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Hearthstone | Posted by | 5 years, 7 months ago
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Matching Algorithm

This is not a salt thread.... This is an honest inquiry on things that I am starting to feel the conspiracy theory about with the matching system.  Does anyone know if the matching algorithm for games looks for specific cards and matches you up against people that have opposing styles of cards?

I ask this on both sides of the fence.  Whenever I play a common combo deck, I feel like I am constantly getting paired against aggro decks.  And when I switch to aggro, I get tossed a lot of control decks.  The same goes the other way though.  When I play something like Kingsbane Rogue, I end up playing against combo players and dog walk them.  

If there is such an algorithm, is it Blizzards way of saying, get better to beat the style of deck that kills yours... or is it a subtle jab to your kidneys?

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  • This is not a salt thread.... This is an honest inquiry on things that I am starting to feel the conspiracy theory about with the matching system.  Does anyone know if the matching algorithm for games looks for specific cards and matches you up against people that have opposing styles of cards?

    I ask this on both sides of the fence.  Whenever I play a common combo deck, I feel like I am constantly getting paired against aggro decks.  And when I switch to aggro, I get tossed a lot of control decks.  The same goes the other way though.  When I play something like Kingsbane Rogue, I end up playing against combo players and dog walk them.  

    If there is such an algorithm, is it Blizzards way of saying, get better to beat the style of deck that kills yours... or is it a subtle jab to your kidneys?

    Friendly
    • Quote From Hydrafrog

      I ask this on both sides of the fence.  Whenever I play a common combo deck, I feel like I am constantly getting paired against aggro decks.  And when I switch to aggro, I get tossed a lot of control decks.  The same goes the other way though.  When I play something like Kingsbane Rogue, I end up playing against combo players and dog walk them.  

      Aren't you contradicting yourself already? You are basically saying aggro is preferentially put against both control and combo. You also make it clear Blizz isn't conspiring against you specifically, since it is happy to grant you easy wins with Kingsbane rogue. There simply is no algorithm that exists to both be kind and cruel, while arranging certain archetype match-ups at the same time as the complete opposite ones. To resolve those contradictions you'd need a time-varying algorithm, which

      1. is a heck of a lot of effort for no good reason on Blizzard's end, and 
      2. will look statistically the same as no algorithm existing in the first place.

      I'm pretty sure all that is really happening is rooted in human psychology, skewing your perception to find patterns that don't exist. The brain is a brilliant thing, but it is far from infallible.

  • There's already an age-long discussion on this the last time I saw something like this pop up;

    https://outof.cards/forums/hearthstone/class-discussion/hearthstone-general/2311-suspicious-matchmaking?page=1

    Bottom line is that there's no conclusive proof, or even any motive for blizz to start screwing people with matchmaking.

    Its easy to put one and one together after a few matches and conclude you're being screwed, but unless you've got some major stats to show then its all speculation, and a poor one at that.

    Friendly

  • The only thing I have noticed (which is anecdotal and probably a coincedence. Is when I try out a new deck I get a mirror match instantly

    • Quote From Bluelights

      The only thing I have noticed (which is anecdotal and probably a coincedence. Is when I try out a new deck I get a mirror match instantly

      Hah, too true.

      I especially have this with slow decks, with which I absolutely despise mirror matches because they take forever. Whenever I'm like "hey maybe a slow warrior deck will work well in this meta" BAM instant Garrosh v Garrosh.

  • Well, you have this discussion with pretty much every card game. In Magic you could fill entire books with people suspecting rigged matchmaking (not that there has ever been the slightest shred of credible proof, on the contrary).

    I just want to throw in two points:

    • Blizzard has no motive to implement such an algorithm or more generally to rig games against individual players; every unfavorable matchup for you is a favorable matchup for the other player; why should they favor one player and disfavor the other?; there is simply no motive here
    • Statistical analysis of matchmaking data would likely unveil a rigged matchmaker; the data is there, many people use deck trackers (just look over at HS replay); to this day however nothing emerged

     

  • A while ago, Apple had to update their music because people were claiming that the "shuffle" option wasn't actually random. So Apple made an algorithm that would determine what song would play next to make it appear random. It technically wasn't random, but it felt more random than the actual random algorithm.

    Coincidences do happen, and it is usually from random coincidences that people make conspiracy theories. But the fact of the matter is, unlikely things will happen. If I flip a coin ten million times, at some point I will probably land fifteen heads in a row. It isn't likely to get that many heads in a row, but after several million flips it is bound to happen.

    Friendly