the irony of your matchup vs a guy who is part of an alliance advertising that they don't pay as you claim they are pay to win wasn't lost on me =p
So heres the problem jon, you like the game too much and play it too much. It's as simply as that unfortunately. When you win, you gain medals. Medals are the only thing used to determine matchmaking. So when you play past your 10 wins and bounty missions, you inflate your medal score without increasing your unit levels. So to be blunt, you are asking the game to pit you against harder and harder opponents willingly.
The game tries to shield you from the brunt of this by offering "challenge battles" because nobody likes losing, especially when the other guy had superior levels. Problem is, those medals that the game prevents you from losing are what got you there in the first place. So by NOT losing them, you AREN'T going down in the leagues back to where your units belong. So game after game you are stuck in this purgatory cycle where your only choice is to grind out bounties and wins against harder enemies to get the gear you need to upgrade levels, but those wins will only inflate your medal count more... the cycle continues.
Not saying it's a good design, but trying to explain to you how it works. I fell into the same trap. Only solution was to take a break and wait for a reset, or to grind through it. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have and I'll try my best to help out.
