Lottery based game; arena competitive is a joke.

[PacZoo456]

Went from 28th to 300+ in couple of days in latest arena (duos). It is like a lottery.

Also, matchmaking is horrible. When I was up I rarely played with anyone with high rating. You end up playing against lower rating players, so when you win, you win 2 points. When you loose - you loose 20, 30.

(obviously I am tilted, because I spent so much time on a lottery based game)

[stowe4919]

I agree with matchmaking, but that seems to be a platform problem. Gizmos is also unique in that a weaker player can have a great shot at winning against a strong player if they get lucky early game, because all the optimal later moves are self-evident from the presented cards.

That said, I think there are some strategies one can discover to manage the luck, just like in Texas Hold’em poker. For example, playing defense and understanding probabilities should help you win more consistently.

[AriadneSP]

I'm in the opposite position. I'm a weak player (still learning, but arena games make me learn fast) and although I'm only ELO100, I'm being matched against super high elite players.. who of course thrash me every time...

[turtler7]

Fun fact:
When you go to search in arena mode you can click the gear icon for the game and set it to restrict matches to players in your same arena bracket or within how many brackets you are willing to play up/down.

This is particularly nice for elites only matching other elites (making it so they dont gain peanuts when winning and lose their shirt when losing).
It also is particularly nice for low players who have not mastered the game and don't want to get thrashed by the top players (although they have a stronger reason to try since they lose little and gain a lot if they manage to sneak in a win).

The game is far from random lottery. But the weighting of wins definitely matters and you should use the settings to avoid problems that can be caused by that.

[Fletcheese]

The game is far from random lottery. But the weighting of wins definitely matters and you should use the settings to avoid problems that can be caused by that.

I agree with this, but the skill ceiling for Gizmos is pretty low. When 2 reasonably high level players are matched, it's rare for the game to be decided by who played better. Typically the player that finds their build engine first or gets a bit luckier on research actions is the winner.

I still really enjoy Gizmos because the engine building is extremely satisfying, but it is not a high skill expression game.

[krayez]

Where is the gear icon you talk of?

Fun fact:
When you go to search in arena mode you can click the gear icon for the game and set it to restrict matches to players in your same arena bracket or within how many brackets you are willing to play up/down.

This is particularly nice for elites only matching other elites (making it so they dont gain peanuts when winning and lose their shirt when losing).
It also is particularly nice for low players who have not mastered the game and don't want to get thrashed by the top players (although they have a stronger reason to try since they lose little and gain a lot if they manage to sneak in a win).

The game is far from random lottery. But the weighting of wins definitely matters and you should use the settings to avoid problems that can be caused by that.

[turtler7]

Where is the gear icon you talk of?

It is right in between the favorite icon and your current arena rank in the play now arena search.

There might be a button you need to click inside the menu to get it to show advanced options or all the options.
But then it will offer:

[krayez]

DUH.

Can we change the # of players in Arena game?