Matchmaking - Unbalanced or not?

[Paragon-Yoshi]

Well here goes nothing! *heartbeats intensify*


So the "Matchmaking" in Splatoon...
Is it balanced or unbalanced?

I took Ranked Mode for a spin, after a long time.
So I finally got a picture of both Regular and Ranked.

So my personal answer to the question is:
"Ranked" - No
"Regular" - Yes, unfortunately.


In my personal experience, Turf Wars have become a terrible one.
Then I tried Ranked and I was surprised how much better things went there.
The balance is so good in there.

Ranked mode has the Rank-System.
True it is sad, if it goes down.
But thanks to this system, you are always paired with people close to your skills.
...Well, most of the time.

Ensuring perfect balance is impossible.
So from time to time, you will still get matched with people, far above your skills.
However, it didn't happen too often for me.


Regular Turf Wars however, are an unbalanced mess IMO.
Since there is no clear balance-system, like the Rank-System Ranked Mode has.

True, Nintendo said the matchmaking is playstyle-based in Regular Turf Wars.
And some others claim it is based on Levels as well.

But honestly, I believe both of these to be terrible ideas.
Since none of these ways of matchmaking, ensure you are matched with people close to your skills

Playstyle-based matchmaking might have the benefit of matching you with people, who play the same way as you.
But they could sitll be much better or worse than you.

And levels..
Let's be honest, guys. You can't measure skills by levels.
They only go up, but never down.

If anything, they only show how much time and dedication you put into this game.
True, you can think a high-level player has developed high skills.
But it is always just an assumption, not a guaranteed thing.

So IMO Turf Wars also need a system, similar to the Rank-System, to ensure proper balance between players...
... as much as possible at least.


I think of the Point-System of Mario Kart WII online (Did MK7 and 8 have them as well? Never played them online).
Depending on whether you win or lose and how well you did, it goes up or down at varying amounts.
If Turf Wars had such a system, I think it would ensure balance in it as well.

Preferably, it should be invisible, only happening behind the scenes, never to be seen by the player.
Just to make sure it can't be exploited by some meanies, who want easy prey and thus keep their values low.


But that is my experience.
What about you? Agree or disagree?
Feel free to comment. : 3

 

[LMG]

I haven't played much Ranked Battles (I'm at rank B and don't plan on playing any further), but the balance didn't seem much different from Turf Wars to me. Either I'm put in a good team that stomps the enemy, a bad team that gets annihilated, or an ok-ish team that puts up a fight, which is the same as Turf Wars. However, unlike Turf Wars, I'm only rewarded on a win, so the slightest skill difference can make or destroy my day, where in Turf Wars all you need to do is paint the map (I've seen good teams lose because one guy decided to avoid the enemy and keep on painting), and you get a nice amount of points one way or another (so one doesn't feel like their time was wasted). So overall, I'll have to disagree.

Now onto the playstyle system: I don't really mind it. I'm not the best shot in the world, and I don't like the stress induced from being in the front lines all the time. So if I'm allowed to just sit back and trade ink with the enemy, and get into a firefight here and there, I'm completely fine with it. I'm surely having a better time than when I used to fight splat-hungry enemies 24/7

 

[1o2]

Depending on whether you win or lose and how well you did, it goes up or down at varying amounts.
If Turf Wars had such a system, I think it would ensure balance in it as well

Turf wars has this system for lower levels, but for higher levels it seems nonexistent. For example, when I was leveling up my second account I was going 10-1/7-0/14-1 in turf wars, and after 2-4 matches like this I immediately got put into lobbies with 30-40's. Note I was only starting off as a lvl 1 with Splattershot Jr, and I was being put into lvl 30 lobbies. None of these players were exactly as good as me, as I was still used to the higher level play of ranked, but it shows the matchmaking realized I was no ordinary lvl 1/2/3 player. At any rate I wasn't just plowing through inexperienced people like I was when I was in the lobby with other lvl 1's.

In my experience with higher levels, it just seems like the system puts you into lobbies with people around your level. The system probably just assumes higher level=more time put in=more skill.

 

[Paragon-Yoshi]

I haven't played much Ranked Battles (I'm at rank B and don't plan on playing any further), but the balance didn't seem much different from Turf Wars to me. Either I'm put in a good team that stomps the enemy, a bad team that gets annihilated, or an ok-ish team that puts up a fight, which is the same as Turf Wars. However, unlike Turf Wars, I'm only rewarded on a win, so the slightest skill difference can make or destroy my day, where in Turf Wars all you need to do is paint the map (I've seen good teams lose because one guy decided to avoid the enemy and keep on painting), and you get a nice amount of points one way or another (so one doesn't feel like their time was wasted). So overall, I'll have to disagree.

Now onto the playstyle system: I don't really mind it. I'm not the best shot in the world, and I don't like the stress induced from being in the front lines all the time. So if I'm allowed to just sit back and trade ink with the enemy, and get into a firefight here and there, I'm completely fine with it. I'm surely having a better time than when I used to fight splat-hungry enemies 24/7

Well my experience is different from yours then.
In Turf Wars, I get constantly matched with people, that are "Splat-Hungry" as you describe.
And good lord, they are Big Bosses.

I never stand a chance against them.


These days, I almost lose every match in Turf Wars and I do take the objective and focus on painting, taking the kills I can.
But I dont kill needlessly, if it wastes time or I cant win.

Turf wars has this system for lower levels, but for higher levels it seems nonexistent. For example, when I was leveling up my second account I was going 10-1/7-0/14-1 in turf wars, and after 2-4 matches like this I immediately got put into lobbies with 30-40's. Note I was only starting off as a lvl 1 with Splattershot Jr, and I was being put into lvl 30 lobbies. None of these players were exactly as good as me, as I was still used to the higher level play of ranked, but it shows the matchmaking realized I was no ordinary lvl 1/2/3 player. At any rate I wasn't just plowing through inexperienced people like I was when I was in the lobby with other lvl 1's.

That is,,, interesting.
For the lack of a better word. o_O

In my experience with higher levels, it just seems like the system puts you into lobbies with people around your level. The system probably just assumes higher level=more time put in=more skill.

I still stand by that point, that levels don't necessarily mean more skill.
Sure, it is more likely, but nothing set in stone.

 

[1o2]

I still stand by that point, that levels don't necessarily mean more skill.
Sure, it is more likely, but nothing set in stone.

I agree completely, but in the eyes of the matchmaking system I assume that this is the case.

Personally I'd love to see a bit better matchmaking in Ranked as well, being mono-Tentatek versus a team with 2 snipers is just flat out painful. I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to try to evenly distribute weapons after 8 players are selected into a lobby. If there are 3 snipers, why would all 3 be put onto the same team? Just split it up 2 and 1 for each team.

 

[Miichael]

Its an Unbalanced mess that frustrates me almost every time. I HATE being forced on a team of low skill players while the enemy team has the best teams. And i hate it when the games don't balance the teams based on equipment. Like each team should have an equal amounts of players who uses certain weapons. You know what i mean right. Like i'm trying to win games with the new mini splatling and the game gives me bad teammates who don't cover the terrain much. How am i supposed to win when i get the bad teammates. My rank/vibe should NEVEr go down just because i lost a game due to having bad teammates.

 

[Kaliafornia]

The game puts you with people of the same skill "level" sure a higher level doesn't always mean the better player but odds are you know how to play the game better if you are a level 30 versus a level 5. Also are you factoring in friends letting friends play? I've let many people try out Splatoon on my account in Turf war, I'm like level 44 now so you would see a level 44 playing like utter crap. Also TW is where people try out new weapons before taking them into a ranked match so "unskilled" players there could actually be skilled players just trying something new.

Weapon balancing needs to be a thing in any mode of the game, no reason you should have a team full of the same weapon if the opposing team all has different weapons, spread it out a bit. However, I will say if you had the 4 best players on one team in TW with the same weapon they are more likely to win than in a ranked match with the same weapon.

Also 4 players could be skilled on their own but weak as apart of a team together. There is no match making system that can perfectly predict how well you will preform with certain players over others. Likely your teammates aren't "bad" you just don't work well together. Unless you are joining rooms with people you know and end up on the same team and are over Skype/Teamspeak communication it is hard to really work well with other team members in TW and adjust your play since you are spread out across the map. Likewise, you have no way of telling (unless they all have the same squad tag) if you are on or against a team with people who know each other and are communicating.

Its an Unbalanced mess that frustrates me almost every time. I HATE being forced on a team of low skill players while the enemy team has the best teams. And i hate it when the games don't balance the teams based on equipment. Like each team should have an equal amounts of players who uses certain weapons. You know what i mean right. Like i'm trying to win games with the new mini splatling and the game gives me bad teammates who don't cover the terrain much. How am i supposed to win when i get the bad teammates. My rank/vibe should NEVEr go down just because i lost a game due to having bad teammates.

You can't complain about having bad teammates if you admit to using the new weapon, it's not their job to carry while you adjust to it.

 

[Sweetielise]

Matchmaking in this game needs to be improved when it comes to weapon selection (There's really no reason for 3-4 snipers on one team). As for actual skill vs your level, I wish there was some sort of ELO system to sort people better for Turf Wars. Playstyle is really too vague to base who you go against, unless I'm not understanding it correctly. :p

 

[Hesoca]

The issue with the matchmaking system, in my opinion, isn't whether it's balanced or not. Rather, it's the fact that matchmaking, at least to my knowledge, is completely and utterly random. Your level doesn't matter. Your weapon type doesn't matter. Heck, I don't think your playstyle matters, either. The only thing that the matchmaking system cares about is that you're in the match lobby with a stable connection. That's it.

On one hand, you could argue that the matchmaking system is completely balanced - after all, everyone has an equal chance of joining a match with any level, weapon distribution, or win streak. On the other hand, balance depends on perspective, and that randomness means that some matches are going to be horribly lopsided towards one team or another. I can understand why, perhaps, Nintendo decided to forgo complex matchmaking in favor of a completely random system, but that doesn't make those sudden spikes of one-sided battles any less frustrating.

 

[Cuddlefish]

Let me add a third voice to the thread saying there needs to be some bias in the matchmaking towards weapon diversity. I love the Charger class, but I can barely risk the chance of placing on a team with another charger, or worse, two other chargers, so I don't pick them anymore.

Another thing that ruins the matchmaking that I've run into is that there's barely any shuffling between matches. I don't know how much anyone else has this problem, but whenever I play either Ranked or Regular, I'm usually stuck with the same three people practically every match. So if there's one person on our team that's particularly bad, or if there's someone on the enemy team who's a B now, but's quickly working their way up to S, we're set for a losing streak. I want to have a turn playing with the future S rank player, and why shouldn't the other team have a go having to carry a dead weight player for once?

Now, of course, this obviously works in the opposite direction so that you can get stuck in a team with a good player or the opposing team with a bad one (or more, but all it takes is one that's exceptional in either direction, and they're really not that hard to find, especially the exceptionally... poor ones), and get yourself on a winning streak, but I, for one, feel this is kind of a cheap way to win that's not nearly as satisfying as it would be if you were pitted against an exceptional player one match, then had them on your team the next.

And as for myself in particular, I can't cheat the system and jump lobbies till I get myself a winner, 'cause I've got poo for internet connection, and I risk getting an unstable lobby each time I jump. So you combine all these factors together and if you ask me, I say it's Ranked that has the broken matchmaking. 'Cause Ranked is where it matters; get in a losing streak on Turf War and what's the real problem? But encounter the same issue in Ranked, and you'll drop a rank, which will increase your odds of being paired with a player much below your skill level, trapping you into what's practically a 3-player team, dropping your rank even further. This keeps on repeating till you hit a winning streak, or you learn/change your playstyle to carry(ing) your team.

 

[LMG]

And as for myself in particular, I can't cheat the system and jump lobbies till I get myself a winner, 'cause I've got poo for internet connection, and I risk getting an unstable lobby each time I jump.

That's considered cheating the system? I do it just because I don't want to fight allies/enemies that can wreck a whole team by themselves (especially if they're using a weapon I personally find annoying to fight against). I don't try to find a "winner", I just try to find a place where I can have guranteed fun in either a win or loss (and sometimes I earn more in losses). Also, I'm usually kicked out of the lobby by the second game anyways (I hate it on Splatfests)

 

[Phobos]

My experience has been that the matchmaking for turfwars is pretty well balanced with respect player skill.

A couple of weeks ago I gave a copy of Splatoon to my niece for her 12th birthday, and took my WiiU along so we could play together over the weekend in the same lobbies. She has no experience with shooters, and played the game as you'd expect an inexperienced beginner to play. Still, after her initial few games, which I watched and didn't join, she started getting placed with people at much higher levels - 20+. I thought that this was pretty iffy, since she was only at level 4 or whatever, but then I started joining the lobbies and playing with her and I realised that all these high level players really were not much better than she was. My guess is that they were people around her age or younger who had played the game a lot more, but - perhaps due to their age - lacked the gaming competency to elevate their play along with their level. In any case, I had fun - it was like popping dummies in the testing area :) The experience was completely different when I switched back to my own lobbies, where players in turf war are (for the most part) much more skilled and super aggressive (indeed, after adjusting to the relaxed pace of my niece's lobbies I was unceremoniously stomped on returning to my own).

My suspicion then is that Nintendo have decided that they want to keep older, more skilled players away from younger, less skilled ones, and (very sensibly) they don't use player levels to decide this. I suspect one of the key factors is player aggression, and so they try to sort players who tend to kill more and die less away from players who tend to do the opposite.

 

[splatroller]

Matchmaking in ranked has been time and time again unfair for me, at least for squad battles. When I have squadded in the past, I've gone with friends who are the same rank as me, but since we are all in the A range we get matched up with people who are S and S+. This is fine and expected since we aren't in solo which literally forces you into your own rank bracket, but sometimes the lobby matches us up with a mix of people. For example, my dual squad may consist of us both being A+, and other members in the lobby turn out to be S+, S+, S, A+, A, and another S+. You'd think we could at least be spared with two S+'s on our team, so that they would be, in theory, balanced, but every time it's the entire team of S and S+s against the A and A+s. As far as I know the matchmaking is random but it definitely does not seem like it in action.

 

[Rokon2]

I don't think Japan understands how matchmaking works, to be honest. I'm not sure why I'm 15, fighting against 30+ with one 50, and getting spawn camped. Literally, I never thought that would happen.

 

[Azza]

I don't really know much for turf wars, but for ranked its fairly decent. My only gripe is squad battles. Having just one S in your team, will match you up with another team of all S/ S+s, and you cobe running, S, A, B+ B+

 

[Heroine of Squids]

I don't know if it's any different in Ranked Battles, but in Turf War, the matchmaking feels really bad to me. I'm currently at Level 17 and I hate going up against people that are much higher leveled than me. Perfect example of this is I keep getting my butt handed to me by a Japanese Level 42 player yesterday. Sure I sound a bit salty here, but it's very humiliating to get myself owned by players who are in higher levels while it's rare for me to go into lobbies with people who are in the same level range as I am.

I wish Nintendo would've put in a mode that puts you with players that are in the same level as you. If they did, then maybe the matchmaking would be actually okay for me, but I can dream.

 

[Jet Uppercut]

Turf Wars has a tendency to 'stack' teams, I've been in matches where one team was all level 40s and 50s and I was a newbie stuck on a team of single digit players. They definitely need to match people based on level or playtime over 'playstyle', which is an indeterminate factor based primarily on what weapon you're using. Unless Nintendo is trying to tell me after two matches I was the equivalent to a level 40 or 50 player in skill, I really don't think there are any factors when sticking you into a match.

 

[Paragon-Yoshi]

So this topic is still active, eh?
I am glad to hear that. : 3

I am still among the people, who don't have a good time with Turf Wars, ever since the August update hit, with the increased level caps.
So I share the sentiments of the people, who find Turf War Matchmaking unbalanced.

Nevertheless, I do find it interesting, that there are also people, who had no trouble with it at all.
Really, it was an interesting read. :D

 

[Heroine of Squids]

Turf Wars has a tendency to 'stack' teams, I've been in matches where one team was all level 40s and 50s and I was a newbie stuck on a team of single digit players. They definitely need to match people based on level or playtime over 'playstyle', which is an indeterminate factor based primarily on what weapon you're using. Unless Nintendo is trying to tell me after two matches I was the equivalent to a level 40 or 50 player in skill, I really don't think there are any factors when sticking you into a match.

Exactly! You don't know how frustrated I get when someone with a much higher level constantly owns me. Make it fair for everyone who aren't even at level 50 yet.

 

[Pivi]

I don't think it's balanced, honestly it needs an overhaul.
I like to do turf wars to test out new weapons every now and then, and I'm about lv 44, and when I go into turf i shouldn't be seeing a lonely lv7 in a team of lv 30+ players, even if its someone on a 2nd account.