Splatoon: the worst matchmaking ever invented?

[Ahole644]

I bought this game a week ago, and I'm really concerned about the matchmaking. I am just not having fun with Splatoon because of it.

The game, its concept and ideas are great, but the online is showing how big Nintendo's lack of online multiplayer experience really is, if you ask me. Simply because you do not get rewarded for developing good skills and playing fine matches. I am worried about the fact that I had a losing streak of 24 matches in a row (!!!!!!) today before winning a game again, while I'd been having a 16 matches long losing streak (!!!!) yesterday. Trust me when I tell you that this has nothing to do with my skills, which have become pretty good during my many useless attempts at the game.

The problem is that this game has no team balancing. I do not know how anyone in their right mind can make an online shooter and not put in team balancing, but Nintendo pulled it off with Splatoon. This problem is so severe it wrecks the entire experience for me. When you lose all the f****** time, Splatoon is just not very fun and colorful anymore. In my experience, this game manages to always put me in a worthless wreck of a team that has not a glimpse of a chance to begin with. Teammates who neglect entire unsprayed areas after the game starts only to run straight to the middle of the map and attempt to shoot opponents (I mean, what the ****), teammates who are AFK and end up with 0 points, teammates who are just f****** worthless at the game... it's just becoming so consistent I barely even care anymore. I've literally had a game with four people (including me) that were level 10+ and four others who were 30+. After losing for what seemed like the 100th time in a row, I noticed that the four 30+ level players were put in one team, and we 10+ players in the other. LITERALLY. There is no balancing and the game did this exact thing again for the next match, despite us having lost with like 13% turf sprayed, putting us into the same fate again and again. This is one of the worst things I've ever seen in any game, and it is just pathetic.

90% of the time I end up atop of my team (guess it's not hard to do so) with a gap of 200 - 300 points to the player who came in second, at the least. I usually have 3 - 5 times as many kills as deaths and my score often exceeds 1200, which I doubt is bad for a level 16 player. I just know this isn't me, and I'm being screwed time and time again.

This is no different in Ranked, only the laughable rules there make it so much more frustrating. I went from B to B- to C+ to C in literally two hours, having one losing streak after the other, changing servers in the false hope that this wreck of a game would balance the teams better. I realized I was going completely mental and shut down the game. Splatoon has the worst ranking in an online shooter ever, and it blows your mind. Skilled players cannot get out of the noobs/low level player mess, because those noobs are what keeps them there in the first place. You can play like S+, but still just lose points, because your teammates perform like Z-'s. I shouldn't have to depend on others here, and be able to get the rank that suits me, not the rank that suits the crap being **** out over me.

I got to B with some win streaks, but they seem impossible to achieve since the last 3 days. I absolutely ace Tower Control, which is the only mode I can win if I stay on the tower to the end myself (it isn't like I'll be helped, my team is usually too busy shooting opponents on the other side of the map) usually am good in Rainmaker, but I often seem to suck at the Splat Zones crap, during which I'll be playing Turf Wars most of the time.

I just don't know what to do, I would've returned the game because its matchmaking absolutely feels far beyond broken and piss poor, but as it happens this has to be the first game I ever bought digitally, so I guess I cannot. Nintendo should update their pathetic excuse for a matchmaking system. It feels like the game is against you, while you know it should be random (it should be, since there is no thing like team balancing), I suppose I'm just having extreme, and I mean EXTREME amounts of bad luck. My GF goes to play it and she wins game after game, I change user to myself and go play, I lose game after game, nearly always because of a disgusting team or lack of balancing in the teams. I just cannot comprehend how this can happen to me all the time, it's mind breaking and the music you hear when the cat tells you your team lost is starting to depress me in a serious manner.

Is there anything, ANYTHING I can do about this, I mean I know that's probably a bs thought, but I paid 40 bucks for a game I'd like to be able to enjoy instead of a game that angers the **** outta me, and I know I would have a lot of fun with it if I'd have challenging matches, instead of ones that are lost before they have even started. I love the game itself. Am I doing something wrong? Do Illuminati or God hate me? Is a christian NSA member trolling me because I watch porn? I just don't know what to do about this.

But in my experience, Splatoon just has the worst matchmaking system in any online shooter ever released, easily... and for me it wrecks the entire game experience.

 

[Phobos]

For TW, the players are randomly shuffled after each game, so it's unlikely that you would have been on the same team throughout your losing streak; if the players were randomly shuffled, and yet you were on the losing team 24 matches in a row, then that's something to think about.

 

[LMG]

As far as I'm aware, the matchmaking for Turf Wars is completely random; it just picks players and throws them into a match. However, it has been said that the matchmaking does take playstyle into account, so players who like to splat others get thrown with each other while players that prefer to just paint the whole map get their own side. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone knows for sure how or if it works like that. What I started doing is just playing to get the most points instead of focusing 100% on winning, so I can do what I like and I'm not hampered by my teammates (the more enemy turf there is, the more I can paint ;))

For Ranked, I believe it adds the player's rank into the mix, but aside of that it's also random (I don't even know it if takes playstyle into account here). For this one I would suggest trying to join some friends or form a squad here, as my method doesn't really work when you don't get anything if you lose.

So basically, just don't pay attention to whether you win or lose, as this game can and will frustrate you if you let it (my gamepad knows it a bit too well); instead, just do what you find the most entertaining

 

[Elecmaw]

Dude... Chill out. We've all had our bad losing streaks now and then. If it makes you feel any better I've heard of a story that someone actually managed to lose 100 times in a row during Splatfest.

 

[HarmonyX]

I guarantee you 95% of Splatoon players can relate to this post, but in varying degrees. For a player like myself who has been playing this game since before it was even released (Global Testfires), I can share all too well in the woes of being poorly matched with players. However, its worth noting that during those early weeks after the games release, when all players were still getting familiar with the game, it was FAR easier to carry a team due to the metagame being so fresh still. I completely agree that the matchmaking suffers a bit --in turf wars especially. In this regard theres really nothing i can recommend until the situation gets better.

However I can tell you that in most cases when you are being matched agaisnt players 20+, its worth keeping in mind that initially the level cap was 20, and most players who played the game a lot reached it probably in a couple of weeks after release. That said, level cap didnt increase until august, so player lvl may not always match what you perceive a player skill should be. Something i think is worth considering when discussing the matchmaking here.

 

[RedEnchilada]

Look, to be fairly honest, the reason you're losing every match you play is probably because you suck. It might feel unfair to get matched with level 30 players, but level in this game is only an indicator of how long someone's played, and not their skill; the game does seem to attempt to account for that when it throws people in lobbies. (Sometimes I end up jumping in TW to mess around for a few games and end up paired with lower-level players for a short while afterward because I was getting bad scores.) The game also rarely keeps teams of players together for more than two or three matches in a row, although if all of the players stay in the same lobby you can get matched up with an identical team a few matches apart.

If you find yourself constantly losing, you oughta look at your playstyle. Maybe you're just not gelling with the weapon you're running? Try something new for a little while and see if you can get the hang of it. You can also look up some play tips, whether through videos or written guides, to see if you can learn anything you didn't already know before. Also, don't use being at the top of the points/kills scoreboard as an excuse to blame your team; the fact that you covered the most turf means nothing if the enemy was following right behind you covering it back up, and although kills do typically help the team overall, they're not a direct metric of how well you helped accomplish whatever the mode's objective was.

We all have our off days in this game, so if you find yourself losing a bunch of matches in a row and getting angry about it, the best thing to do might be to step away for 15-30 minutes, get a drink, and cool off a bit. If you keep getting mad and ranting about your team, all you're doing is working yourself up and making it harder to stay focused on the game, which definitely affects your play. I've forgotten that advice before and lost rank multiple times before, and trust me when I say getting your rank back up from A+ is a lot harder than getting it back up from C. :p

 

[Hinichii.ez.™]

The match making is pretty ***, even as an S rank player. I often find myself in low rank games or spending most of my time with players who have S rank on their name, but play like C- players. Meanwhile, I curse the air.

 

[Okajin]

I agree with some point above. The common point of all you winning and losing is you. Try to see what you're doing good and what you're doing wrong. Even in my worst day, I never had those kind of losing streak (the most I had is 7 in a row that get me back from B- to C+). I'm B+ now and getting "stucked" here, going from +70 to +2. It'll be my skill until I try how to improve.

The fact you're saying it's your teammates fault if you lose shows that you're not ready to improve and getting better in the game. You are 25% of the responsibility of the wins and loses of your team. If you go 1v2, 3 or 4, you're doing bad. Try to catch the essence of the game, improve your teamplay, your gear, your versatility and it'll go better !

 

[Graff]

Seems like every Squad Battle is against S+ gangstas, despite my team having B- boys. Rekt.

 

[Heart of Ice]

The losing streak was probably due to tilt and I elaborated on it in this thread near the bottom http://squidboards.com/threads/how-do-you-recover-from-a-bad-day.7315/

Also keep in mind just because you ink a lot of turf doesn't mean you necessarily helped. There are a lot of Aerospray/ Junior mains that think that they're XxMLGn0$c0pexX, because they get 1000+ points (although this might not necessarily be you).

For instance, let's say you inked some useless corner of the map or charged into the enemy base first thing and got to inking. By charging into the enemy base (without backup), you were probably destroyed by your flanks. Even if you DO manage to kill the enemy, they can respawn nearby, easily reclaim the turf and possibly kill you. In other words you might have not helped.

Also you can't blame your teammates 100% for every loss, that will make it super hard to improve. Even though I sometimes lose, despite carrying my team, I usually find one or two costly mistakes that I commited.

When it comes to ranking for me it's been a gradual climb (winning 3/5 of my matches). I've gone from C- to B+ by carrying my team. Hopefully, you were on tilt during those losing streaks, but if you weren't you might want to "git gud".

 

[Hitzel]

There is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, NOTHING, that any game company can do to make solo queue better, to make random people you've never played with before suddenly on the same page as you.

The solution is the same as in every game, to make friends and play with teammates.

 

[Sendou]

I am worried about the fact that I had a losing streak of 24 matches in a row (!!!!!!) today before winning a game again, while I'd been having a 16 matches long losing streak (!!!!) yesterday. Trust me when I tell you that this has nothing to do with my skills, which have become pretty good during my many useless attempts at the game.

I trust you.

 

[RadioactiveMoth]

Thinking that the random matching making is making only you lose is ridiculous. The random team applies to everyone, so if it was the matchmaking's fault you lost, then you should win because of it was well. Like everyone has been saying, you're probably the one who isn't playing at their best. Instead of focusing on how your team didn't help, focus on how you can still win without them. Always focus on how to improve yourself, not your team. I recommend trying new weapons, and just playing differently. Not all weapons work well in turf wars, some are meant for the other modes.

 

[pooplooser]

I just cannot comprehend how this can happen to me all the time, it's mind breaking and the music you hear when the cat tells you your team lost is starting to depress me in a serious manner.

Amen.

Here is a story that might make you feel better:

I'm not sure why, but when I first started playing the game, (lvl 20) I was REALLY good. (Or possibly I got some INSANE luck with teams) and reached S Rank with the octobrush!I remember that summer like it was yeste... 1000 years ago.
I felt SO accomplished, as if my life goal was fulfilled.
So then I created another account, because I was never going to play ranked again just to lose my precious S rank, and now I am having all of the problems you are having.
B-, B+ hell. I have tried TONS of weapons and just lose, and lose, and lose, and lose, and lose, and lose, (you know where this is going) I guess I can't really diagnose if it's that I just really suck or it's my teams? Maybe I will upload video footage soon and someone can analyze it...

Eventually I was so ticked off that I felt like I was fighting my gamepad, as if it was trying to strangle me.
My body drenched in sweat, I could feel every heart beat passing through the thick arteries in my neck. Never has my lips raised so much to aggression.
The second I got killed by an aerospray repeatedly I just had to shut the console off in self-disappointment. I never slept that night, all I could think about is the color orange and the sounds of tentatek splattershots (lol)
I am so done at this point that I just expect to lose. This is the story of how I got my username, pooplooser.
Not that surprising.... My pride still stands. I still play.
I was thinking of making a squad called poopsquad, dedicated to bad players

 

[[EJ]_Locke]

Amen.

Here is a story that might make you feel better:

I'm not sure why, but when I first started playing the game, (lvl 20) I was REALLY good. (Or possibly I got some INSANE luck with teams) and reached S Rank with the octobrush!I remember that summer like it was yeste... 1000 years ago.
I felt SO accomplished, as if my life goal was fulfilled.
So then I created another account, because I was never going to play ranked again just to lose my precious S rank, and now I am having all of the problems you are having.
B-, B+ hell. I have tried TONS of weapons and just lose, and lose, and lose, and lose, and lose, and lose, (you know where this is going) I guess I can't really diagnose if it's that I just really suck or it's my teams? Maybe I will upload video footage soon and someone can analyze it...

Eventually I was so ticked off that I felt like I was fighting my gamepad, as if it was trying to strangle me.
My body drenched in sweat, I could feel every heart beat passing through the thick arteries in my neck. Never has my lips raised so much to aggression.
The second I got killed by an aerospray repeatedly I just had to shut the console off in self-disappointment. I never slept that night, all I could think about is the color orange and the sounds of tentatek splattershots (lol)
I am so done at this point that I just expect to lose. This is the story of how I got my username, pooplooser.
Not that surprising.... My pride still stands. I still play.
I was thinking of making a squad called poopsquad, dedicated to bad players

We already made a squad dedicated to bad players...

 

[pooplooser]

We already made a squad dedicated to bad players...

What is it called?

 

[[EJ]_Locke]

C- :) :) :)

 

[Ryuji]

Yes yes, we've all heard about the supposedly bad matchmaking and the less than satisfactory players on your team. Your solution can be summed up in two words: git gud. Sounds very snide, but it isn't meant to be that but rather telling you to find what you're doing wrong and what you could do better and improve. The moment you start telling yourself you're hot stuff and blaming your teammates for every single loss, this erects a mental block which completely halts any chance you might have had of improving and progressing. Start focusing more on your mistakes and work to correct them. Stop blaming your teammates. If you're as good as you say you would have higher rank. Rank is earned, thus everyone deserves the rank they are until they can prove themselves worthy of a higher rank.

 

[pooplooser]

C- :) :) :)

Ok, maybe not THAT low...

 

[Azza]

Something weird happened that i've not seen before. During a squad duo, I saw two grouped together not get on the same team haha.