WOC - Matchmaking Issues

This is exactly what our club is feeling. It's so frustrating...we just want to have fun. This year is NOT fun.

At this point it's obvious that EA had a mandate to make significant changes to the matchmaking this year.   Unfortunately they've been less than forthcoming as to why the changes were made.  We don't know what they're trying to achieve or what the benefit to the users is supposed to be.   And on top of that, it feels like whatever changes they made were half-baked at best.  From the outside looking in, it has all the hallmarks of a feature that was about 25% done but was pushed into production anyway and now they're trying to fix things as they go.   Unfortunately, I get the impression that the missing matching by club size and region options aren't bugs to be fixed, but are by design. 

They've also apparently removed any kind of matchmaking based on skill level.   My club regularly gets matched up with teams both way above us and way below us in terms of RP.  And not after a long search either.  It happens within seconds.   I'm sure part of this is to deal with a small player base, but continually sending lower skilled players into a meat grinder will cause them to walk away from the game which just triggers a downward spiral in player counts.  I'm sure most players would be willing to wait a bit longer to find a fair match-up, but EA seems to feel differently.

As far as the AI goes, you need to have at least one human defence man in WOC or you need to be committed to having at least one forward high enough that they can quickly backcheck to defend the rush.  The AI in club games has always been terrible defending the rush and there's no reason to expect that to change in the future.   Personally, I'd love to see them be more than just pylons, but that's all they've ever been.

What I don't get is the secrecy, the vagueness, the "we'll have to wait and see if it gets addressed" and other platitudes in an attempt to quell a growing number of frustrated and loyal players. 

A franchise like EA is unique in that it has thousands of consumers buying one of their products yearly - a plethora of knowledge, experience and passion for a niche sport like Hockey that is not being utilized properly.

For example, if EA were to come out and just tell us what their intention is behind the matchmaking changes, this large database of knowledgeable and experienced users would happily provide detailed feedback on whether those intended changes are actually working in the real world.

But instead, we're met with all this secrecy as if EA is developing a cure for cancer or hiding UFOs in their studios. It just doesn't make any sense why this massive audience that is literally drooling for a quality multiplayer experience is left to be pacified rather than informed. 

And we're not asking for promises regarding development or features. (which apparently need to be guarded closely as if they were state secrets) We're just looking for a simple explanation as to why this massive change that's effecting a majority of the WoC players (and their subsequent enjoyment of your product) was made so we can maybe provide real-world insight into its effectiveness. 

As a publicly traded company, I can't imagine shareholders appreciate that a product with such a passionate fanbase is not taking advantage of such a unique opportunity.

This entire post pretty much sums up the exact backwards mindset of this hockey video game, all thanks to a lacklustre thought process that was implemented for online play. 

In reality, having a fair share of drinky poos (Jim Lahey) is the only way to understand why this game is the way that it is, and even then it still doesn't make any sense. 

The rest of this community, as well as myself, wants to see irrefutable evidence stating that these WoC online changes were necessary and/or beneficial to allow for fair and honest matchmaking. Furthermore, where in this community have these changes been welcome, much less asked for?

The whole point of this game is for fun, and not getting (for the most part) railroaded due to very one-sided and terrible matchmaking. 

Good points! And a good solution is to have a competitive mode in world of chel. and to have access would be to have an rp of 25k and+++. This would solve the problems of the best players and the players with a little less skill... the best players spend their time destroying the less good players which is very boring in the long run and vice versa...