MATCHMAKER CORE & PRINCIPLES | KEY MATCHMAKER IMPROVEMENTS |
MATCHMAKER TESTING | NEW MATCHMAKING EXPERIENCES

Commanders!

For the past 15 years, we’ve been evolving and refining the matchmaker, yet it remains far from the state we aspire to achieve. We recognize how crucial this aspect of the game is, which is why we’ve continuously worked to improve it. However, despite our efforts, our current approach hasn’t brought the progress we aim for. That’s why we believe it’s time for a change—and we’re ready to take a new direction to move forward.

Matchmaker Core and Principles

The Matchmaker handles millions of operations, conditions, and actions for every battle. It also needs to control the constantly changing number of players in the queue. And the key component responsible for this workload is the Matchmaker Core. It’s responsible for processing all requests and do calculations, while staying true to matchmaking key principles:

• Balanced battles – Creating varied team compositions based on core matchmaking rules
• Engagement and battle variety – Bringing diverse battle setups
• Speed & efficiency – Minimizing queue times while maintaining high battle quality

To uphold these principles and introduce new features, we had to completely rebuild the Matchmaker Core from the ground up. Modifying the Core is an incredibly challenging task. Even the smallest adjustments require significant time, deep technical reworks, and careful testing to maintain stability and balance. So, what exact features do we want to improve in the new system?

Key Matchmaker Improvements

Improved Role Balance

The matchmaker will try to better adjust team compositions to create more balanced setups.

Just a simple example: one team can have one or two super-heavy tanks— X Maus   and X E 100 — while the opposing team has one or two autoloaders— X AMX 50 B   and X T57 Heavy Tank  . These tanks fulfill very different roles: super-heavies are built to absorb damage and hold positions, while autoloaders are designed to deal damage and support allies.

Now, vehicles with different roles will be distributed more evenly across teams. For example:

This ensures that each team gets a better mix of tank roles, making battles more competitive and enjoyable.

Better Class Diversity

We will introduce stricter limits, ensuring a maximum of 5* TDs and 3* LTs per team. This will work together with role-based balancing. For example, it will help to minimize situations where one team has five sniper TDs while the other has five assault TDs.

This will create more dynamic and tactical battles, where different tank types can play their intended roles effectively.

*In the future, we may adjust these limits for each class individually.

More ±1-tier Battles

In the new matchmaker configurations, we’ll focus on increasing the frequency of ±1-tier battles as a more comfortable option. However, we’re keeping ±2-tier battles, as they remain the core format that ensures the full diversity of battles. This means you’ll face more balanced matchups while still enjoying variety and encountering a wide range of vehicles.

Smarter Vehicle Distribution

Highly popular tanks often flood the queue, leading to battles where both teams are packed with the same vehicle. While this can be fun in some cases, it can also reduce variety.

The new matchmaker will:

• Limit the number of identical tanks per team
• Distribute them evenly for a more varied experience and diverse lineups

Smarter and Faster Dynamic Queue Management

The new system brings dynamic queue management, allowing matchmaking to adjust its rules in real time. Instead of relying on fixed settings, it will analyze player distribution and vehicle availability, fine-tuning parameters on the fly.

The result? If testing confirms our expectations, we’ll achieve consistently high battle quality—no matter the time of day.

New Matchmaker Testing

The sheer number of exciting improvements and the complexity of the matchmaking system require us to conduct thorough testing to ensure their quality and effectiveness. Over the next few months, we will carry out a series of tests on the EU1 server, experimenting with different configurations and continuously fine-tuning the settings based on the gathered data.

Our primary goal in testing is to ensure that the proposed improvements enhance battle quality and guarantee the stability of all matchmaking subsystems. This process will certainly take time, but once we are confident that the testing objectives have been met, we will strive to implement these changes permanently as quickly as possible.

Prepare for New Matchmaking Experiences!

The upcoming changes are aimed at making battles more balanced, diverse, and engaging. And this is just the beginning! We will continue improving the system based on test results and your feedback, so stay tuned for updates and get ready for a better and fairer matchmaking experience!