PvP matchmaking simplified

Well, I was pretty hopeful about the extent to which we were taking additional information into account in PVP matchmaking, but a lot of it is getting pulled back. I still feel that we should take more than just ratings into account when matching opponents, but we don't have sufficiently accurate information on exactly how your level or power rating (i.e., your power relative to how powerful you could be at your level) affects the outcome of matches.

Also, with an upcoming patch, we're getting rid of unbalanced (size-wise) matches in rated PVP. This makes me sad, but the reality is that - try as we have - we haven't been able to really nail down the balance issues here. As we balance dominant strategies and level the playing field on a per-player basis, it seems that opponents of differently-sized groups boil down to two results: the larger team is well organized and wins, or the larger team is not well organized and loses.

The skill of the smaller team comes into play insofar as they have to be able to take advantage of disorganization in the larger team, but really, being in a bigger team and being even moderately organized is a very dominant strategy. We're leaving in the ability to participate in these matches via duels, and we'll be gathering data on them to see if we can do better in the future... but ratings (and rankings) won't be affected by these matches after the patch.

Similarly, we're going to gather more data before we put back in match-making adjustments based on level and power rating. I think it's the right thing to do - use all the information we can to make better matches - but in the absence of knowing just how much level and power rating are worth (and they might well not be linear adjustments!), a better adjustment is no adjustment.