I do agree that the variance could be a bit wide, but with the number of players right now I think Jagex is trying to balance deck/skill descrepency with wait time in queue.

Maybe try a system to search for a certain time around your level and rase it higher after 30/60 seconds or so. Use each time a new, wider spread. Also some info as input in which level its searching for an opponent at this moment. (Something like in Speedrunners, its using kind of the same system but only with 5 or 6 ranks.)
So people can decide to cancel search when they see there are so less people online hes getting into a too high level queue he doesnt want to face.

I think thats more fair. I like that at Speedrunners, bad thing is that not enough people are playing the game, mostly uber pros. ^^

Today's matches:
S25 v G35 - L
S25 v G20 - L
S25 v S25 - L
S25 v G14 - W (+1 rank for beating someone 46 wins above me?!)
S24 v S4 - W
S23 v B5- W
S20 v S21 - L
S21 v G25 - W
S20 v S14 - W
S19 v S22 - L

The challenge is that the player pool is still small. The easiest thing to do is mentally be fine with losing and get the dailies. It actually doesn't take too long as a FTP player to get most of the cards (barring rubies and diamonds). Then, you have a better chance against, and getting to, gold.

I'd be fine with losing if it was to players with similar cards and similar skill, but that is not the case. When the spread is 46 ranks, the only way I beat them is if they DC. Hoping for disconnects should not be the primary method of climbing the ladder. I've played CCGs for almost 3 decades, the only time a ranked system would allow matches like C:RL allows is for fun (unranked) or if the much higher ranked person barely got anything if they won and was heavily penalized if they lost. Same goes for the lower ranked - whether it be chess, online ELO-based games, CCGs, or even martial arts, if a green belt beat 2 different black belts back-to-back, they are going to be promoted...a lot. Skip purple, etc.

TL;DR massive mismatches in skill should be rewarded accordingly, *BECAUSE* there is a low playerbase this should be implemented ASAP.

I like the game! I've been playing daily for ~2 months, I wouldn't keep losing if I didn't think the underlying game was fun. I'd just like the matchmaking system to be fixed.
I still only have a fraction of the cards.
8/44 Rubies
0/32 Diamonds
So that doesn't help, my luck shows about 1-in-6 packs contains a ruby, I'm guessing 1-in-20 (1% of cards?) for diamonds? So I'm not anywhere near outfitted while my brother just started playing and he pulled 2 diamonds his first week. Built all of his decks around them, using them, can easily climb to high silver. Even disenchanting and with the bonus 1000 dust they gave us in August I still can't craft 1 Diamond.

But none of that should matter. Matchmaking should still match similar ranks to similar ranks because that is the only way to guarantee you both have a similar(ish) number of wins above losses.

The main problem, if it is indeed a problem, is that the player base is still pretty small. There are simply not enough players queuing into games to match at your rank, or sometimes even that close to your rank.

And yea, the card packs can be underwhelming at times with the % of rubies and diamonds. I have opened 3 diamonds and I've been playing since day one of game launch on steam. I've crafted a few, but still only have about 7 or so.

One of my Daily Quests was 2 wins...this was my ranked record today.
S11 v G26 - L
S12 v S1 - L
S13 v B1 - L
S14 v S1 - L
S15 v S9 - W
S14 v S18 - L
S15 v G38 - L

So based on no upsets or underdog victories, I was expected to win 2 today, actual winrate: 1. I'll keep posting my progress as long as I can stomach this.

Because the problem is systemic and not going away...
A simple suggestion I thought of that wouldn't be hard to implement:
If (opponent.rank is 10+ > current.rank)
underdog opening hand mulligan's = 3
// instead of 1 new batch of cards, the underdog gets 3 rerolls
// to give them the best possible starting hand to attempt to beat
// someone much higher than them. Possibly gives them a chance.

I agree completely, even when I was bronze I was regularly getting matched with silver opponents. Maybe one thing they could do is look at removing the penalty for a loss, which I find to completely unfair, seeing as you choose your deck before knowing your opponent, which means you may end up against Linza with a deck designed to combat Liane, or, in my case, if you're trying to complete one of the skill challenges, eg, win a match with Linza without equipping a weapon, you are likely to end up losing quite a few games simply due to the randomness of oppnents.

TL:DR Remove loss penalty as a compromise.

I actually disagree - without loss there is nothing to risk, without something to risk there is no effort, without effort there is no attempt, without attempts there is no fun, without fun there is no game.

There needs to be real, tangible loss accompanied with defeat - that's what makes good players better. They strive to not lose again, to learn more, to draft better, to time cards and grief appropriately. I'm not saying everyone should be a winner (or what you're effectively saying, make it so nobody is a loser), this entire thread is to focus on the current matchmaking system in place and how it doesn't work well with low populations. I even provide suggestions and pseudocode for how to implement my suggestions. I would even write the code for them if the developers wanted to have a chat with me.

I'm not here to whine like an angsty, entitled teen - I really like the game in fact. And I'm a competitive person by nature, so combine the two and I really want the ranked system to work in C:RL. It's not perfect, but in general over a large number of games it does reward good drafting strategy and tactics from chapter-to-chapter. To alleviate some of the stress or "ladder anxiety" as some call it, due to low numbers of games it'd be good to provide the underdogs some incentives so they don't #tableflip & uninstall after 10 Losses in a row due to all of their opponents being 40+ ranks above them.

Here's an example - take your favorite sport: let's say you were afforded the opportunity to play against a pro, someone that has sponsorships, dedicated staff (nutritionalists, sports psychologists, etc.), and all the equipment necessary to play at an extremely high level. Regardless of how good you are, you are not pro-level good in your favorite sport...so while 1 "celebrity" match might be fun playing tennis against Serena Williams, 10 matches or 100 is not fun for either of you. She is never challenged, and you can never win unless an act of God intervenes ( #RadioactiveSpider please!). I'm not saying I don't want to play tennis versus Serina Williams, I'm saying it would be for entertainment only like the Harlem Globetrotters with basketball. When I play tennis seriously, competitively, I want it to be against players in the same bracket as myself, not world champions.

Obviously this has nothing to do with casual unranked games, they are for testing draft ideas.

BTW,
Suggestion to everyone dealing with the same problems of fighting players wildly outside of your skill level (+46 ranks in some cases),

PLAY DUNGEONEERING!

Seriously, I forgot how much I loved this. The devs need to promote this more to new players, its a great way to learn cards, strategies, synergies, etc. for "free"(ish), and you get to play with awesome cards that would normally take you thousands of games to grind the copper to buy or craft.

Dungeoneering is pretty awesome, seriously. Go check it out.

Originally posted by Shalandir:

BTW,
Suggestion to everyone dealing with the same problems of fighting players wildly outside of your skill level (+46 ranks in some cases),

PLAY DUNGEONEERING!

Seriously, I forgot how much I loved this. The devs need to promote this more to new players, its a great way to learn cards, strategies, synergies, etc. for "free"(ish), and you get to play with awesome cards that would normally take you thousands of games to grind the copper to buy or craft.

Dungeoneering is pretty awesome, seriously. Go check it out.

Um, "free(ish)? How do you get that? Yes, the first go is free, but after that, you have to pay 1500 copper coins (or 100 platinum, but I'm not even going there), which, unless you either cheat or are somehow able to win everything in sight as well as complete all daily and epic quests, you might, like me, get to play once every couple of days. So,l while I agree it is a really cool part of the game, especially since you do get extra cards, regardless of how far you get, its not as accessible, especially to new players, as you make it sound.

Considering you get a pack for playing, and break even on copper if you go 3W 3L on your dungeoneering run, it pays for itself with 1 epic run. For example, 8+ wins gets you into the 3300 copper category, PLUS crafting shards (hundreds), PLUS the pack worth 1000 copper. So yeah, if you are even half-way decent and can win 50%+ vs players you know didn't pay2win (you can't in dungeoneering), and didn't play for 9001 months to earn all the cards and build "perfect" decks, it's basically the best and most fun aspect of the game.

Originally posted by Shalandir:

Considering you get a pack for playing, and break even on copper if you go 3W 3L on your dungeoneering run, it pays for itself with 1 epic run. For example, 8+ wins gets you into the 3300 copper category, PLUS crafting shards (hundreds), PLUS the pack worth 1000 copper. So yeah, if you are even half-way decent and can win 50%+ vs players you know didn't pay2win (you can't in dungeoneering), and didn't play for 9001 months to earn all the cards and build "perfect" decks, it's basically the best and most fun aspect of the game. :squirtyay:

Yea, see thats the rub, " if you are even half-way decent and can win 50%+", unfortunately, that doesnt exactly happen for me, and I would be willing to bet not for a lot of other new players, simply because of a lack of familiarity. I have Dungeoneered bout 3 or 4 times, and have only managed to complete the first dungeon level (all 4 battles) once and even then I didnt "break even" on copper. Twice I have been knocked out without any wins at all, so have only ended up with the booster, which is still not to be sneezed at, but I repeat, its not as easily done as you seem to keep indicating.

Ah, well thanks for derailing the thread. My issue isn't lack of skill or familiarity, it's ranked imbalance, so I have no trouble with 3+ wins in Dungeoneering. Same with my brother, he racks up 8000+ copper in 2 dungeoneering runs (he got really lucky drafts though).