Intelligent skill matching in turf wars!?

[jsilva]

I was a level 50 and as high as S 52 and decided to start all over again today with a new NNID due to my frustrations with the matching and point system in ranked, vainly hoping a new ID might result in a more favourable end result (I won't get into my thinking about that, it's not the point here...).

Anyway, when I first started turf I was being matched with beginners and I felt terrible! I sometimes let them splat me because I felt so bad. However, it didn't take long for Splatoon to start matching me with level 35-50 players.

With all my frustration in ranked battle matching, here's at least one area where it seems intelligent.

Just a praise to go along with my complaints...

 

[Ayasha89]

I gotta agree with you. I got nearly to A+ recently, and the matching/ point system seem off there, but fine in Turf.

I do well, and get with other 50s or 30-50 skilled players. I decided to try out chargers (in Turf) to see how I was. No surprise, not too great starting off, and eventually a lot of 20 and unders came in. (I got 11 kills that match and felt guilty. 0-5 against skilled players) Though, I wonder if that big influx if new people was in part due to Black Friday sales recently. The game was half off I think.

My fiancé started to play and usually has natural skill in gaming, and not long after he started, he was with the big squids. I had to explain how people could predict or know where he went to hide or swam off too, as he got pretty frustrated quickly.

 

[NeoSeth]

I still have salt in Turf War matchmaking because of how it handles dividing the weapons (I was on a team of 4 Splat Charger variants on Blackbelly tonight. Whyyyyyyy?), but it does seem to adjust pretty quickly based on your performance. I let my sister play on my account and she eventually dropped low enough with the Carbon Roller Deco that she was mostly playing people on her level. I hopped on afterward and went 10-0 with the same weapon because I was playing against other newbies. And I've noticed that when I practice chargers (Which I'm terrible with), I play lesser players than I do when I use a weapon I'm more comfortable with like the Inkbrush or the Custom Jet Squelcher.

 

[LMG]

I've found the Turf Wars Matchmaking to be as random as they claim it to be. By now I've seen almost everything you'd expect to see in this type of game:

• Even matches
• One-sided stomps
• Epic throws (Mariano Rivera-style)
• Multiple same-weapon variants being thrown on one team
• Weapons being split almost evenly
• Disconnections (single or multiple; even team-wide)
• Hallelujah, it's raining Inkstrikes!
• Spawncamping on small maps
• Spawncamping on large maps
• Hallelujah, it's raining teammates!
• Games with people running around spamming "Boyah!"
• Games with players who are a bit too hungry for Splats
• Games with players who just have to ink that small corner of the base
• Can you hear me now?
• Games with players on both teams who just want to ink
• Games with players that should stick to Ranked
• Games with Tumblr artists (GitGud Nami ftw!)
• Games with OCs from Tumblr artists (although I only noticed it once I got back to the Plaza)

The one thing I still haven't seen is a proper Squid Party with members of both teams o_O

...and maybe raining Krakens, but I did see 2 enemy Krakens at once in Walleye Warehouse

 

[SupaTim]

I've noticed that there doesn't seem to be a "middle ground" of sorts for turf wars. For some reason I was placed in a low level lobby yesterday and I would go 10+/0 every game (really easy to avoid splats with the CJS against newbies). But then I got placed in a high-skill level lobby and could barely (or not at all) keep a positive K/D. There often isn't a lobby where you feel like you can do well but not entirely curb stomp.

 

[jsilva]

I was playing while at level 7-8 today, and I was being matched in all level 50 lobbies with occasionally some 40s and 30s players.

I haven't played turf in a while and it's surprising how aggressive it is! Since most of yesterday was low energy it caught me off guard and I was getting splatted a lot today. It took some concentration to get my brain working better. I was disappointed because I wanted some low key games to get my level up quickly so I can start playing ranked and also get some weapons I would like. I thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity and try and get good at the Luna Blaster once I can get it.

It has been fun so far though.

 

[DekuKitty]

I've noticed matches can be very lopsided when it comes to levels. I've had matches where one team has players who are all under level 10, and the other team has players all over level 25. If one team is doing substantially worse then the other and no one has disconnected, it's my gut reaction to guess the teams are lopsided. You think it wouldn't be that hard to just have the game average out the levels when making teams.

 

[redacteddd]

I like how ZackScott is praising nintendo's game for winning game awards and attracting new players while he shows how unbalanced turf war matchmaking is

 

[LMG]

I like how ZackScott is praising nintendo's game for winning game awards and attracting new players while he shows how unbalanced turf war matchmaking is

I'm pretty sure it was clear that the Turf War matchmaking was going to go haywire at some points when it was announced that it would be 100% random. Besides, since a lot of people got the game on launch (and got to level 20 in under two months, kinda forcing Nintendo to make the leveling slower) anyone that bought it at a later date would be seeing a bunch of high-level players. The game can't really put new players together if it doesn't have enough around anymore

 

[redacteddd]

I'm pretty sure it was clear that the Turf War matchmaking was going to go haywire at some points when it was announced that it would be 100% random. Besides, since a lot of people got the game on launch (and got to level 20 in under two months, kinda forcing Nintendo to make the leveling slower) anyone that bought it at a later date would be seeing a bunch of high-level players. The game can't really put new players together if it doesn't have enough around anymore

Yeah absolutely, hopefully they'll do some tinkering so that they can make new players more confident in their abilities.

 

[jsilva]

Yeah absolutely, hopefully they'll do some tinkering so that they can make new players more confident in their abilities.

Well, I was previously a level 50 and as high as rank S and then I started over from scratch and I can say I was not initially matched to high level players. They were definitely beginners. Eventually Splatoon started matching me with higher ranks and continued until it was only mid-30s and higher, often all level 50s. I never went back to being matched with beginners even though I was a beginner by level.

 

[RespawningJesus]

Yeah absolutely, hopefully they'll do some tinkering so that they can make new players more confident in their abilities.

It is impossible to do this once you reach a certain point in a game's lifespan, with a population size that splatoon has. Newer players will go up against the vets. Happens in just about any game, but some games get away with it, due to how many people play it.