Worst Matchmaking in History?

General Discussion
1

This game’s matchmaking is a complete joke. It’s so bad that I honestly don’t even want to play the game anymore.

The netcode is great. I rarely get any lag, and finding players takes mere seconds at almost any given time. Unfortunately, the latter probably adds to the main issue with this garbage system.

Why is it that I am constantly playing against level 50 Killer league players in ranked? How is this fun? How is this fair? Seriously, AT LEAST 70% of the time, I am facing someone who is WAY higher ranked than me. I barely ever even put up much of a fight in these circumstances. And what’s worse is that most of these players taunt, ultra combo, and do anything they can to annoy you because they know they are going to win. It’s gotten to the point where sometimes I’ll just drop my controller and wait to lose when I am facing someone like this.

Seriously, what the hell is this?

And please don’t tell me to ‘get better’. I like to think I have gotten better. I barely won any games when I first started, but then improved to the point where I won most of the games I played, got promoted to silver, and actually started really enjoying the game. Shame that didn’t last long. This isn’t making me want to get better, this is making me want to quit.

2

what u do not know is that only Level 50 players are playing KI currently, everyone else is busy checking out triborg and sf5 until KI season 3 drops then they will all return to KI. Everyone has hit Level 50 now, am sorry u were a lil late to the party, but its not enuff reason for u to get angry

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3

that’s weird considering when i was in bronze i played people of my rank pretty often. Also does mean that only high ranked people are playing? cause most of what I face. It’s not the level per say, it’s the rank.

4

Here’s the thing, the matchmaking is currently a bit skewed due to the only people really playing ranked a lot are people like me who are pushing for top 32 or Killers who are preparing for the Season 3 switch.

When Season 2 was in full swing the matchmaking was fine, aside from early morning or very late night.

The matchmaking first searches for opponents that are in your rank, but rapidly (over the course of a minute) it expands the search so that there is little down time between matches.

If you wish to fight opponents in your rank without fighting Killers, I suggest going to exhibition and limiting the search for you rank.

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5

I’m Killer rank, but almost never play ranked.

I find much more fun and enjoyable playing in exibition for several reasons:
1-Rematch: if you find an opponent with whom you are comfortable fighting, you can have instant rematch for hours, allowing you for more practice in less time
2-There is no competition: Everyone likes wining, but lets be honest, people gets more serious in ranked. You can play less stressful fights in exibition.
3-Experiments: when I play against a bronze/low level player, I dont use my bests characters. I take my worst characters. My experience can help me winning anyway, but I dont find any pleasure scoring a perfect against a newcomer. Quite the opposite: I enjoy helping new players to get better. Some people (specially in this forum) are eager to help newcomers and expand the population of this game.

My personal advice: go to the “GGs thread” and ask someone for some casual matchs. Ask about your mistakes and how to correct them. Someday, you will feel confident of your skills to get to Killer rank.

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6

All of these replys are correct. But let me add a little more.

You DO need to get better. Then get better again. Then get more better. Then get good.

Everyone has this same experience. Fighting games are brutal. But everyone who is even decent will get to Killer and LVL50 eventually. Even me, who only uses Omen. We even have blind players who have done it.

You will get there eventually, but it takes about one FULL week of HARDCORE learning. NOT just playing, But watching tournaments, Doing the dojo multiple times, Practicing better combos, and LEARNING FROM MISTAKES.

You can do it. We all believe in you.

Then you can come back and post about how happy you are to finally be in Killer! And we will congratulate you!

That is the beginning of every KI lifestyle.

(If you REALLY want to, you can just make a friend here on the forums and fight them and let them tell you your mistakes. I’ll do it. GT:Mr xFlutterShy)

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7

Another reason why you may find yourself finding so many lvl. 50 players is because early on, the ranking system got an overhaul that made it easy to get to rank 50 - a lot of people took advantage of that. It’s been slowed down a bit since then to make it slightly harder, though, which is why you might be finding it harder yourself. Give it time - it’s still pretty easy overall once you have a fundamental understanding of the basic mechanics in the game (such as combo-breaking, counter-breaking, reading your opponent, individual character abilities and instinct, etc.).

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I faced a Gold rank player who stopped playing after he lost half his first lifebar. He did everything unsafe with Orchid and I (as Aria, a character I know nothing about yet) punished him for it, then did a few unsafe moves myself which he didn’t block. After that, he just stood there doing nothing. Initally, I walked back to the corner to see if he had to go AFK for something, but nothing after 20 seconds. So i just let the timer run out. He got matched up with me again and quit out. When I asked him why, he said I sucked.

Don’t ever give up, KI is a game where anything can happen. Where’s my proof? Sleep Vs. MyGod at Evo. Best comeback ever, the match shows that Wulf can do massive damage to Kan Ra but still end up losing by a magic pixel. And yes, you have to get better, we don’t just say that to make people feel like rubbish, the level of competition you will face in Ranked after almost 3 years (not to mention since its PR downtime, mostly hardcore players will be on) will be crazy since a lot of people will be Level 50 Killers. Even then, not all Killers are any good, some have made it there by boosting, some like me just got fortunate match ups leading to promotion. Maybe you just haven’t found your character yet, maybe you’re not hit confirming enough, maybe your setups and mixups are not quite on point. Analyze, Learn, Implement.

I hope this helps, if you want some matches you could probably add a few forum members, most of whom have the same XBL GT as their forum name, we’re always keen on looking to teach or just play really close matches.

9

There is nothing magic in matchmaking. It can’t create players. Go into exhibition and I’m sure you will find plenty of people closer to your rank to fight. SF V has been out for less than a month and I am in bronze league frequently paired up with Silver and even Gold opponents with 2-3x my LP. That’s life.

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*** There are not many Silver tier players. They are mainly Gold and Killer.***

Man I understand your frustration…here is my advice… take it or leave it.
Im assuming you are in Silver rank? If so you may not be ready for ranked just yet. Youa re going to loose, a lot. If you think SIlver is tough, wait till you hit Gold!

SO here is what you need to do… stop playing Ranked for about 2 months. Strictly play exibition and high ranked Shadows. Non stop. You are not goign to win all the time…so you need to understand this.

Also learn you Main characters Normal moves Frame data. this way if you are in a tight situation you know what move is your fastest move and if it gets beat out by mids or lows.

2 months of strict practice in Exhibition and Shadows…then come back to Ranked a better player.

also if you get mad about an online Jerk… stop playing online for a bit and play Shadows until you calm down.

Trust me…I had the same problems and I came back stronger and made it to Killer eventually.

One more thing…Its not the games fault and the match making is fine. If you have a weak connection and only Killers are playing closest to your area…that’s what its going to match you up against…what is available.

11

I think you need to do two things:

  1. Understand that the players you describe are almost entirely all that is playing right now in ranked.

  2. Offer a suggestion of how match making should work when there simply is nobody else to match you with. Would you prefer a message of “everyone available is much higher level than you, do you still want to play?” Would that make you feel better?

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12

Man, back in early 2014 I didn’t care I got beat cause I loved the game so much. I admired the players who pulverized me into oblivion and the spectacle from that result.

hologram (a fulgore player) inspired me to be a better player. he taught me that using that robot in a certain way makes people react in similar fashions. Med teleport to whiff wake ups is my contribution but I’ve never seen anyone use it.

best peice of advice is practice unti your fingers bleed. if you aren’t hit confirming and muscle memory openers into combos. then after that manuals after linkers, H ell even manuals after auto doubles. then the most important rule… know when to back off. The rule of thumb is a mixup of 2 or 3 pokes,high or low. ya people keep pressure on after those 2 or 3 pokes and they get blown up almost every time. of course that is character specific some of the time

13

There is a ranking disparity, I agree with you on that. I’m in Killer, 50 with my main and 50 on my profile, but my skill level is certainly on the lower end of Killer. I have been matched up against Golds and Silvers who were legitimately better than myself and beat me, Killers who couldn’t manage to end a combo, and sometimes against top 32 winners who mash me into paste with little to no effort.

What most people have said in here is true; the search expands pretty quickly, and this far into Ranked Leagues a sizable portion of players are Gold or Killer. But even as a Killer I can tell you that the player matchups are not always even. Do I believe this makes the matchmaking system we have bad? No. Do I believe there is room for improvement? Yes.

I’m hoping that part of the unannounced information for Season 3 includes a Ranked reset or matchmaking adjustment, but it’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t. When I don’t want to play really seriously, I jump into exhibition matches with a friend or a forum-buddy.

14

Here’s my story with ranked,

The only KI I ever played on this new generation was offline with a friend. Long story short at the DBLXP weekend from a couple of weeks back I decided to play ranked to see what it was about and also I wanted to get my Thunder to level 50 (From 35).

Although not relevant I saw I get 50% more XP on win or loss. So that pushed me to play more, I got ranked Gold from the start lost 2 of my 10 qualifier matches. I thought I was good…lol, I got destroyed. Seriously I was given a new one (I’ll let you guess what I’m referring to).

I remained at 0 points, losing record, I just couldn’t get a break. Everyone talking about training and shadows, those are awesome and amazing tips, but they’re not for me. I don’t like playing alone. It’s a mental thing, I play it just for story mode or if I’m trying to achieve something (getting XP in survival).

Then out of the blue I started winning, I was reading instead of guessing, anticipating and baiting my opponent, honestly if you look at my record now, I’m at 50% with 90 wins and 90 losses so I’m not that good but just last Sunday I made killer status but let me tell you, sometimes I got discouraged and the only thing that made me play that extra match was the extra XP.

But now, I can’t see myself playing anything else but ranked. I think I won 1 set out if 10 in killer, so yeah, 0 points and losing record.

You have to find something that you enjoy to keep coming back to it, don’t focus on the win or the loss, focus on playing and learning, a lot of matches I would play but when I get combo’d I just watch the other character and read his auto doubles and I learned that way. The next combo he does, if I see that string I’d try to break and see if I read it right. When I did do a good read, it was damn satisfying.

I learned to lose, some people TB’d me when down and i laughed and told myself “I deserved that because I played bad”, which pushed me to play better. Honestly you have to find what’s fun for you in this game, do what you enjoy don’t focus on the win / loss ratio, so what if you lose to a killer status guy? I lost to silver players a plenty.

My profile is level 50, I have Fulgore, Thunder and now Jago at level 50 and I still suck. Levels don’t mean much in this game.

Also keep in mind I only play on weekends, 2-3 hours in the morning and 2-3 hours at night, sometimes I get lucky and can play a bit during the day on Saturday.

If I could do it, trust me so can you, as others have said, add us on on XBL and let’s pay, my GT is the same as my nick.

Most important of all, whatever you decide to do, make sure you enjoy doing it and most importantly don’t give up, if it was easy it wouldn’t be fun.

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15

hold on, first of all, the best comeback was Ricky Walker vs Grief, it wasn’t just the match, but the ENTIRE SET.

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16

I think you should evaluate what makes the matchmaking “worst in history”. If you find that you aren’t ready to take on a majority of your opponents at your skill and rank level (to be honest rank does not reflect innate skill), then go to face people who are at your skill level, exhibition. Ranked is for people who want to test their skills against any player in their way. As much as this is a game where you want to have fun, you want to prove you’re the best (competition).

I’d go to exhibition and set the search for people at your rank level. Then you can see how you fair against people who have the same rank as yours. If you find that you are bodying a majority of them, then increase to the next rank, if not, then keep playing them. I understand if you get beat by killer players because statistically they win more than they lose. However, as a player, you need to understand where your skill is at and work up.

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17

What a great post. Thanks for sharing this.

People always need to remember that playing against random, competitively minded players is just radically different than playing against your friend or the AI. It’s not a question of being good at the game or not. You are literally playing a completely different game. It will take you some time to adjust to this, but if you keep at it you will get better.

18

im just going to be objective here.

not enough people are playing the game. plain and simple.
during s1, id run into casual players and much faster but now its only the cream of the crop. i know people dont want to admit it but everyone either stuck to the game or moved on when a new game came out / didnt like the games changes for s2. some of the changes that come to the game are pretty radical to be fair and it can throw off a lot of people who spend hours training in the lab (still dont get why spinal needed a dash cancel). Iron galaxy has been working hard though by adding combo assist, guest characters, and much more to make the game fun and refreshing. with season 3 on the way, we should get more people playing

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19

You are exactly right about the cause of the problem - less people playing. But I wouldn’t consider that to be unusual or problematic. People tend to drop out of all games over time and gradually it’s only the experts that remain.

20

Of course KI does not have the worst matchmaking in history. That was an exaggeration of course. I was simply angry at the time after playing several killer league players in a row, and having them all taunt continuously. Really, I think the mming in this game is good for the most part, but it’s frustrating getting opponents that are not even close in rank. It can’t be fun for either player.

Usually I have no problem with losing, as that is a fundamental part of improving, but when I face someone who is clearly far better than me, I barely get a chance to improve. I play one game and barely lose. I look at that game and see what went wrong, and I try to adapt. But then I play a game against a level 50 killer league player, and just get destroyed, leaving me with not even knowing where to start on what went wrong.

I think having a matchmaking system where you can only face players that are at most 1 league apart from you, would be nice. Regardless if this means waiting another 30 seconds or so to find a match.

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