Matchmaking - how exactly it works and why it doesn't work correctly?

[spedia2116]

I tested it on 7 wonders. I switched to auto mode with following settings:
I can play with: my level and close to my level (+/- 1) - my elo over 300.
I never want to play with other levels.
My first choice is to play with 4 players, but I can play with 3 or 5.
I never want to play with greater number of players.
Rest settings were set to I can play with or weren't set at all.

Matchmaking wasn't able to find me any game within ca. 30 minutes and 1 hour. After 6 hours (today and yesterday) it found me maybe few games. 7 wonders is a game in which there is always a lot of tables.
20 minutes ago I turned off auto mode and in manual mode I saw that there were already 2 tables that met exactly my conditions. Max 5 player games with strong players only condition (> 300 ELO). Moreover, only 1 seat was empty so I could get into the game right away. Why matchmaker wasn't able to find me that game? I'm not asking about particular situation, but I feel that is something wrong in the algorithm.
I basically was able to find manually 3 games within 5-10 minutes which met my conditions, but I almost wasn't able to play using MM between 10 - 12:30.

[dschingis27]

+1

[sourisdudesert]

Matchmaking wasn't able to find me any game within ca. 30 minutes and 1 hour.

7 Wonders is a Premium game. It cannot start with at least a Premium player at the table. As a non-Premium member, you have to wait for a Premium member.

In addition you specified some restrictive settings on player's levels. To start a game, we would need 3 other players with a strong level, including one Premium. There are high chances that this configuration won't happen often, and that all players in the lobby will start a game before you. And this is the cause of the long waiting time.

Conclusion: remove your restrictions, or get Premium, and your waiting time is going to be back to normal.


Note that we are working on an update that may also helps:
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... =3&t=14475

[spedia2116]

Thanks, but my whole point was at the end of my issue, which is crucial here. It's not about waiting time per se. It's about long waiting time using ONLY auto mode. I said that there I had and still have no problems to find table manually with same restrictions.

There are high chances that this configuration won't happen often

It's not often but if I can find such tables manually much more quickly and more often than using auto mode, I have got some suspicions that auto mode isn't working well when you set such restrictions to it.

It was the reason I stopped to using it, but I just wanted to let you now. If not's a problem, it's fine for me.

Note that we are working on an update that may also helps:

I saw that. It is very good idea, however it is for arena mode, not a "normal" ELO games.

[sourisdudesert]

Well, this is difficult to answer: each matchmaking request has it's own story.

If 3 players are waiting in the lobby, all compatible with your criteria, you will get into a game instantaneously. In the contrary, if all the players who enter the matchmaking are leaving your tables to play on another before it has a chance to start (because they "match" better with their own criteria), it may take a while.

For all we can see, the Matchmaking works fine. Sometimes the decisions are tricky to retro-analyze, but at the end we found that they have a rational explanation.

[logus30]

Specific case:

I was trying to play an arena with 2 friends on bga. We tried to set ourselves the same configuration, since we are all experts: "I prefer not to play with people near my level" and player reputation configuration to Very restrictive: "I never want to play with players with low reputation <75%"
However, I did not get initially matched with my friends.
After a while, we got matched (I assume the delay in finding a match triggered a change in the algorithm search).
And then I was thrown out of the table and got matched with 3 other players, being one a 60% rep player, starting a game on the spot.
What happened? Did the algorithm just ignore my preferences?