What do we mean when we talk about matchmaking?

What does "good matchmaking" even mean?
Are we talking about having a long-run 50-50 win rate? Are we talking about facing similar players of similar skill and equipment? Are we talking about evenly matched teams?

Part of the reason there are so many complaints about matchmaking is that each player has different expectations. I think the devs could help by clarifying how they think about matchmaking and the game overall. In particular, I would be interested in hearing more developer guidance on the following issues:

1. What are the different attributes of a match that the developers are trying to optimize? I know that short queue time, infamy balance, and ship mk balance are all factors, but are there others? How close the outcome of the match is? How evenly players contribute? I know that every decision on the matchmaking algorithm represents a tradeoff... My question is, what tradeoffs are the developers considering? Long run winrate is far less important to me than feeling like each match is even and that I have a fair chance to contribute to the outcome.

2. Is the matchmaking algorithm predictive at all? Or is it just backward looking? I.e. Does it try to say these two teams have an equal chance of winning the next game? Or is it saying, these two teams have had equal past success? Those aren't the same question.

3. Does the game track imbalances over time and try to correct for them? By that I mean if I join a battle where the other side is heavily favored (by 5 or 6 infamy points), does that increase or my likelihood of being in a match where my side is equally heavily favored? Or if I am the lowest infamy player on a team, does that cause the game to put me in subsequent games where I'm the highest? Or do the Devs just let random chance sort this out?

4. What is the long term plan for how Rovio would like each player progresses in infamy? Do you want players to generally climb in infamy the longer they play the game? As has been discussed elsewhere, player progression is a function of the growth rate in the games user base vs the skill advantage of top players. Infamy is created when new players play matches against bots, and it's destroyed every two weeks when nightmare league infamy is reset. The more top players there are that climb the upper echelons of nightmare league, the harder and harder it is for the median player to steadily climb in infamy over time. Maybe this is intentional, but I think most players find it very frustrating. I would favor more infamy creation mechanisms such as bonus infamy for win streaks or infamy floors (similar to Hearthstone's star raking system)

Anyway, that's all for now but I would be interested to hear y'alls thoughts!

 

No.4 doesn't really seem like plan to me...Played 18k games already minus 2K all the games where i experimented.I still haven't reached NML.Sure is frustrating!

They way some players between 3.7K to 4.0K play so bad clearly states that they are being Carried.

Have also seen players gain ridiculous amount of infamy in a day to clear Nightmare.Then drop back to 3.2K to 3.3K clearly stating that infamy gain doesn't even take skill into account.Since these players drop again to what their skill level permits

It is frustrating every time to Open game and find these noobs who are carried ruin the game for you.Most of the time every 3-4th game I play on ''tilt", because the players making foolish mistakes.

Reaching a next superior league is pure luck! I don't think it even requires skill,just ridiculous win streaks in day.I was carried at 3.8K twice in my mk5 with 2K gear score less than my mk6.I after upgrading to mk6,i m stuck at 3.6K

 

Reaching a higher league can be due to luck, but to stay there season after season you need to have the required skills and gears. What for to just reach nightmare for one season, only to get demoted back to Ace the season after? I see it as an embarrassment.

Surely we have all seen the same “bad players” who do the same sh*t every time they are in our team and we wonder how they managed to maintain their infamy. We can’t possibly go through their battle log one by one, but I don’t think it’s all about luck and being carried. If you’re stuck at an infamy range for a long period of time, it means this is where you belongs to be with your skills and gears. Luck is temporary, skill is permanent