Guild Wars 2

During last week’s matchup my server (then tier 7) worked really hard to end up second in our matchup. Something amazing happened and we actually won the matchup with a 40k+ lead.

This week we’ve been moved down to tier 8

The server that ended up in second place is still in tier 7

The server which lost the matchup was moved up into tier 6.

How does this make sense?

(I do get that we get moved around a bit to get a greater change in server matchup but still)

Short answer: matchmaking is based on the server glicko2 rating.

Long answer: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/big-changes-coming-to-wvw-matchups/ and https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/wvw-matchup-variance-reduction/

“rank” is based on server rating, and nothing else. all the servers are sorted by rating, and the one with the highest rating is rank 1, the next one is rank 2, and so on until you get to the lowest rated server at rank 27.

“tier” is a concept that no longer has any special meaning. before we had randomized matchups, tiers were used to describe triplets of servers — “tier 1” was simply the group of servers ranked 1, 2 and 3. “tier 2” was the servers ranked 4, 5 and 6, and so on.

with the randomized matchup system we have now, there are no tiers, there are just matchups. “tier” numbers just refer to “matchup” numbers. server ratings still matter, but a random value is added or subtracted to shuffle things just a bit (not too much), then the servers are re-sorted and grouped into threes. the new “tier” number just refers to whether you were in the first grouping, the second one, the third, etc.

last week, your server (Blacktide) was ranked #22, and you were playing against servers ranked #21 (Miller’s Sound) and #19 (Dzagonur). you did well against them, and as a result you gained a rank and are now rank 21, while they each fell a rank and are now #22 and #20.

the important outcome of last week’s match is that you gained a rank, and moved up to rank 21.

who you are playing against this week has nothing to do with your rank or rating, it’s simply the outcome of the randomized matchup system. last week you were #22, playing against #21 and #19. this week you are #21, playing against #23 and #26. it doesn’t mean that Arenanet thinks you’re doing worse and need easier opponents, you just got lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it) with your matchup this week.

for the people who still care about tiers, you actually went up a tier (because ‘classic’ tier 7 is the servers ranked #19, #20 and #21). last week you were in tier 8 (because ‘classic’ tier 8 is the servers ranked #22, #23 and #24).

in the current system, ‘modern’ tiers just represent which randomization group you are in for your matchup. the fact that you were in group 7 last week and in group 8 this week means nothing.

-ken