Understanding unbalanced matchmaking

[Benched]

Matchmaking based on power has been a discussion for quite a long time. People fighting teams with a few thousand power difference then them, either much higher or much lower. I’m creating this thread to create a few findings from many many PvP matches trying to figure out the best way for players to find a equal match!

Here’s the biggest take away I found

• TEAMS THAT HAVE IDENTICAL HEROES IN RANK, STARS, AND LEVEL WILL FIND THE BEST/EQUAL MATCHES.

This may be find of self-explanatory, but the less of a gap between your heroes in all 3 factors i listed above the more consistent you will find matches where people have similar power levels to you, usually less then a 1000 power difference.Some examples below:

Identical rank,level,and stars

These are just a small sample, but they show what I am talking about. Each team was composed of 5 heroes all the same rank(withing 1 to 2 stripes seemed to be fine), stars, and level. Although I’m not getting exact power matches, there are typically very close. This isn’t a perfect scenario though, you may get paired with teams like the second screenshot, but that was about the biggest difference in power that I faced.

Now, on the opposite end.

When you create a team with very different heroes when it comes to stars,rank, and level, you tend to always get matched up against someone with a pretty decent difference in power. Even if it is only 1 or 2 heroes, the larger the gap between the rest of your team, the larger the power gap between you and your oppenent. Some examples:

Unbalanced teams

As you can see, those are some pretty big gaps in power. 11k, 4k, 5k power gaps would make anyone say this system is broken right? Well look at the teams that were used. Ill start with the top team.
An 8 star platinum hero along with 4 silvers the highest with 5 stars. Going up against an opponent with an all gold team and similar stars. He was matched with this guy because of the difference between salv and the rest of the team. When you take the average power for that team would be 3,690, a number bigger then 4 of the actual power levels. This causes the system to think his team is better then it actually is. He is doing a disservice to himself by adding that Salvo to his team.
Same type of thing applies to the other 2 screenshots. The platinum hero over inflates the team giving the false impression that the team is stronger than it appears to be.

This is not a perfect solution, and just because you run an identical team doesn’t mean you will get a match with someone close 100% of time, its more of a guideline. I understand that having identical teams in all 3 factors may not be realistic for a lot of people, but the closer you can get your entire team to match, the better matches you are going to get.

[Cabbagesavager]

I believe that the malus for unbalanced teams seem to have been removed very recently without announcements, for reasons yet unknown, likely as a test. It could be because of unbalance at lower levels where disparity can be high between farmed and premium heroes.

Mixing and matching heroes with twice the power of others used to be met with punishment with super powerful enemies, but now it’s likely based instead of your average team power + modifications. Modifications seem to weight your strongest heroes slightly more than the rest, as when I tried matching with just one hero I’m often matched up with 5 heroes, most of the time with each of the 5 heroes having half of my power.

I also believe that there is a pseudo bracketing of PVP into leagues. After alternating between ridiculous win streaks or 3 loss wipeouts with my main team, I realise that the win and lose streaks seem to swap around when my team made a major leap in power (from a bar or star promotion). Take an example: I tend to get enemies weaker than my team at the 24k-25.5k power range, but the instant you oick a 26k team you suddenly face teams of 28k-30k.

Finally, losing and winning PVP matches appears to change your MMR. After multiple losses, the system will appear to add a negative modifier to your total team power, causing you to be matched comparatively lower powered teams. Win streaks will achieve the opposite effect. Note that the modifier seems to be applied even if you switch teams, which could be taken advantage of. In recent PVP events I’ve tried a routine oflose 2 matches with my weaker teams before fighting once with my A team, and the results were surprisingly good, with my main team able to push through 30-odd opponent teams before their lives started running out (it could just be Panzer though).

All this are based on my personal observation, and should be accounted as speculation and assumptions until more people can try to prove a trend.