Suggestion to fix random KoTH pairing

[azzagbag]

Thank you for bringing KoTH back but it is still very very very unfair when it comes to random vs clan.
You could fix this pretty easily by adjusting the pairing algorithm as suggested here.

I believe the current algorithm is something like this:

Find a game where the creators level is within 100 of my own.
For each second of wait time, grow the acceptable medal range by 100 medals above or below.

This isn't a fair strategy for games with more than 2 players. Consider the case of 10 level 2000 players, 10 level 3000 players, 2 level 4000 players. In this case the level 4000s get teamed frequently against the underdogs. The underdogs generally lose, which widens the gap and makes the effect worse.

Instead:

Find a game where the enemy team's average level is within 100 of my own.
For each second of wait time, grow the acceptable medal range by 100 medals above or below.
Make sure that this rule is true for all players in the game.

This has the effect of delaying games where a pairing will lead to an obvious winner or loser scenario.

Further, to make clan vs random fair:

Maintain a tally of difference between friend and enemy medal count. e.g. enemy has 4000 medals, my team has 3800. The difference is -200.
Subtract this from my actual medal count for the purposes of finding a match.
This helps pair me with easy enemies after I've had a set of hard enemies and gives me hard enemies if I've had some easy ones.

I don't know why these things aren't being fixed. They make it so that you can lose lots of medals at some time of the day and get them back at another time of the day or in another region. That's not really a fair ladder.

[Maija]

Hello!

This is basically how it works ATM. In all of our matchmaking there is the same issue. Most of the players are under 2800 medals. Average players never make it to the leagues. The matcmaking works pretty well under 2800 medals because there are so many players. However, there are not enough "pro players" in the leagues searching for matches at the same time. It depends on the time and the region.

[azzagbag]

It still seems to be that certain times of the day have more 2000-3000 medal players (peak time) than 4000 medal players. A 4000 medal player at this time of day will level up and push the 3000 players down. The opposite it also true. The last part of that post was about trying to avoid that sort of thing from happening.

The way this can be exploited to get medals is to play clan games when you and your clan mate are both above the average medal count (i.e. peak time) or to play random games when it's not peak time so there are less high level clan pairs to play against.

I think this could be improved upon with my last suggestion above.

[Maija]

Ummm... there is ALWAYS more 2000-3000 medal players than 4K players. The more players there are online at the same time looking for a match the better the matchmaking works. The longer someone waits for a match to start the more likely it is they match with others who are lower/higher. On peak times everyone can find matches better from others who are close to their own medals.

Basically one thing that could change things up a bit would be to make 3800+ players wait for a close match longer before widening the search area. Problem is that high end players are already waiting for matches longer than players around 2K.

[azzagbag]

I think you're missing the point and also validating my issue.

At any given time there are lots of players of low level.
It takes one clan (*cough* vn plus *cough*) to be dominant on a region to just chew through the opponents and lift their medals.
It also means a player of even moderate level (3500-4000) trying to play solo will get paired with a lower player vs this clan.

It should be obvious that this means playing when the clan is active lowers your level and playing other times raises it.

I'm not sure why this isn't obvious or something you want to fix. It makes the medal tally kind of pointless and easily gamed.

CL is generally a stronger clan than vn plus by a long way but the medal tally doesn't show that because vn plus game the asia region every night.

[Maija]

Serious question. How long are you ready to wait for a match to start? 10 sec? 30 sec? One minute? 2 minutes? 5 minutes?

[azzagbag]

I think different people will have different thresholds for what they will wait.

If it means not going backwards 300-500 medals because of the time of day, I would wait one minute.

The problem is basically "apples to oranges" matching when you have clans vs random and not enough people.

Alternatively, I wonder how many people would use an option that said "exclude clans" when searching for a random koth games? I
'm not sure what the interface would be like but it might just be a checkbox in settings? *shrugs*