What's wrong with Matchmaker(tm) today?

All my matches have a 1000 Infamy spread... 2600-3600. Being well under 3000 and not a T5 Epic in sight, it's not enjoyable to go up against full Epic T5 loadouts. I'd honestly rather wait for fair matches than be put into these seal clubbing matches. To do this type of spread, Matchmaker(tm) needs to be much on its game to avoid imbalances, but we all know it's just not up to the task. Time for Fortnite.

 

With fleets allowing an 800 infamy spread (last I checked), it's not all that surprising. You'll see ranges over 1500 infamy in NML.

As you go up the ladder, you'll end up facing more of the same players and fleets more often. Without a broad range, you'd see them every single match - with longer wait times.

I understand the frustration, but the matches are usually fairly balanced team-to-team. There aren't many blowouts that are over in less than a minute. You'll typically have good players on your team to balance theirs.

And, lastly, believe it or not, it'll make you a better player. Understanding who to attack first and learning how to stay behind cover against harder hitting players are lessons you'll need. There will always be someone with better items (unless you're one of a handful of people).

 

That's fine for nightmare, but not at my current Ace II Infamy, where there should be plenty of players. The reason I'm not in mightmare is lack of T5 Epic weapons... once I have those the seal-clubbing issues start to disappear.

More importantly, from a progression standpoint, how am I supposed to climb Infamy if I have players in my matches are not at a similar Infamy? Rely on luck that I'll get one or two seal clubbers on my side? There's enough RNG in this game that matchmaking doesn't have to be RNG based as well.

 

Here's one of my matches

 

Remember when I mentioned RNG matchmaking? That match was my only win in 10 consecutive matches.

Your 4% is misleading.. That is the side by side differential. There is a 32% difference in Infamy between players. That's huge. I could come up with plenty of unfair configurations with equal infamy on both sides when infamy differential amongst players is large.

 

I'm aware of that, but IIRC these matches were being put together with very little wait, otherwise the wait would have indicated the problem with the waiting room an vd expanded infamies would make sense. Having lost 9 of 10 I wasn't finding the situation acceptable. As I said earlier I'd rather wait a bit longer to get players within a tighter range to get meaningful matches so that I can regain the 500 infamy lost since last Nightmare reset.

The point I'm trying to make is that more you go outside the range the less meaningful the outcome is. What does the above match mean to the 3570 Infamy player on the losing side... that they didn't do enough and deserve to be -24? What does it mean to me when I had two nightmare players on my side to their 1? It feels random... meaningless... and frustrating.

 

Here's another in that streak, easily my worst match in weeks being out of position the entire match, but the rest of my team was completely overwhelmed. In my experience I'd rather have a Nightmare gun boat than a Nightmare Fixer on my side... this match is an example of that.

 

I think you have your mind pretty well made up, so I doubt anything will change it ...

But, I'll try once more..

Of the two screenshots you shared, 100% of the unfriends were within fleet range of you (<800 infamy difference); and, 0% of them had full epic t5 setups.

Yes, some of them may have been in Nightmare league, but their infamy wasn't 4k+ at the time of the match. A lucky win streak or good fleet can push you higher than you belong. Presumably, they barely made it to NML then summarily got beat out of the pro league's infamy range. If they continued to only match other NMLers, their infamy would continue to drop.

And, yes, some had higher level weapons. But, as I said before, you'll have to get used to that. It still happens nearly every match to me.

I made it to NML with one max epic big torp and 7 max rares, so the weapon levels aren't nearly as important as how they work together and how you use them.

For instance, you have a jack-of-all-trades (master of none) setup. Anywhere on the map, you'll be able to do damage. But, it's not 5-weapon type damage.

If you're in a good spot for mortars, you're using 2 (or maybe 3 weapons with BT) as your cycle. If you're mid-to-close range, you're using 2-3 weapons on a cycle (EC, BC, BT). Your versatility is costing you 2-3 weapon slots. If an Enfo, Defender, Brawler Shooter, or even a Speeder gets right up on you, you're at a disadvantage. You're using the same number or less weapon slots as them - without their HP, speed, agility, Tshield or Tstun, or 5 weapon slots. If you're at a distance, you're not exactly raining terror on them with your STD mortar/FB.

You might do better if you focused on one strength or the other and started living on those portions of the map that benefit your strengths.

E.g., With a Flare, EC, BC, BT, missile/sniper/std cannon/2nd EC or BC setup, you'd unleash all sorts of damage in close-mid range areas (<25 range) where you're covered by mortar damage;

Or, a FB, LRM/BP, Sniper, BT, and whatever else (EC/BC/2nd Sniper/2nd FB, Missiles/etc) would keep 4-5 weapons working full time, if you focus on areas of the map where you can keep a >25 tile range.

 

I was questing... My normal setup is ExC, BC, BC, FB, Missile. I frequently change out BC and/or Missile for questing, events, etc. I'm lacking Epic dups of BC, Missile, and Flare that would exceed Rare so I'm just making due with what I have.

At any rate, this thread is not about me, it's about matchmaking, which is supposed to be based on Infamy. The problem is that I do not consider BB's Infamy a proper Elo-based rating for several reasons, the primary one that Infamy changes per match, and that you can play enough matches in a single day to sway your infamy many hundreds of points up or down, that frequently results in head-scratchers for matchmaking. If today you were 3000 and tomorrow 2200... who is your proper opponent? Who knows... the Boat who was 1500 yesterday or the one that will be 3800 tomorrow? We are talking much larger differentials than the 800 point fleet... possible twice that.

What I'd really like to see is a 2+ week simple moving average applied to Infamy. Smoothing it out would ensure your matches are relatively stable for at least a season rather than a few hours. Those Nightmare players I see in matches with 2600 players should never be there..... the more true measurement is their potential, and we know their very recent potential is at least 4000, and putting them against a 2600 makes less sense when you expand your time box, because a 2600 in the match could have been 2000 the day before. It's why matchmaking is a bit of a mess.

 

Gotcha. Makes sense with the setup.

But, your match rating (or MR) is hidden and is completely apart from infamy, so how do you know it's not doing that already? It fits with what you're saying.

For example, someone gets lucky or has a great fleetmate and makes it to NML .. their rolling 2 week average is still 3300 - getting to NML was simply their high point. So, it shows they're in NML for the next season, but they'll still be in matches against people around their rolling average.

Of course, the longer the time period for your rolling average, the slower it will be to take into account sudden increases in power (e.g., getting tier 5 weapons, mk6 ships, or a large amount of pearls spent on epic containers to upgrade items).

Then, there is also the issue of appearances - and maybe that's what's happening here. It appears to be more unfair based on a high point in infamy earning them a place in NML when in reality they belong in the league below.

Or ... a 2-week rolling average for infamy says that two players are at 3300. However, their current infamy points are at 2500 and 4100. According to this rolling infamy, they should be matched together. Following which, the 2500 infamy player posts a thread here exclaiming how broken MM is and how they're going to play fortnite.

 

The best solution would probably be to hide infamy, league, items, and profiles from people until they get to NML ... and have learned that none of that means a thing for your success.