TBH, I think the matchmaking has been excellent and totally in line with how I view myself in the game environment.
I only spend a nominal amount of money, but I have very good mods, strategic zetas, and lots of team options and counters. I also understand the game mechanics very well.
The first two GA rounds where everyone is just tossed in the same league were predictably very easy. Lots of casual players with messy rosters and poor strategy. In the third round I Iost a very even match because I screwed up one battle. In this final round, every opponent looks difficult, but winnable (but also loseable). I lost the first match because I couldn't clear Malak, and my opponent had just enough to clear my last team (took him a few tries).
I am not sure what the experience is for the players who got rolled at the beginning, but the league progression definitely leads to opponents with similar skill and rosters. As a very light spender (maybe $200 USD since November 2015), I don't have any expectation of winning every match, but I still have a tiny shot of squeaking into Kyber depending on feats and my final two rounds.
This is a radical improvement from the original GA, where my huge ships GP gave my unwinnable match after match, and I was frequently the only person in my bracket missing meta characters.
I think a tiny bit more refinement could help. Maybe expand the GP count by 10-20 characters, depending on division, and update GP so that gear 12 pieces have exponential value rather than linear.
