I am a returning player. Since coming back I have completed 5 GAC brackets. I am pretty low in the Carbonite 3 league. My opponents have all had much higher GP, and so I thought this is just where I belong. But today I looked at the top 50 in the Carbonite 3 league and they are all much lower than the opponents I generally see. Here is my current bracket:https://swgoh.gg/p/297932863/gac-bracket/I have 1.3M GP, my bracket has 3 others around 2M GP, 3 around 3M GP and 1 at 5.5M GP.All 5 rounds I’ve done have been similar.I know the 5.5M opponent isn’t active but most of the others are. Compare that with the top 50 in my bracket, and it is night and day. As an example here is the number 1 guy in my leagueI don’t profess to be a great player, but I have been pretty focused and feel I have a strong team for my GP level (6 relics, JKR, Omi QGJ, CLS, Palp and Mara Jane, decent mods) I know my ships are pretty bad (I hate ships). I feel pretty confident I could beat any active player in the top 50, but the opponents much lower in the league seem much more difficult. I get that the more I win the higher my skill level goes and I move up, but it seems like there is this weird phenomenon of more difficult opponents lower in the league that creates this false barrier to me moving up. Can someone help me understand what may be going on? I’d appreciate any advice

Yeah, there could be multiple reasons for that. One could just be unfortunate pools of matchups where these strong accounts got bumped to where you are without going through them. But there's a lot of missing information here on where people were initially seeded and how often they participated since the change.

I just looked at a bunch of those accounts in Carbonite 3, and it looks like none of them have swgoh.gg pages, which usually means they're very new to GAC. They all also have GPs that are right around the cutoff for the initial GAC seeding. Basically - these are accounts that have just hit level 85 and are participating in their first or second GAC event. Their initial skill score is based solely on their GP - so some of them would have joined last week, and been matched against other brand-new-to-GAC accounts (thus being able to go 3-0, despite the weaker rosters). Others may have gone 2-1 last week, or be brand new this week. I imagine you'll eventually be able to climb over them, but that is interesting. It does seem like the top of the division will be continually replenished with new accounts, and some of them will inevitably go 3-0 since they're mostly matched against other new accounts.

Removing all GP constraints from matchmaking allowed higher GP rosters to be scattered across the leagues depending on the players' competence / participation or lack thereof.

"Rath_Tarr;c-2353896" wrote:Removing all GP constraints from matchmaking allowed higher GP rosters to be scattered across the leagues depending on the players' competence / participation or lack thereof.I get that l, I really do. But it doesn’t really explain why a large group of active players are all way below the top 50 in our leagues, when our rosters could easily beat any of those top 50.It feels like the bottom of Carbonite 3 is the lost boys and girls club, where we get a mix of active players and many semi active players. Those that only play 1-2 matches per GAC. So they drop down here with us, but for the active players down here, we can’t move up to where we belong because of the large amount of semi active players. Many of my matches are just a die roll on whether or not my opponent happens to log on and play that day or not, no farming smartly, or understanding counters, or building smart teams, or decision I make at all will matter. Just, if they decide to play I lose and it not I win. Not all my matches are that way, but I’ve lost that die roll enough that it keeps me from moving up. Sorry if I’m not making sense. I don’t mean for this to be another GAC matchmaking sucks thread, it just doesn’t seem to be working as intentioned

"PeachyPeachSWGOH;c-2353917" wrote:Well, I guess if you are as focused and active as you say are, you will grow out of it pretty quickly.That’s not really my point. I’m not claiming to be some amazing player that just can’t figure out why everyone keeps beating me. There genuinely seems to be some artifact of the new skill system that created some unintentional pockets of disparity with the rest of the league

Help me understand GAC skill level, league

31 Replies

crzydroid
Hero (Retired)
3 years ago
GP has really nothing to do with it. Your initial league seeding was based on GP, but that's it. Your "skill score" increases as you win, and decreases as you lose. You can beat players with much higher GP if you are very efficient and your opponent is bad or doesn't participate.
Obi-six-Kenobi
3 years ago
"crzydroid;c-2353855" wrote:
GP has really nothing to do with it. Your initial league seeding was based on GP, but that's it. Your "skill score" increases as you win, and decreases as you lose. You can beat players with much higher GP if you are very efficient and your opponent is bad or doesn't participate.

I understand that, what I am asking is why, within my league, are the higher ranks so much worse than the lower ranks. Any of my current opponents and myself, could beat any of the top 50 in my league with minimal effort

It feels like I’m stuck lower than my skill rating because there is this pocket of more difficult opponents in my league. But if I could get out of this pocket, I’d be able to beat my opponents consistently and move up.
crzydroid
Hero (Retired)
3 years ago
Yeah, there could be multiple reasons for that. One could just be unfortunate pools of matchups where these strong accounts got bumped to where you are without going through them. But there's a lot of missing information here on where people were initially seeded and how often they participated since the change.
dmgutie
New Veteran
3 years ago
I just looked at a bunch of those accounts in Carbonite 3, and it looks like none of them have swgoh.gg pages, which usually means they're very new to GAC. They all also have GPs that are right around the cutoff for the initial GAC seeding. Basically - these are accounts that have just hit level 85 and are participating in their first or second GAC event. Their initial skill score is based solely on their GP - so some of them would have joined last week, and been matched against other brand-new-to-GAC accounts (thus being able to go 3-0, despite the weaker rosters). Others may have gone 2-1 last week, or be brand new this week. I imagine you'll eventually be able to climb over them, but that is interesting. It does seem like the top of the division will be continually replenished with new accounts, and some of them will inevitably go 3-0 since they're mostly matched against other new accounts.
Rath_Tarr0
3 years ago
Removing all GP constraints from matchmaking allowed higher GP rosters to be scattered across the leagues depending on the players' competence / participation or lack thereof.
Obi-six-Kenobi
3 years ago
"Rath_Tarr;c-2353896" wrote:
Removing all GP constraints from matchmaking allowed higher GP rosters to be scattered across the leagues depending on the players' competence / participation or lack thereof.

I get that l, I really do. But it doesn’t really explain why a large group of active players are all way below the top 50 in our leagues, when our rosters could easily beat any of those top 50.

It feels like the bottom of Carbonite 3 is the lost boys and girls club, where we get a mix of active players and many semi active players. Those that only play 1-2 matches per GAC. So they drop down here with us, but for the active players down here, we can’t move up to where we belong because of the large amount of semi active players. Many of my matches are just a die roll on whether or not my opponent happens to log on and play that day or not, no farming smartly, or understanding counters, or building smart teams, or decision I make at all will matter. Just, if they decide to play I lose and it not I win. Not all my matches are that way, but I’ve lost that die roll enough that it keeps me from moving up. Sorry if I’m not making sense. I don’t mean for this to be another GAC matchmaking sucks thread, it just doesn’t seem to be working as intentioned
M0st1yHarm1ess
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
Well, I guess if you are as focused and active as you say are, you will grow out of it pretty quickly.
Obi-six-Kenobi
3 years ago
"PeachyPeachSWGOH;c-2353917" wrote:
Well, I guess if you are as focused and active as you say are, you will grow out of it pretty quickly.

That’s not really my point. I’m not claiming to be some amazing player that just can’t figure out why everyone keeps beating me. There genuinely seems to be some artifact of the new skill system that created some unintentional pockets of disparity with the rest of the league
baldeagle71
3 years ago
"Obi_six_Kenobi;c-2353907" wrote:
"Rath_Tarr;c-2353896" wrote:
Removing all GP constraints from matchmaking allowed higher GP rosters to be scattered across the leagues depending on the players' competence / participation or lack thereof.

I get that l, I really do. But it doesn’t really explain why a large group of active players are all way below the top 50 in our leagues, when our rosters could easily beat any of those top 50.

It feels like the bottom of Carbonite 3 is the lost boys and girls club, where we get a mix of active players and many semi active players. Those that only play 1-2 matches per GAC. So they drop down here with us, but for the active players down here, we can’t move up to where we belong because of the large amount of semi active players. Many of my matches are just a die roll on whether or not my opponent happens to log on and play that day or not, no farming smartly, or understanding counters, or building smart teams, or decision I make at all will matter. Just, if they decide to play I lose and it not I win. Not all my matches are that way, but I’ve lost that die roll enough that it keeps me from moving up. Sorry if I’m not making sense. I don’t mean for this to be another GAC matchmaking sucks thread, it just doesn’t seem to be working as intentioned

Carbonite 3 is for sure the lost boys club of people who aren't trying much. Its unfortunately a problem you will see for quite awhile until you get into upper Aurodium. Its actually really easy to rise against these 3-5m accounts in Carbonite because they aren't really trying. Most of the time they won't show up and you just win. I have risen on my F2P account from Carbonite 4 to Carbonite 1 as a 1.3m account in a little more than 2 seasons (finished 6 pts away from Carbonite 1 at end of season 2). Just don't stress out when people out GP you by 2-3x. They most of the time won't show.
M0st1yHarm1ess
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
"Obi_six_Kenobi;c-2353919" wrote:
"PeachyPeachSWGOH;c-2353917" wrote:
Well, I guess if you are as focused and active as you say are, you will grow out of it pretty quickly.

That’s not really my point. I’m not claiming to be some amazing player that just can’t figure out why everyone keeps beating me. There genuinely seems to be some artifact of the new skill system that created some unintentional pockets of disparity with the rest of the league

So far DMG_SW's theory makes the most sense to me - the "disparities" are caused by actual new players whose SRs are still from the initial seeding. The solution could be as simple as make the initial SR much lower than now - e.g. divide it by 2, effectively putting them all in Carb 5. Now that all existing players have played for a while, the only players who would receive the initial seeding would be those who have just made level 85.