OMG the match making in GAC is the worst!

"Artumas;c-2168027" wrote:

"Rath_Tarr;c-2167889" wrote:

"MetaThumper;c-2167842" wrote:

"Rath_Tarr;c-2167349" wrote:
GAC matches on top {x} toon GP, not full roster GP. Been that way since GA first evolved into GAC.

https://swgoh.gg/p/974898556/characters/

You know what else he has been this way since the GAC evolution? The people warning that GP isn't a fair or balanced gauge to use for a matchmaking system. In theory it would work fine but in reality.... Nope. Everyone who defends this system goes on acting like GAC is the ONLY game mode this game offers.

Actually people have been complaining about GP matchmaking since GA began. The problem is that there really isn't a viable alternative.

You cannot calculate a meaningful expression of combat power for individual toons / ships because you cannot quantify complex abilities, nor can you account for the synergy of multiple different character combinations.

Attempting to match based on the presence / absence of certain toons / ships gets crazy very quickly once you consider the number of characters / ships which could be considered problematic by players at difference GP levels.

And ignoring GP in matchmaking would invariably lead to the higher GP rosters in each division dominating its top ranks, leaving good players who happen to be at the low end of the GP range with little hope and encouraging GP sandbagging st the top of each division's GP range.

GP is a measure of resource investment so it matches players with rosters of similar investment level. How those players invested their resources was up to them. If they invested well they will have an advantage, if they invested poorly they will be at a disadvantage.

Actually, it's very simple to create a matchmaking system that would take certain characters into account.

GLs count as x2 GP, GAS/Malak/JKL count as 1.5x, CLS/JKR/DR/JTR/possibly other specific leads count as 1.2x GP.

You can arguably do the same for other specific characters that aren't leads, like Thrawn, Raid Han, Traya, etc, or even just all legendaries period, despite some like BB8 not really being "that" strong.

This would mean that if you, say, have a 35k GP GL, that GL counts as 70k for matchmaking. This would VERY MUCH take into account how utterly powerful these characters are, without requiring a single "actual" change to the algorithm.

Your average meta whale would have around +200-300k GP off of this, which while it wouldn't completely remove these matchups, would definitely help lower their frequency. And if it continues being a notable issue, just increase these GP modifiers. Like 3x on GLs actually probably makes a lot of sense, if we're being honest. Extra 120k+ per GL. Actually, 3x, 2x, 1.5x, then 1.2x for non-lead legendaries would make complete sense.

Because it's not JUST GLs. This is the case for a TON of teams from the bottom of the barrel fresh F2P 85s doing their first GAC, to the absolute top of the playerbase. JKR is completely unbeatable if you happen to get matched against him without a remotely decent counter, which is entirely possible for newer F2P players going up against HDB players. Malak DR can present the same issues for a much wider range of players, and GAS is again, practically the same as a GL in that if you don't have very specific counter teams, you lose. Going for JKR/DR/Malak instead of CLS makes complete sense for literally every single other game mode, but completely cripples you comparatively if you get matched against someone with GAS, as you have one only semi-consistent counter rather than a straight hard counter. And if you instead try to go for CLS, you again, get kind of crippled by those Malak teams. - This is an issue across the entire game, it's just SIGNIFICANTLY more of an issue due to how utterly absurd the GLs are.

You get matched against someone with a GL and you don't have a GL or Wat or GAS or JKL, you lose. Plain and simple. Even if you somehow manage to make it past the team, it's such an absurd banner loss in most cases that it basically just doesn't even matter that you got past them unless your opponent messes up a fight.
And yes, we now definitely have the actual statistics to say without a doubt this is 100% the truth.

This was very much ALSO the case when JKR came out, and when GAS came out, the only difference is their counters are much easier to build on the fly. (Even unlocking JKR so you can mirror match counter him takes less time than unlocking Wat unless you can bribe a 49/50 wat shard guild to let you leech off of them.)

There's a very, very simple solution here, but we're not going to ever see it because of... I honestly don't know. Greed? Hard to say if that's even the case, considering these lopsided matchups are probably just as likely to push people away from even caring about GAC, and thus not spending at all, as they are to encourage someone to spend. I definitely know that was the case with me - Until I could finish my GL grind, there was just absolutely no point in me investing anything into "performing better" when my pre-GAC-existing roster put me at an absolutely ridiculous disadvantage where I'm like 4+ viable teams below my opponents every match, and my top characters were all definitely not meta because I was carrying my guild through HSTR so the first R7 character I had after my arena team was Finn. And HSTR gives WAY more rewards than GAC, as well.
I don't regret investing in my roster the way I did, but the simple fact is: Yes, there's actually quite a LOT of people that have rosters specifically built for raids, for TBs, etc., even post-relics, that... well, get completely screwed by the way GAC matchmaking works, to put it simply.

I consider myself lucky in the fact I never encountered a GL team, or even a GAS team, in GAC before getting my own GL. But that doesn't mean my GAC experience wasn't completely and utterly unbalanced. Getting matched with people with a relic JKR, DR, Padme, GG and NS team every single match almost when my only "meta" teams are a 2-relic JKR team and a relic 7 JTR team for 6 months straight was... stupid. Sure, I've got a bunch of G12 teams, but find me a G12 FO, pre-buff Vader empire, NS or Geo team that can beat a R4+ DR team, or a R3 padme team. They don't exist.

And I wouldn't even say investing in a GL and investing in clearing HSTR is "investing poorly", either. But unlocking a GL if you're not willing to dish out the cash to buy one day 1? It takes a really long time. And that entire time? I could never once make it to Kyber because literally EVERY match all my opponent had to do was put 3 decent top end teams on defense and it guaranteed I couldn't reach both back territories, regardless of what I did. And so that's how almost every one of my matches went. For 6+ months straight.

Classic forum solution: longwinded, half-baked, fundamentally flawed and billed as "simple".

The value of various toons is subjective and largely dependent on the two rosters involved.

Brood Alpha for example is not even a legendary but changes a Geonosian squad from a weak collection of bugs to a veritable powerhouse at lower GP levels. But that squad is easily counterable at higher GP or by a lower GP player who has the appropriate squads available.

Arbitrarily applying GP multipliers to specific toons without regard to context will merely create further distortions in matchmaking.