The aim of this thread is not for me to whine about the current status quo, nor to ask others to find justification why this is okay and why we should just deal with it.
There is a problem in matchmaking that many teams suffer from. I want us to discuss possible solutions, and I hope someone representing SP can chime in and tell us if they will consider these solutions or if there any plans to improve war matchmaking.
First, an overview of my team to put things in perspective:
Our MP is 978,403.
7 of our members have MP ranging from 40k to 52k (highest). The rest range from 16k to 39k, with the majority being in the 20k range.
we have 2 players that have 3 or 4 130 legends.
the rest of our 30-member team have monsters that range between 100 and115, with 2 or 3 monsters at 120 at most, which are often max ranked breed-able epics.
Approximately, 1/3 of our members use level 8 runes or higher (very few X runes), 1/3 use 7s and 6s. and 1/3 use 5s, and 4s.
In our last 5 wars:
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Earliest one: we matched vs a team that has MP of 2.045 Million a top 20 team.
Their minimum requirements in their description is: 130s and 120s and level 8+ runes, and there was more Xs and 130s on their first 5 islands than our entire team combined.
we had no chance in that one and lost 175 to 419. -
Second and third one: we were matched with teams that had similar MP to us: 1.157 Million and 1.5 Million to our to our 978k. We won both wars 370 range vs 190 range. Even though they had better runes, they left several attacks and were less disciplined using B and C teams that lost to our simple defenses.
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Fourth one: we were matched with a team 1.29 MP that was as active. This was our closest and most fun war I can remember. We won 315 to 301 last 30 mins.
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Fifth one (current one) Now we are gain matched vs a top 50 team. with 2.25 Million MP and their minimum requirements are 130s and X runes. we will have no chance whatsoever against them.
So out of these 5 wars: 3 were really in our range, and 2 were completely out of our range vs top 50 teams. There is a problem here. This pattern continues through out our history.
We do not want easy wins, nor impossible matches, we want exciting, challenging, close wars. That's why we play.
Suggestions for Solutions:
1) Remove War coins earned as a factor for matchmaking:
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In the past, "war coins earned past x days" was not a factor in matchmaking at all. It relied mostly on the team's Monster power. That was a much better assessment, imo. If you see a team with 2 million MP and a team with 500k MP you already know who will win.
MP is an indication of how many ranked monsters they have, which will be a huge factor in determining who wins. Teams with high ranked monsters will often also have high runes. -
War coins earned however are not an indication: My team uses speed charts, has a policy against using B monsters, and we maximize each win. Our war coin output on our wins is high, can be comparable to some top teams, but our monsters and runes are not. Matching us with teams that have our war coin output, but double and sometimes triple our MP is punishing us for being active and efficient.
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Teams now jump to a new team (reform) to wipe away their war coin history to eliminate that factor, and to be honest after we had 3/9 wars against top 30 teams that we had no shot against, we did that too some months ago.
So why have war coin history be a factor at all? when something is not fair people find a way to bypass it.
2) Add a forfeit option
- In pvp when you come across a team you have no chance against you can skip it, or press the X and get out of it. In wars you have to sit 2 days to take a beating with no way out.
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Allow a team to forfeit. Having to lose 2 days sitting around waiting for a war, we have no shot at, to end is a waste of time. Allowing a team to forfeit, thus removing its cooldowns, and allowing it to war again vs someone more fair helps teams avoid a lot of frustration.
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some restrictions can be put: Only allowed to forfeit once every 5 wars.
Team that forfeits gets nothing, other team gets 90% of max possible war coins. can even make team that forfeit only get 90% of the war coins it earns in its next win. -
you become immune to matching with the team you forfeited to, for at least 10 wars. (there is no point if you forfeit then match them right after) and this prevents teams from abusing it by making fake teams and forfeiting to themselves.
3) Unified pool system and globalizing war start time
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Wars start at the same time for everyone... a certain global time.
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All teams that want to participate in upcoming war, have say x hours to submit their entry.
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All teams worldwide that want to participate in that war, will be in one pool.
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After the period for submitting entry expires, Matchmaking then matches teams with similar MP and whatever other criteria.
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Having more teams to pick from, from the pool, should ensure much better matches for everyone!
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This also disallows teams to intentionally match or avoid each other by waiting a certain time.
These 3 points are my suggestions on how this can be rectified to make wars more challenging and yet fair, and ultimately fun!
I have seen several other great suggestions by fellow forum users on the old forums, who I hope can repost them in this thread.
- Pyramidal matchmaking discussed by @C0ntr1v3d
- League system with a certain maximum rank for monster allowed (suggested by @Portgas-D.-Ace )
- Another form of Leagues suggested by @Omar-Sharif
- Allow losing teams to still get their entire war coins earned. by @MarshallTheBeef