GAC matchups

Just to chime in with my experience. I hit 85 on December 24 and was placed into Carbonite V based on my GP at the time. My first nine matches in Carb V were largely against people in the 400-600k range and I won all of them and got promoted to Carb IV.

I'm guessing I was around 700k GP when I got promoted, I'm currently at 940k. The opponents I've faced are at 1.8M, 1.4M, 1.1M, 1.5M, 1.3M, 1.7M, 1.8M, 900k, and I'm currently facing a player at 3.1M. With one or two exceptions there's no strategy here--if they bothered to attack I lost.

I'm in the second lowest division. There's no way to just catch up to players GP-wise (other than spending, of course). If I can't win combats I get fewer credits. If I lose matches I get lower weekly payouts and I won't climb divisions so I'll get lower daily payouts. All of that is going to slow progression. It's looking like my GAC experience for the foreseeable future is going to be signing up, placing defenses, trying to win a combat or two, and hoping my opponent no-shows for some reason? That's not great.

"StewartH;c-2338652" wrote:
I think blocking players for a season that signup but dont attack would massively help MM. I've had this a few times but I can't make sense of why a player is doing it unless its for some sandbagging purpose I dont understand. They had to select "join" so they're at least active but they dont get awards unless they attack, correct? Why would a player do that?

I've "beaten" accounts with nearly double my GP because of it and I think that kills me in future matchmaking because I won a match I would had certainly lost if they played.

Sometimes real life gets in the way. Not everybody can spend 24 hours playing. If your rival doesn't attack it's a free win for you. What's the problem?

I assume the problem is that people who only participate sometimes end up rofl stomping much weaker accounts when they do show up, which means newer accounts are often facing either no-shows or getting crushed?

If that premise is accurate, seems like a legitimate new player experience concern. I haven't seen an offered solution, however, that I would like for higher leagues.

"dogwelder79;c-2338809" wrote:

Sometimes real life gets in the way. Not everybody can spend 24 hours playing. If your rival doesn't attack it's a free win for you. What's the problem?

It’s a problem because it “teaches” the matching algorithm that I can beat a 2M team. I just won my first round 10-0. I got 10 for futilely attacking once. But as a later poster said, I only win if they don’t play. I get that I could have beefed up my lineup in between GAC, and be “mis ranked” and smoke a bunch of folks on the way up, but I don’t see that happening often. Particularly for f2p, we can’t accelerate that fast. All 8 ppl in my round robin should all be within 10% GP. Shouldn’t be hard.

"24_Tuesdays;c-2338663" wrote:
matchmaking is based on skill rating, are you saying skill rating is broken

Yes skill rating is broken. My op and I have identical ratings and he has 2x my GP. I understand they need a way to rank players skill at this particular mode, but the rating should always be against players within some small window of your GP. Otherwise you’re not measuring my “skill” at setting squads on O and D at all. No level of skill will let me defeat a 2xGP opponent who actually plays.

if only it hadn’t been called “skill rating”.

The devs made gac as close to win/loss= 50/50.
In this way we all should be earning the same(ish) amount of crystals.
Otherwise gac would be no different then a shard mafia squad arena debacle it once was.

"JerrickKharr87;c-2338779" wrote:
My opponent has a 7.9 million GP and I have 6.1. Great job CG (slow clap).

Maybe just TRY to read the rest of this thread and understand matchmaking. People are trying hard to make everyone understand how it works, and we still get posts like this?

If skill rating is so great why don’t they create one for TW? And if the the method of putting guilds with similar GP is correct why not do the same for GAC? Just a consistent system would be nice instead of multiple versions.

"Kathark;c-2338785" wrote:

"Starslayer;c-2338556" wrote:

"Kathark;c-2338493" wrote:
I can’t fall much farther since I am carbonite 4. But I am 900k GP. HOW am I matched against a 2M GP opponent with 20 relic toons when I have 3 zetas. No fun.

To fall this far, it means your opponent probably lost on the way against rosters close to yours.

Ok, but 2M vs 1M GP is way different than 8 vs 9. 100% advantage vs 10% advantage. The range should be tighter at lower levels where a relic or extra zeta makes all the difference. Also I am F2P and would love to see an f2p only league. The game knows, why not let us compete in our own events.

There are f2p players at every level of the game. If there were a f2p only league you'd still be getting matched up against higher GP opponents and you'd still be coming here to whine on the forums