Matchmaker (WoT)
Team selection for random battles is done according to several parameters. Each battle takes place in a battle tier, which should not be confused with tank tiers. (On this page we always use Arabic numerals ("7") when discussing battle tiers and Roman numerals ("VII") when discussing tank tiers). Team balancing within a battle tier takes place according to vehicle specific weighting and additional restrictions.
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Battle Tiers
Battles can take place in ten different battle tiers. Each vehicle, depending on its performance, is assigned a certain subset of these battle tiers that it is supposed to fight in.
The matchmaking chart shows which vehicle belongs to which battle tier.
To see which battle tiers a vehicle can fight in, find it on the left side of the chart. If it is not listed as an exception on the Unique Matchmaking Chart, the default rules above apply. Take, for example, an Pz.Kpfw. 38 (t). It doesn't have unique matchmaking. Thus we go find the row for Vehicle Tier 2, Light Tank, and see to the right that this vehicle can fight in battle tiers 1, 2 and 3. The Pz.Kpfw. I, on the other hand, benefits from unique matchmaking, as it will never encounter tier 3 tanks. The applicable battle tiers for each vehicle are also shown on the right sidebar of each tank's page on this wiki.
The selection of the battle tier you fight in depends on the amount of players available for each battle tier and is otherwise random.
Vehicle Weight
Once enough candidates for a certain battle tier are found, the matchmaker tries to form two teams from them. For this purpose each vehicle is assigned a certain weight, and the matchmaker tries to keep the weight of both teams as equal as possible. Weighting is performed by vehicle tier and vehicle type, some vehicles are individually weighted, and for some vehicles there are special restrictions.
Below are the rules for game version 0.8.0:
- Weight by Vehicle Tier is applied as follows:
- Tier 10: 100
- Tier 9: 60
- Tier 8: 40
- Tier 7: 27
- Tier 6: 18
- Tier 5: 12
- Tier 4: 8
- Tier 3: 5
- Tier 2: 3
- Tier 1: 2
- Weight by Vehicle Type is generally applied as follows:
- All Heavy Tanks above tier 4 receive 20% extra weight.
- All SPGs receive 8% extra weight.
- Tier 8, 9 and 10 Medium Tanks receive 20% extra weight.
- Tier 8, 9 and 10 Tank Destroyers receive 20% extra weight.
- Tier 5, 6, 7 and 8 Light Tanks receive 20% extra weight.
- Individual Weights:
- Crusader, Centurion Mk. 1, Panther II, and T-44 do not receive 20% extra weight.
- The Pz.Kpfw. 38H 735 (f) "Hotchkiss" is a tier 2 tank with 233% extra weight, with 7 points it is weighted close to a tier 4 tank, but it is in the same battle tier as other tier 2 light tanks.
- Chi Nu Kai, Pz.Kpfw. IV hydrostat., SU-85I, Pz.Sfl. IVc, Jumbo Sherman, A43, VK3002M, Nashorn, Pz V/IV (both), Chi To, Achilles, Firefly, Comet, AT 15A, VK3002D, A44, Sturer Emil, Chi Ri, E25, T23E3, T28 concept, Challenger, Škoda T 40, and M56_Scorpion all receive 20% extra weight.
- Special Restrictions
- The number of the same vehicle on opposing teams cannot differ by more than 1, except when the vehicles are in a platoon.
- Previously, the number of SPGs in opposing teams could never differ by more than 1. While this is still the goal for the match-maker, since update 0.7.4 it is not a strict restriction. Now, rarely, SPG numbers can differ by more, including one team having none while the other team has one or more.
- The total weight of the SPGs on opposing teams cannot differ by more than 25%.
- The total weight of the top tier vehicles on opposing teams cannot differ by more than 25%.
- It seems in general the weight of opposing teams does not differ by more than 10%, but it is unclear if there is a fixed limit.
- Scouts
- In the Version 8.5 update, a new Match Maker rule was planned for balancing Light Tanks. The rule was intended to balance out the number of Scout tanks on each team by balancing the weight of Scouts on both teams so they won’t differ by more than +/-20 vehicle weight points. The advantage to this rule is the matchmaker will no longer distribute a large number of scout tanks to one team and none to the other; the number of scouts should be roughly the same for each team. During tests, Scout balancing created other imbalances so it was not implemented. It is currently planned to be released with a later patch.
- The following vehicles are marked as Scouts:
- USSR: T-50, MT-25, LTTB, T-54 ltwt.
- Germany: Pz.Kpfw. 38 (t) n.A., Pz.Kpfw. II Luchs, VK 16.02 Leopard, VK 28.01, Aufklärungspanzer Panther, Spähpanzer Ru 251
- United States: M5 Stuart, M24 Chaffee, T21, T37, T71, M41 Walker Bulldog, T49
- France: ELC AMX, AMX 12 t, AMX 13 75, AMX 13 57 GF, AMX 13 90
- China: M5A1 Stuart, 59-16, Type 64, WZ-131, Type 62, WZ-132
Whether vehicles are stock or fully researched, how they are equipped, nor crew skill is taken into account by the match-maker.
Vehicle Tier
Vehicle tier is not taken into consideration when balancing teams. This is a common misconception among players. For example, under the current rules a tier 8 medium can be matched against a tier 7 heavy tank. The only relevance of vehicle tier is to determine the battle tier.
However, the top tanks of each team have the same vehicle tier due to the current balancing rules.
The vehicle tier should be taken into consideration as it reflects a preordained operating range of a vehicle also known as classification. The range of each tier gradually increases with technology and tiers can overlap. Your 7 heavy can feel reasonably confident his encounter with a medium 8 has a 50% chance of victory, because their operating ranges overlap.
Platoons
IMPORTANT: If you are in a platoon, the entire platoon is placed into battles according to the platoon member in the vehicle with the highest battle tier. This can produce unwanted results in particular for new players at the lower tiers. For example, a tier 4 scout can enter battles up to tier 7, whereas a tier 4 medium tank on its own can only join battles up to tier 6. If these platoon together, the scout will pull the other tank up into its battle tier, where the other tank will usually be hopelessly outclassed. The same thing happens when a tank with preferential match making is platooning with a normal tank. Please take this into account when forming platoons.
A special case of this is when you see a top tier tank platooned with one or two tier 1 tank. This is sometimes done on purpose. If you look above, a tier 10 heavy tank weighs 145 points, whereas a tier 1 tank weighs only 2. Thus the platoon's team a priority has a massive point deficit, which the match-maker will balance out by either dragging more lower tier tanks into the enemy team or by dragging more high tier tanks into the platoon's team. The tactic is frowned upon but permissible. It has become rare these days, likely because the success chances are mediocre. With two tier 1 tanks the team is missing 13.3% of its team that could play a useful role during the battle, whereas the only useful contribution the tier 1 tanks can sneak into the enemy cap.
The matchmaker does balance the number of tanks in platoons, but not the weight of the platooned tanks. This means one team can have 2 three-man-platoons with T8 tanks, whereas the other team has 3 two-man-platoons with T6 tanks. This rule may not apply, when the server is low populated.
Map Restrictions
- Map Restrictions by Battle Tier
Introduced in Patch 9.10, Map restrictions were placed in for lower tiers. Standard Battles in battle tiers 1 to 3 take place on a limited subset of the available maps only. With each Tier there will be additional maps until the final map pool is reached at battle tier 8. This is done to allow new players to familiarize themselves with these smaller maps while they learn the basics of the game. Also except for Karelia, these are the smallest/most compact maps in the game, better suited for the very limited low tier tanks.
- Battle Tiers 1 through 2 fight on these maps:
- Battle Tiers 2 through 3 fight on these maps:
- Battle Tiers 4 through 6 additionally fights on these maps:
- The map Mittengard is limited to battle tiers 1 through 2.
- The map Widepark is limited to battle tiers 4 through 6.
All other battle tiers should get a random map distribution, but technical reasons relating to the allocation of server resources cause the three maps above to be the most commonly played maps for all tiers. For as yet unknown reasons also the distribution of other maps does not appear truly random. The frequency of newly introduced maps is slightly increased. See this forum thread for more details on actual map distribution in random battles.
Important note regarding camouflage skins: All (as of 9.2) of the maps listed for battle tiers 1-2 are summer maps. This means that tier 1 and 2 vehicles (see the Matchmaking Chart above for exceptions) will never see a desert map. So, for now at least, purchasing a desert camo skin for these vehicles is a complete waste, and a winter camo skin is minimal at best.
- Map Restrictions by Game Mode
- The game modes Assault and Encounter Battle take place on a limited subset of the available maps (follow the respective links for a list). In addition, Encounter battles are only available for players who have researched one or more tanks of Tier IV, and Assault battles are only available for players who have researched one or more tanks of Tier VI, unless in a platoon with a player who meets these requirements. However, you can have lower tier Encounter/Assault battles.
Trivia and Game History
- Battle tier 12 (tier VIII scouts and tier X regular tanks only) was removed in Patch 8.11, in order to increase the number of tier 10 and 11 matches.
- The older matchmaker, followed this rule : Your tier + 4. No other technical details are known, however as a player, you notice a T-34(tier V) and an IS 4(which was tier IX) at that times.ru:Балансировщик_(WoT)
MatchMaker after version 0.9.18
- After the patch 0.9.18, the matchmaker has been modified due to the introduction of the new tier IX and X light vehicles.
- It uses a better and easier template. There are three types of matchmaker:
1.Three levels battles: This template manages to create teams with :3 Tanks at the top(top tiers), 5 at the middle and the rest are vehicles equal in tier. 2.Two levels battles: This template manages to create teams with :5 Tanks at the top(top tiers), and the rest at the bottom, featuring vehicles equal in tier. 3.One level battle: Well, you understand what it means :)
- The matchmaker will try to randomize your position on the team. As if you were at the bottom several times, the MM will put you at the top or at the middle.
- Same for the maps. Now the maps won't be repeated two times, three times, or even more.
- Let's take as an example. Panzer VIB Tiger II. Tier VIII, before 0.9.18 and after 0.9.18 .
++Before 0.9.18++
This time, I am at the bottom, random battle, Mines. Next time, I'll be at the bottom too, encounter battle, Mines. Next time, I'll be at the top, random battle, Ensk.
++After 0.9.18++
This time, I am at the bottom, random battle, three levels battle, Mines. Next time, I'll be at the bottom too, encounter battle, two levels battle, Cliff. Next time, I'll be at the top, random battle, one level battle, Ensk.ru:Балансировщик_(WoT)
