Originally Posted by
BigBatur
For the record, I think the matchmaking system creates fair match-ups most of the time. Usually when one side has higher level bases, those differences are evened out in terms of heros, troop levels, walls, etc. Sometimes not, but no system is going to be perfect.
The fix I am proposing would not create fairer matchups, per se, but would significantly reduce the perverse incentives that presently exist to intentionally manipulate the matchmaking system. I believe this will also reduce the number of mismatches that people complaint about. Here's what I mean:
When Clan Wars first started, my clan had 30-35 players and a fairly even mix of new TH10, all variety of TH9, and strong TH8. Very few bases below that. At first ours wars were paired against clans with similar compositions to ours, we won some and we lost some. In a short time, however, we started to be frequently paired against clans that had significantly more TH10s than us, and we started struggling. It was tempting to say we were just getting unlucky, but we weren't. The clans we were facing had adapted to the matchmaking system, and started recruiting (or just creating) low TH bases to drop their overall strength. So while they would have a 12-8 edge in TH10s and stronger heros/walls at the top, our aggregate strength was still equal because they would also have a bunch of TH6 and TH7 bases, which were much weaker than any of our bases. Assuming equal ability of all players involved, it is very difficult to win a war under these circumstances. (And I don't buy one bit the argument that this is fair because we got easy 3 star raids on those weaker bases. We were going to get those stars anyhow, but now they have 6-8 extra attacks with TH10 troops and army camps. Try pitting a clan with five max TH10s and five TH5s against a clan with ten TH9/TH8s and see what happens. It will be a double digit massacre every time. I saw a post on here today from a poster who had like seven accounts in one clan, most of them artificially lows TH 5 and 6, and was complaining that his war match-ups were too easy. He was purposely rigging the system to get favorable match-ups, then complaining that war was not competitive.)
In short manner, our clan adapted to these tactics as well and since then have actively recruited TH6 and TH7 players to our clan. Our clan now regularly has 10-15 TH6 and TH7 players whose only real purpose is to get us more favorable war match-ups. I include them in war even if they have their flag red because I don't care if they attack or not. Moreover, I am loathe to accept any new TH10 players into our clan because they are such a handicap in war matchmaking. Nearly all of the clans we face now also have a slew of weaker players (most of whom don't even attack in war), so all it really does is restore the parity that existed at the beginning. We are a decent clan (lvl7 with 103 wins), and we have fun.
The sum of these manipulations, however, is less stability in clan membership (with TH6 and TH7s joining and leaving rapidly), more lopsided attacks in war (TH9 v. TH6 cleanup hits), lower war participation rates with many non-attackers on both sides, and ultimately more disparity in war match-ups based on artificial manipulation. I feel bad for the occasional clan with only 1 or 2 TH10 and 25 TH8s who we just annihilate because they haven't figured out how to manipulate the system. The only benefit I see in the current system is that clans are encouraged to include lower ranking members, which helps those players learn and improve.
Anyway, the proposal: Calculate war match-ups based on only the top half of the bases on each side. So in a 50 v. 50 war, only the strongest 25 count for purposes of war matchmaking. This would significantly change the incentives. Instead of padding your clan with low TH players to reduce your overall strength, you would want the bottom 50% of your clan to be as strong as possible. This also more closely reflects the reality of clan wars, which is that the attacks of your top players typically effect the outcome of the war much more than the attacks of your lower players. In our wars, like many clan wars I am sure, the bottom 75% of the bases on both sides are three-starred, and the war is determined by who can get the most stars up top. I think this modification would improve clan war match-ups and competitiveness, improve clan membership stability, increase the level of participation in wars, and perhaps most importantly, reduce the number of mismatches so that we don't have to read complaints about it every day (just kidding, nothing will stop the complaints).
Anyway, just my two cents. Curious to see if others agree or have other (hopefully, better!) ideas.
