Gwent match pairing system

[quintivarium]

I am wondering if it is possible to get a little better understanding of how Gwent matches players for games. I understand keeping some details secret to prevent players from manipulating the system, but I think some information would help players make it work better. Let me use my play as an example.

I have been playing Gwent for well over two years and am quite good at its strategy. But I often play inferior decks — to complete a quest, to explore unfamiliar cards/combinations, or simply because I enjoy them. And I am not interested in the competitiveness of ranked play. I generally only play ranked when I fail to notice my game was reset to ranked play, or once a month to qualify for the rewards. Thus, my ranking has fallen to rank 24 —and I am fine with that.

But recently, a large proportion of the unranked games I get are against very weak competition. For example, four of my last six games were against very weak SK decks played poorly. I get little satisfaction beating up on players who really have no chance — not to mention that doing so gives no value in testing a deck. Usually, unless I get absent minded, my opponents forfeit first, or I got saddled with some ghastly unpleasant quest like winning matches with ST, I will forfeit before my final play, figuring my opponent needs rewards more than I do.

I would like to know if a person’s rank impacts how opponents are selected — even if playing training mode, or if I am just chancing upon weaker players (or playing at times when stronger players are not).

If rank does affect unranked pairings, I will play more at the ranked level to improve the quality of my opponents. If it does not, I would rather just take chances with unranked.

 

[igor565]

Based on my experience in unranked it pairs random players no matter what rank they’re.
When I was playing unranked I faced players with ranks from 1 to 29 so imo rank is not counted in this mode.

For testing decks and facing better opponents I recommend getting higher rank: players at 1-5 ranks rarely do any mistakes, but the downside is you’ll face A LOT metadecks (still less than in pro rank especially in the end of the season).

 

[DRK3]

I would love for the devs to disclose more information on the matchmaking system but by this point its clear they dont want to disclose it.

But everything points out to the case where ranked statistics doesnt influence at all the matchmaking in training vs players / casual mode.
I ranked up from 15 to 1 in a short timespan, and occasionally i went to training mode vs players and found no difference in opponents level.

This is not surprising. The devs were successful in their goal to kill this mode, by burying it in the main menu further and further way from the default play option - ranked.
They wanted to do this because for a time, a lot of new players assumed casual mode would find weaker players, also starting out like them, but then they would be crushed by high level opponents (since the mode's mathmaking is random, or at least it seems to be) and would leave the game.
Also, i assume its more benefitial to their image if more players are ranking up in their leaderboards.

I advise you to play in ranked, even if testing meme decks, as training vs players mode is mostly abandoned, by all but some adventurous beginners who explored the menus but didnt bother to go to reddit where they would see the common advice "stick to ranked if you're starting out"

 

[jiffyb333]

I can certainly understand your frustration as a fellow inferior deck connoisseur. I've found playing ranked to be the best solution. My lower win rate keeps me at low ranks facing off against people with decks of similar levels or better decks but less piloting experience that makes matches closer. It feels counter intuitive but I just gave up on caring whatever my rank was and enjoyed hanging around ranks 20-13

 

[Anewbiss77]

I actually have an idea/suggestion for ladder matchmaking, specifically for pro rank play. I don't post often, and as such I can't create my own post, so I thought I would put it out there as a reply in this somewhat related post (sorry quintivarium, but thanks).

As things currently stand, as most of you know, in the ladder (levels 1-25) players are matched with someone within one level (+/-1) of their own rank, while once pro rank is reached, the player is matched with other pro rank players - or at least this has been my experience. My suggestion applies mainly for the pro rank, as it involves having at least 4 competitive decks. The aim of my suggestion is to provide a buffer against the cyclical trends in meta/meme decks based on updates, new cards, changed abilities, and so on that polarize the gameplay at the top end of the ladder and homogenize the types/factions of decks in play at anytime.

What I would like to see for pro rank is the added function of registering 4 decks from your library as a prerequisite for ladder play, from which you would choose the deck you want to play with before every match. Once a match is made, the winner of the coin toss (blue) would go first, get 3 mulligans and start with their stratagem as normal, but the loser of the coin toss (red), based on the match up that they see they are against, would have the option of playing ONE of their other three decks - the catch being that the one alternative deck is randomly selected by the software from their three other registered decks. This wrinkle is thrown in so that players can't get away with having only two good decks and mailing in the other two. Red would still go second and get two mulligans regardless of which of the two decks they go with.

The winner of the coin toss still gets to play the deck that they like best, or currently want to play with, and get all the benefits of going first. But the obvious purpose of this mod is that the red player, who is already at a disadvantage by going second, at least gets the opportunity to swap their deck for one better suited against the opponent, based on said opponent's faction, leader ability and general gameplay trends of the season.

Thoughts?