The link speaks for its self (If it works properly.)
I haven’t played a single fighting game since MK9, was thinking about getting MKX but decided not to and downloaded KI instead. I guess that was the wrong choice to make.
I really don’t understand this games match making, for the first few matches it was fine, but after that it’s been nonstop High silver, golds, and as the pictures show, even a killer once. I rarely ever get matched up with people of my skill level and it frustrates me so much. I want to get better and rank up in this game as it is very fun to have a good match, but at this rate it feels like im going to go nowhere.
I don’t know if theres some setting i need to change or what but it feels like this shouldn’t be happening at all to a new player.
Play exhibition, where you can find a fair matchup and go long rounds. Use lobbies too. Your game will improve more this way. Ranked will always be there, and ranked gets reset all of the time anyway. The real learning happens in lobbies and in the lab.
From what I understand, the game tries to match you based on Rank and W/L ratio as best it can, but in the event that there isn’t anyone available that meets the criteria it will match you with the first available opponent. The idea is to match you with someone to avoid long periods of down time. This is pretty common in a lot of games with on online focus to avoid long wait times and keep people playing, especially if the population is relatively small.
The best way to improve your skill if you don’t think you’re ready to fight higher level players in Ranked is to go to Exhibition/Lobbies (which allows you to cap the Maximum Rank to players of your level) or go into “The Lab” and utilize Practice, The Dojo, Shadows, and VS AI to gain a more in depth understanding of the mechanics. As it currently stands, Ranked is the highest level of challenge you will face in this game, and the people who are on ranked the most often are usually the people who’ve invested the most time there already, so if you’re going to brave Ranked mode there’s a good chance you’ll be in for stiff (and occasionally even professional) competition.
Here’s hoping these rough experiences don’t deter you too much. I know you’ve had a rough start so far, but there’s plenty of folks on here willing to lend a hand to help you improve enough that you may no longer have to fear someone for the title they hold.
Trust me I feel your pain, when I first got into KI I very rarely played any FGs so when I went into ranked for my first match online I had to fight some of the highest leveled people and got destroyed every time (granted it was S1 where a lot of shit was unbalanced). Point is just keep playing regardless of winning/losing and learn what you can from it like a trial by fire or practice shadow lab that works too.
I am just a casual player, so i only play lobbies with friends.
I never play ranked (i know i am not good enough).
So i stick with lobbies or i play shadow survival.
By playing shadow survival, i seem to get a bit better already.
I really like shadow survival, its the best offline mode in the game.
You should try
This is only an option in Exhibition, though, just to be clear.
If you’re going to play Ranked you will end up against high rankers from time to time, a lot of which is because the game intends to give you a short downtime between games, as has been said. It’s OK to go into Ranked early, just understand it’s a trial by fire, and that nobody will go easy on you because points are on the line.
The Shadows mode is actually really good, and while it’s not the same as fighting another person directly it is the best single player experience I’ve had with a fighter.
As others have said, Exhibition may be the best way to start playing online so that you can ensure you are only ranked with people around your rank. The exception to this is if someone simply does not play ranked much/at all, they might be much more skilled than their Qualifier or Bronze rank would indicate.
I feel your pain (happened to find different golden and 2 people from the top 32 europe like TBD Kenshiro and DST Daimol when I was still in bronze/silver League).
But it’s thanks to these matches that I could rank up faster against people of my same rank. Playing against them, you’ll learn a lot of stuff and improve noticeably.
To make you an example: first time I encountered Kenshiro, he scored an easy perfect. The second time I faced him, when I reached gold, I lost against him 2 - 1 closely. A killer I went against in bronze, that fucked me up in less time than Flash reaching Coast to Coast, has been beaten by me 2 - 1 in gold lately. And only 2 weeks passed from that day, not a lot of time.
So the matchmaking having flaws is agreeable, but you should take this opportunity (or bug) to improve yourself. In bronze you can do as many mistakes as you want, considering you can climb up quickly with a couple of victories against other bronzes.
Jumping right into ranked competition is not the best idea in KI, people tend to be quite serious about their points and will give you no quarter. the ranks themselves can also be deceiving because skilled players who don’t play ranked mode so much will have the same rank or slightly better than you and still treat you like a ragdoll.
Best bet, play exhibition or lobbies against others, or try the shadow lab, which puts you up against real player-based AI to improve your understanding of the game and your technique.
Ranked play isn’t going anywhere and you needn’t rush.
You chose the right game…Question is…Why are you playing RANKED as the entry to the game? Ranked is where you go once you have become better…not where you go to become better.
You need to be in exhibition…less stress there as there is no win loss record to keep up with. You can also block all tiers above your own tier in the search option.
Play exhibition. I consider myself very competitive oriented and I don’t do ranked at all in KI really.
Matchmaking will always get you bopped occasionally.
I play MKX as well and I’m matched with hapless new players all the time. Doesn’t change from game to game really. If a player of your skill level and region isn’t also searching then you are going to get an uneven match.
Also, if you win against a KILLER while in BRONZE, you get like 1,000,000,000 points, and if you loose, you only loose like 2. So it is a fair “risk / reward” system.
Mostly, people play ranked for bragging rights. But there really aren’t that much better skilled players in ranked than you’ll find in exhibition. Some of us just prefer exhibition because of the quick enter the matches and there’s no limit to the number of rounds. You can also back out if you play against someone that’s not at your level. You can also back out of matches against characters that you don’t have fun playing against. I don’t care what anyone says, I’m not getting paid for this. Hardly anybody’s going to make a career out of playing fighting games. I make more money in my career than the number one ranked Killer Instinct player. Most of us probably do. Why should I match up with Sadira or some other character that I can beat but have no fun against? Much more laid back. More time to learn and play with friends. I beat ranked players all the time. Nothing special about ranked unless you want to have a star next to your name. I think I’m twenty and one in ranks and once I make it to killer I will never play it again. I just like to have the killer status on my tag so that people know who I am in exhibition and I don’t come across as a Smurf. That’s all.
just play exhibitions man, play sets against people and learn. ranked will come later! also dont be afraid to ask anyone on here for a set to train/learn, we’ll oblige you. just have a mic, good attitude, and readiness to learn the game
Play which ever mode YOU want to play I say, but just be prepared for the type of players you will match up with if you play Ranked. With Exhibition and Lobby you have control of who you want to play against and if they look to high level or don’t match the profile you are looking for you can easily decline. I think the rankings are still balancing themselves out so unfortunately you may still get matched up against top level players.
It is entirely possible to play Ranked as your main form of training and online play, because that’s what I’ve been doing for about two years now.
Like we’ve said, just keep in mind that in Ranked you will get placed against people who will absolutely destroy you from time to time as you’re learning and training.
I got on ranked last night - and I was sitting in tier 2 of gold league. I got paired up against a silver ranked Riptor who absolutely knew the matchup had a solid gameplan and decent tech and beat me. The night before I had a qualifier, playing Sadira in an account where his player level was 2 and Sadira was level 3 and the guy crushed me. So, regardless of how well the system matches you, you will never get a string of close competitive matches forever.
For the most part, though, I’ve had good experience with competitive matchmaking this season. Lots of narrow wins and close losses.
But no matchmaking system can function without a significant player base to draw from. Over time it will get harder and harder to find beginners participating in ranked leagues. So, I will second all the good advice that is already in this thread. Gain some experience in exhibition matches - preferably with people who can talk to you about what is happening. Then when you have a good idea of what to do, come back to ranked.
I pretty much play ranked as my preferred game mode, like @xSkeletalx . So it is definitely possible but you have to be prepared to lose.
in a smaller community (as in, the KI community will be smaller than the MK9 community), the number of new/casual players is going to be smaller. Even in MKX, I had a very low, beginning rank and was still matched up with people doing insane, 20 hit combos to me the whole match. It’s just the state of the gaming union.
Might as well not even have ranked math making. The point of the tiers is to separate people of different skills. If you say people who are not very skilled at all shouldn’t be playing ranked then why not get rid of bronze, why not get rid of every other rank as well. People are defending IG when in reality is pretty clear that ranked is messed up. There are old Killer level 50’s in bronze. You’re telling me people who used to be silver shouldn’t play ranked because they will get beat down by those Killers in bronze?
Overall this issue has been going on for weeks and people keep saying “Just give it a week and it’ll balance itself out” it been nearly a MONTH! Ranked needs a serious overall because their are people of mixed skill in these lower ranks.
Their should have been more tiers added. The only reason people are making it to Killer is because all of the skilled competition has left the bottom. You shouldn’t be able to get a Killer Rank because the higher competition moved on to a better rank. In league there is a special top rank where only around 200 people could get in and the fight to stay there.
At the very least they should do a pre season like League of Legends where people are getting assigned to their proper rank.
