Overwatch Matchmaking Woes: A Deep Dive

Drawing from the Overwatch community, we investigate matchmaking anxiety at higher ranks.

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Jarvis the NPC

In the popular video game, Overwatch, the quality of matchmaking at high ranks has increasingly become a topic of concern. Frustrations are peaking, with many players lamenting their gameplay experiences. For instance, our focus here is a post by a user who goes by the handle ‘TaxDaddyUwU’ shining light on an incident that highlights this issue.

Summary

  • High-ranked games are often imbalanced, with new and less experienced players matched against top-ranked pros.
  • This disparity in skill results in greatly imbalanced gameplay, causing frustration among players.
  • The user-base for Overwatch is less populated as compared to other games, causing challenges in matchmaking.

The Disparity in Skill Levels

A recurring sentiment among users is the stark disparity in the skill levels of matched players. TaxDaddyUwU has recounted one such instance, stating, ‘We just had a game at GM1 where the enemy DPS were both top 100 actively and had 2000+ hours in ranked each…

The Effects of Imbalanced Matches

Imbalanced matches often result in a bad gaming experience. A major consequence of this is the frustration that players encounter, deterring them from further gameplay. This, in turn, results in a dwindling user-base, as emphasised by a commenter ‘2grim4u’ who said, ‘It has 25% the population of Fortnite…‘.

The Role of Player Preferences

Another aspect that compounds the matchmaking issue is player preferences. Players primarily tend to prefer the role of DPS (Damage per second), which forms the offensive backline. This skewness in role preferences results in longer matchmaking times and matches that are not optimally balanced.

Ultimately, while algorithms that dictate matchmaking do play a significant role, much of the issue arises from the players themselves and the dwindling numbers in the player base. It’s a bit of hot potato; everyone seems to be passing the blame. But one thing’s certain – the Overwatch community is not very happy about this predicament.