A Look On: World of Tanks Matchmaking

I've started to take notes on matches that I'm playing on World of Tanks to try and figure out the matchmaking process and find issues relating to it if not evidence to support it handicapping good players and trying to keep win ratios balanced at roughly 50%.

The information gathered is as follows:

• Played 25 matches in a single tank one after the other
• Server choice constant, in this case the server was NA East
• A photo at the start of the game showing tanks on both teams
• Recording the result of the game
• Record the map and gamemode being played
• Record the spawn point of my tank on the map ( the theory is that to assist in the game handicapping or allowing you to play better by spawning you in a different area can either help or hinder your game performance )
• Take notes of unusual things within the game relating to RNG not being in your favor.

Of each match I played there is a picture to accompany each statistic relating to the game played. At the end there will be a small part that will show everything taken into account. This is one of a few tests as the next parts will be to do the same with a 2 man platoon and the next with a 3 man platoon.

 Mines Standard Battle. Balanced teams in number of tiers. I spawned K9. Game Won. All enemy tanks destroyed.

 Malinovka Assault. Spawned on the defending team. Game Won. All enemy tanks destroyed. Mali assault not balanced IMO.

 Cliff Standard Battle. I spawned A3. Game won. Enemy flag captured. One more 8 on our team but not a game changer.

 Sand River Assault. Defending. Not balanced game. 3 Tier 10's, 1 Tier 9, 5 Tier 7's and 1 Tier 7 on our team, 4 Tier 10's, 3 Tier 9's, 1 Tier 8, 5 and 4. I was last alive against 6 tanks and survived. Game won, only just. Time limit reached.

 Mines Encounter. I spawned A5. Game won. Enemy flag captured. Game balanced for having one less Tier 8 but 1 more Tier 7 on our team. Debatable on the types of tanks on the other team. x2 Caernarvon, x2 Tiger 2 and a T32.

 Malinovka Standard Battle. I spawned J6. Game lost. All friendly tanks destroyed. Balanced on Tier tanks.

 Cliff Standard Battle. I spawned A3. Game won. All enemy tanks destroyed. Green team extra 2 Tier 8's.

 Mountain Pass. I spawned J8. Game lost. All friendly tanks destroyed. Blue team had extra 2 Tier 7's.

 Sand River Assault. Defending. Game won. All enemy tanks destroyed. No balance issues as defending team has advantage.

 Malinovka Assault. Attacking. Game lost ( no surprise ) All friendly tanks destroyed, Game finished 15-0. No tier balance issues but this is Mali Assault and pointless in playing. I drowned my tank towards the end.

 Mountain Pass Standard Battle. I spawned B2. Game lost. Friendly base captured. Green team balance issues come into play only on where they go. A6 flank lost causing flag to be captured. My own tank along with some tier 8's and below limited ability to contribute to the match outcome.

 Westfield Standard Battle. I spawned A5. Game won. All enemy tanks destroyed. Felt unable to pen tanks in weak spots and had accuracy issues.

 Mountain Pass Standard Battle. I spawned B2. Game won. All enemy tanks destroyed.

 Westfield Standard Battle. I spawned A5. Game won. All enemy tanks destroyed.

 Widepark Standard Battle. I spawned A6. Game lost. All friendly tanks destroyed. Issues dealing kill shot to a side on Caernarvon that I had penned 3 times before. Both shots only counted as track damage.

 Westfield Standard Battle. I spawned F3. No surprise the game was lost. All friendly tanks destroyed. Balance issues. Green team had 2 Tier 10's and 2 Tier 9's. Blue team had 1 Tier 10 and 5 Tier 9's. Some green team members of high tiers spawned at the bottom.

 Widepark Standard Battle. I spawned J4. Game won. Enemy flag captured. Once again limited in my contribution. Death star shot me early on from A9 although he was not spotted, it was pot luck where he and I went.

 Sand River Assault. Attacking. Game won. Enemy base captured. Not sure where the other 2 T28's came from but defiantly contributed in the win. Maybe since I was on my own I could have been put on the other team?

 Widepark Standard Battle. I spawned J5. Game lost. All friendly tanks destroyed. T95 ran amock. No shit really considering the power of it.

 Malinovka Encounter Battle. I spawned J0. Miles away from anyone. Game lost. All friendly tanks destroyed. No tier issues but placing the top tier away from the hill and their 2 tier 2's next to the church is not balanced. But then this gametype on this map is not balanced anyway. Church spawn is closer to the hill. End of.

 Cliff Standard Battle. I spawned A3 ( this is a trend atm on cliff to spawn on this side ) Game won. All enemy tanks destroyed.

 Malinovka Encounter Battle. I spawned F0. Can you guess what happened next? Game lost. Neutral flag captured.

 Mines Encounter Battle. I spawned K6. Game won. Neutral flag captured. Green team extra Tier 9 but only came into play when all 5 top tiers bum rushed the flag and killed the E3 quickly.

 Cliff Standard Battle. Same bloody spawn. Game lost. All friendly tanks destroyed. Still I bounced a shot from the E100 so I can't complain.

 Westfield Standard Battle. I spawned J3. Game won. Enemy base captured.

Those are the 25 games I played today with the T28

15 Wins and 10 Losses.
7 Wins and 3 Losses in the first 10 games
5 Wins and 5 Losses from the next 10 games.
3 Wins and 2 Losses from the last 5 games.

Games that were lost only came about after a win. After the 1st ten games, the game seemed to try to be getting me into games that resulted in the opposite to the last game. Any time I'm placed into Mali Encounter Battle and spawned on the other spawn from the church only came after winning the previous game. Winning that gamemode from that spawn is difficult.

Maps
Cliff - 4.    75% win ratio ( 3 won 1 lost )
Mountain Pass - 3.     33% win ratio ( 1 won 2 lost )
Sand River - 3.     100% win ratio ( 3 won 0 lost ) Fun fact. Assault was the only game mode played on Sand River today.
Malinovka - 5.       20% win ratio ( 1 won 4 lost ) Fun fact. The only game mode won on Malinovka today was Assault on the defending team. The losses included attacking on assault, the shit spawn twice on encounter and 1 standard battle. This was also the most played map today making up 20% of the total maps played.
Westfield - 4.   75% win ratio ( 3 won 1 lost ) Fun fact. Won most games from A5 spawn.
Widepark - 3.   33% win ratio ( 1 won 2 lost ) Fun fact.I don't like this map.
Mines - 3.   100% win ratio. ( 3 won 0 lost )

Theory
After time the MM system will work out what maps you do not perform well on and uses that to increase your chance of a loss to even out the 50% win/loss ratio. Generally just on this I believe you should be winning once and then losing and then winning. In the event of the game you're meant to lose ( sand river assault where I got Kolobonovs medal standing alone against 6 tanks of which 4 where tier 10's ) the MM should put you into a better balanced game then before but place it on a map and gamemode that is not in your favor. Couple that with spawn placements and team mates can cause you to lose the game and to balance the XP gained in the previous game before hand.

I am happy I did this today as yesterday I only got 3 maps on a regular basis, Mali, Sand River and Mines of which it took the game at least 15 matches before Cliff appeared. This is the tip of the iceberg and only a test to see if what is said about the MM holds weight. More info to come in later posts. 

World of Tanks Xbox 360 - Update

I know that the date of this blog is before the general release to the whole wide world but I feel compelled to put my stamp once again on World of Tanks for the Xbox as someway to alert people who are looking to start the game out what to expect.

The game itself is not too different to the beta so a lot of points I've raised in the previous blog are similar to the actual game and as such don't need to be repeated but I can at least provide a view from a standard gamer on the pro's and con's of the game play itself.

We start off with the normal problems that people have posted in the forums surrounding players just starting out ( West coast players )

Things such as spotting and MM at the moment are working as they should. Once you get to play the game your understanding will improve. This is not Call of Duty or Halo and should not be treated as such. Each tank class and tank themselves have aspects about them that make them good in certain situations. The T25 AT as an example is a good Tank Destroyer at medium to long range. Not a lot of armour so is best to avoid being spotted. The AT7 on the other hand has a lot of armour and is very good at supporting heavys in an assault forward. Not as powerful gun as the T25 AT but a quick fire rate and chances of the other team bouncing make up for this downfall.

Matchmaking is currently under fire for placing in higher tier games then what your tank is. This is going to happen until more players join. It's even started with the low T2 and 3 games. Since there are 100+ people as T2's and 3's you will rarely find yourself in a game more then 1 above or below. On the odd chance you find yourself the top tier, spare a though for those lower tiers that your playing against.

The first issue I'm going to touch upon, one which I will know will be the biggest issue from new players is the grind.

The grind is called as such due to the amount of effort you have to put into the game to see a reward. Lower tiers isn't so much of an issue. This is something you will find as you progress through the tank trees. My biggest gripe is being given a gun that although worked at the tier below now becomes even harder to use at a higher tier. A perfect example is the T28 American Tank Destroyer. Within normal MM rules I can go 2 up and 2 down. This is fine as it is the MM rules. The problem is the gun. The standard gun on the T28 is the 90mm. Its ok on the T25 AT against its own tiers but not so good against T8 tanks. How then can the T28 go up against T8 tanks with a gun that didn't do well against T8's in the first place. Its MM rules and they do not take into account packages when searching. As you progress up the tiers the guns that become most effective are the last ones. In the case of the T28 its the 120mm. To get there though you have to purchase the 105mm ( again very good on the T25 AT but now its on a tank that doesn't move fast and has to be well placed in order to do damage to T8's and above ) This is the grind. In order to have the next upgrade you need 70k in XP for that tank. In a tank that does 300 odd damage when it actually hits and either doesn't miss or bounce makes it more difficult.

The thing that makes the grind so difficult is the lack of XP you get for games you lose so meaning without buying premium you will maybe need to play 400+ games in a tank that doesn't perform as well as what the previous one did. The factors that take into account how long and slow the grind is is well a lot.

Here are some examples.

Bad team mates
These can make you lose  a game in no time at all. Team communication is a must. Since the platoon size is only a max of 3 that leaves 12 other random people to join your team. Now add into that the likely hood of getting into games with other tanks you have trouble damaging, map and gametype choice, types of tanks that have been selected to play on either team, you're now down to luck on how well the game goes. Then you have people that are new to the game and are not sure on how to play the tanks. Pushing a lightly armored tank forward when it is better used further back is a good way of getting killed early and not improving your chances of winning. I may be different to other people but I'm not a fan of playing games that use more luck than skill to play. You can't beat luck. I would also like to add in people taking in lower tier tanks into games that possibly reduce your chances further but this is sorta of a rare thing and there isn't anything you can do about it.

Tank allocation
I'm not sure on what the algorithm is for this part but you will find yourself in a game with one team ( either yourself in which case it helps or the other team in which case it can hinder ) with more tanks than yours. IE tier 6 game and the other team has 3 AT8's. Difficult to take out with T6's and act as good cannon fodder, distraction and can deal damage when ignored. This can lengthen your grind time.

RNG
RNG will be the vain of your life. Sometimes it's good other times it's really bad. It will save your life or will get you killed. Leaving someone on 1HP is not fun. Not when you have started hitting them when they are half health and your full. That extra shot they fired because they are 1HP is enough to get you killed in one shot by the next tank coming round the corner. 

Take this game with a pinch of salt. Take breaks when you're doing bad. It's been designed with Premium in mind as it's core. Without buying your way through the game makes your life harder, understandably, and as hard as I've made it sound the game can be fun. More so at lower tiers. When you play, expect to lose. Expect the other team to be firing red rounds. Expect the unexpected. You will get better and then the game handicaps you when you progress.

As it stands I found myself asking the question will I be playing this game when it is released like I did during the beta and only one answer ever came up with me and other people I asked. Yes but I will play it when I'm bored. I can't play a game with so many inconsistencies and luck based games as I don't enjoy them. Others might but I'm unable to pay to play.

Don't take my blog as anything to say this is not a good game. It is a very good game and you can have a stupid amount of fun playing it but when you try to play properly be aware that unlike other games, you can't do it alone. Team mates are what make the difference between winning and losing. And ignore what people say, the game is all about winning. If you want to progress, winning in any way shape or form is pretty much the only way forward. I challenge to see anyone who enjoys playing the game properly whilst losing 70% or their games because of issues I've raised within this post.

Stay tuned to here what I have to say about the new Warface Closed Beta currently out.

Please comment, sub and share these posts! 

Live Streaming Competition Rules

Bit off topic as is the things that I do but below are some rules I'm setting out for some live streaming I'm going to be doing on World of Tanks for the Xbox 360. It's in the early stages but I wanted to make anything I do for the people that watch the streams and making it a fair competition that I've got ideas for. Looking for ideas, mainly criticism, and most of all any loop holes that you may spot.

I've spent some time making them up but reading and writing it all means I'm likely to miss something out.

1. Rules are subject to change at any time but notice of any changes will be made clear to let everyone know at east 1 day before the next live stream.

2. A minimum of 5 entrants for the kill draw and a minimum of 10 for the spotting draw must be reached before the end of the live stream before the draw can be made.

    2a. In the event that 5 or more people limit has not been reached for the kill draw then the number of current entrants will be placed into the next draw providing the total number of entrants exceeds 5.

    2b. The spotting draw will only take place if the number of entrants sending a qualifying message to my gamertag is either 10 or above. If the number has not been reached by the end of the live stream event then the draw will not take place.

3. There are two draws. The kill draw and spotting draw.

    3a. There will be 2 qualifying messages per live stream draw. One relating to the kill draw and one related to the spotting draw. These will change when a new live stream event starts.

    3b. The kill draw: If you kill me within a game whilst the live stream event is on and send the qualifying message of the current live stream event to me within 30 seconds of the game ending, your name will be entered into the kill draw at the end of the live stream.
   
    3c. The spotting draw: If you spot me during a live stream event in a game you are currently in with me and send a qualifying message of the current live stream event to me from the start of the game to within 30 seconds of the game ending then your name will be entered into the draw. All gamertags sending this message will be double checked against the score board at the end to ensure that you played in that particular game.

4. You can have as many qualifying entries as you want during the event. So killing me twice and sending me two messages during two separate matches will earn you two tickets in the kill draw. The same example is used for spotting but again gamertag checks will be made to ensure it's fair or everyone.

5. The draw will be made by assigning a number to your gamertag. An example is that if 15 people qualify for the kill draw and one person has 2 tickets then that person will get two separate numbers and a random number generator will be used to determine the winner.

6. Winners of either draw will be sent a code over Xbox Live to the gamertag used to send the qualifying message.

7. Prizes will tend to be MS cards of monetary value. Currently this is the only part that I need to make sure that I can get MS cards over here to which people from other countries can redeem into their own currency. Obviously exchange rates change so the amount you get may be more or less then what it's worth here in the UK.

8. If foul play is suspected then the the ticket or competition for that day may be voided.

9. The competition may change from time to time to include more chances for viewers to win. This includes kill more members of a platoon I'm in during a live stream event will get you extra tickets into the draw, or getting a certain number of kills in a game I'm in will get you a bonus ticket.

10. Every effort is made to get into games with viewers although this may not always be possible. The total number of entrants needed may change depending on viewer count and how popular the live stream becomes.

11. Tank tiers will be announced before each game to ensure your best chance of getting into the game with me and possibly my platoon.