1,700,000+
I have played 26 matches so far. After each match, I checked my opponent's account. Only 3 of them had lower TBHR and Summoner Prestige. Average TBHR: 3,050,000 It appears that I am forced to compete against opponents who have practically double the value of my account. Why hasn't the BG system lived to see a fair and effective MM system until now? After all, there are many online games where implemented solutions have been used for years and brought the expected benefits. Why won't this be made a priority, so as not to force players to combine in what is the easiest way to get rewards from this entertainment system.
At the most, the only thing left for me is to give up, wait out this season and farm inferior players next season already in lower divisions.

There are a plethora of fallacies in your post. The most glaring is the 1.7 account rating excuse. You only use 30 champs as does your opponent. Plenty of summoners have started brand new accounts and made gladiator circuit with an account that only has a few hundred thousand rating and streamed the entire journey on YouTube.

I hate to say it, but it's true. Skill issue.

Echeon

I will never ever, I mean NEVER will understand the entitlement from lower accounts that they deserve the vibranium and GC rewards with their low/medium hero deck, just think for a good second.

Let's imagine, higher accounts have deck rating of 92 out of 100, so why do YOU (70 rating deck) think you DESERVE to win or not face that high deck? Even tho you are competing for SAME rewards?

Rewards are same, so matchmaking will be same.
If yall want to face equal matches every single time then Kabam should introduce the rewards appropriate designed for each progression level. (Just like monthly and event rewards are designed for each progression level and put this thing to rest)

Tldr :- want to progress in BG? Start ranking up champs or attain skills higher than MSD/Karate/your favourite youtuber.

It's not about winning certain awards or entering the Gladiator Circuit. Battlegrounds is my favorite game mode. I really enjoy the fierce and evenly matched encounters, where the fate of victory is weighed until the last seconds. It is sad to hit much stronger rivals all the time. I'm not interested in rewards, just a fair opportunity to skirmish with other players. Prizes are absolutely a secondary issue for me

Echeon

“The whales have spoken”
I have had the same problem as Echeon and i would like the players with 3 mil rating and 5 rank 2s to try and even win a match with our accounts. It’s like every champ we have, they have the perfect counter. Don’t even get me started on the stubborn AI and countless impossible matchups won by whale paragons who have allready done necro twice.
The problem is that you think you're in a separate league than everyone else. For some reason, you think you shouldn't have to face any opponent that has a bigger account than you. Can you tell me any competitive sport out there that does this?

And before you say "well little league teams don't have to play major league teams", that's not a fair comparison because they aren't playing in the same leagues. BG's has one league and that's it.

This is how professional sports are designed. Inferior teams, with smaller budgets, can compete against each other and go on to enjoy victories and progression, or even win their own league. Imagine the morale of a team that loses 23 games and wins only 3 of them. They can't fall lower, they can't advance further. All that's left is figuring out how to do is to hit the weakest possible opponent in each draw. And then many players complain, about deliberately losing matches and being stuck in lower divisions

Ironman3000

“The whales have spoken”
I have had the same problem as Echeon and i would like the players with 3 mil rating and 5 rank 2s to try and even win a match with our accounts. It’s like every champ we have, they have the perfect counter. Don’t even get me started on the stubborn AI and countless impossible matchups won by whale paragons who have allready done necro twice.
The problem is that you think you're in a separate league than everyone else. For some reason, you think you shouldn't have to face any opponent that has a bigger account than you. Can you tell me any competitive sport out there that does this?

And before you say "well little league teams don't have to play major league teams", that's not a fair comparison because they aren't playing in the same leagues. BG's has one league and that's it.
This is how professional sports are designed. Inferior teams, with smaller budgets, can compete against each other and go on to enjoy victories and progression, or even win their own league. Imagine the morale of a team that loses 23 games and wins only 3 of them. They can't fall lower, they can't advance further. All that's left is figuring out how to do is to hit the weakest possible opponent in each draw. And then many players complain, about deliberately losing matches and being stuck in lower divisions

Except for the fact that those teams in the lower levels compete for lower rewards than the top teams.

You're fighting for the same rewards as everyone else in BGs so your training-wheels get taken off in Plat. IMO you shouldn't have them at all in the lower levels but Kabam has decided that everyone gets' BG rewards up to Plat.

laserjohn26

“The whales have spoken”
I have had the same problem as Echeon and i would like the players with 3 mil rating and 5 rank 2s to try and even win a match with our accounts. It’s like every champ we have, they have the perfect counter. Don’t even get me started on the stubborn AI and countless impossible matchups won by whale paragons who have allready done necro twice.
The problem is that you think you're in a separate league than everyone else. For some reason, you think you shouldn't have to face any opponent that has a bigger account than you. Can you tell me any competitive sport out there that does this?

And before you say "well little league teams don't have to play major league teams", that's not a fair comparison because they aren't playing in the same leagues. BG's has one league and that's it.
This is how professional sports are designed. Inferior teams, with smaller budgets, can compete against each other and go on to enjoy victories and progression, or even win their own league. Imagine the morale of a team that loses 23 games and wins only 3 of them. They can't fall lower, they can't advance further. All that's left is figuring out how to do is to hit the weakest possible opponent in each draw. And then many players complain, about deliberately losing matches and being stuck in lower divisions

Exactly and that's why the best sports leagues have salary caps. It evens the playing field, just like deck construction. Except it's even better. The Kansas city Chiefs can't go buy every best player on the league and you have none. Further you can both have the same players. And for instance if you can't afford Patrick Mahomes and the other team can, you can just say he can't play in the game. Along with Travis Kelce and whomever you think is the third best player. It's truly designed for parity.

Stature

It's a competition, not a charity.

Now it's a competition. When it benefits you the stance is very different.

BringPopcorn

Agh is like there is one of this posts every time someone becomes UC 🤣

PT_99

“The whales have spoken”
I have had the same problem as Echeon and i would like the players with 3 mil rating and 5 rank 2s to try and even win a match with our accounts. It’s like every champ we have, they have the perfect counter. Don’t even get me started on the stubborn AI and countless impossible matchups won by whale paragons who have allready done necro twice.
The problem is that you think you're in a separate league than everyone else. For some reason, you think you shouldn't have to face any opponent that has a bigger account than you. Can you tell me any competitive sport out there that does this?

And before you say "well little league teams don't have to play major league teams", that's not a fair comparison because they aren't playing in the same leagues. BG's has one league and that's it.
This is how professional sports are designed. Inferior teams, with smaller budgets, can compete against each other and go on to enjoy victories and progression, or even win their own league. Imagine the morale of a team that loses 23 games and wins only 3 of them. They can't fall lower, they can't advance further. All that's left is figuring out how to do is to hit the weakest possible opponent in each draw. And then many players complain, about deliberately losing matches and being stuck in lower divisions

Except for the fact that those teams in the lower levels compete for lower rewards than the top teams.

You're fighting for the same rewards as everyone else in BGs so your training-wheels get taken off in Plat. IMO you shouldn't have them at all in the lower levels but Kabam has decided that everyone gets' BG rewards up to Plat.

BG should've been opened when player make it to Cavalier, beating the collector these days is like cakewalk.

But Kabam have it opened for "whatever the rank below uncollected is called" as well, very fun.

Demonzfyre

“The whales have spoken”
I have had the same problem as Echeon and i would like the players with 3 mil rating and 5 rank 2s to try and even win a match with our accounts. It’s like every champ we have, they have the perfect counter. Don’t even get me started on the stubborn AI and countless impossible matchups won by whale paragons who have allready done necro twice.
The problem is that you think you're in a separate league than everyone else. For some reason, you think you shouldn't have to face any opponent that has a bigger account than you. Can you tell me any competitive sport out there that does this?

And before you say "well little league teams don't have to play major league teams", that's not a fair comparison because they aren't playing in the same leagues. BG's has one league and that's it.
This is how professional sports are designed. Inferior teams, with smaller budgets, can compete against each other and go on to enjoy victories and progression, or even win their own league. Imagine the morale of a team that loses 23 games and wins only 3 of them. They can't fall lower, they can't advance further. All that's left is figuring out how to do is to hit the weakest possible opponent in each draw. And then many players complain, about deliberately losing matches and being stuck in lower divisions

Imagine being the Oakland Athletics-

You have the worst record in baseball and you played in the division with the team that won the World Series. But you're in the same league as them and you play them many times throughout the season.

Last year the Washington Nationals had the worst record in the MLB-

They made improvements and while still in last place in 2023 they are 21 games better than the Athletics in 2023-

This is an example of what we're all referring to here. At some point, you're going to be the Athletics. You'll compete with smaller rosters (The Athletics traditionally pay very little in salary to their players) and you'll win some and lose some (probably more often), but you'll get things along the way to help you improve.

You have to understand that you are in a pool with everyone and you're all competing for the same rewards and everything else. You will have limits, and you'll just have to keep improving in order to win more matches in BGs. It's how the mode is meant to be played.

Ironman3000

It's a competition, not a charity.
Now it's a competition. When it benefits you the stance is very different.

Not sure what point you're trying to make, but I'm fairly certain that it is incorrect.

Stature

It's a competition, not a charity.
Now it's a competition. When it benefits you the stance is very different.
Not sure what point you're trying to make, but I'm fairly certain that it is incorrect.

You only use the competition line in cases where it helps you. You don't really care about the competition, only that players at your level get disproportionate share of rewards and others are kept away from it. When the BG order bug was highlighted your stance was people affected should find a way to deal with it instead of the team taking an official stance and fix it. In that case its a bug which gives you an advantage so you are happy to keep it going.

PT_99

Imagine being the Oakland Athletics-

They made improvements and while still in last place in 2023 they are 21 games better than the Athletics in 2023-

ahmynuts

It's a competition, not a charity.
Now it's a competition. When it benefits you the stance is very different.

I know you thought you did something here, but you just proved your own point to be wrong with the pic little bro