Matchmaking Changes in the 1/16 Patch

Earlier today, Lyte dropped off some news regarding a recent change to the matchmaking system. This change is a beta test and factors in the number of wins a player has when matching people up.

"In the latest game update, we rolled out a second beta test of a new matchmaking change that is live in all territories. This change will increase your average queue time by about 30 seconds, but we hope the benefits are worthwhile.

The matchmaker will now take into account the Number of Wins a player has in every matchmade queue (Normal SR, Normal TT, Ranked Solo/Duo, etc).

This means that for the first few minutes, the matchmaker will attempt to find teammates and opponents that have a relatively similar Number of Wins as you in addition to trying to find teammates and opponents that also have a similar skill rating. However, this does not mean it's impossible to get matched into a game with a large difference in Number of Wins--it's just more rare.

We need your help! Please give us feedback on the changes.

PS - RiotKiddington was the dev that did most of the work."

Continue reading for a few additional red posts on the matter.

Here are a few follow up answers, from Lyte, to questions about this change.

 Why do we need this change?

"Yes, the main reason we are testing this feature is because of data suggesting that Number of Wins makes a meaningful difference especially when it's players with lower number of wins. For example, a player with 10 wins versus a player with 100 wins is a meaningful difference; however, a player with 1000 wins versus a player with 5000 wins isn't that different."

Won't this change make Dominion queue times EVEN LONGER??

"We'll be taking a look at Dominion during these tests. If it turns out that the queue time increases are not worth the benefit, we can turn it off in Dominion."