Marvel Rivals community responds to Nickmercs' claims of engagement-based matchmaking

Nickmercs recently claimed that Marvel Rivals uses engagement-based matchmaking, which has sparked a lot of debate in the community. In a recent livestream, he suggested the game manipulates matchmaking to keep players engaged by balancing wins and losses instead of using pure skill-based matchmaking. This comment was shared by @RivalsAssembled on X, one of the biggest Marvel Rivals fan pages.

The post quickly went viral, gaining over 14,000 likes and a million views within a day with hundreds of opinions from the community. The quote by Marvel Rivals Intel reads:

"When you win too many times in a row...your account gets flagged...and now it's only with the d***s and the m***s so you lose just to keep you playing"

As the comments suggest, some Marvel Rivals players have suspected engagement-based matchmaking for a while, especially after sudden losing streaks following a series of wins. Others believed the matchmaking was fair and that Nickmercs was just making excuses.

X user @shadowscozyinn agreed with Nickmercs, saying they noticed unfair matchmaking in the competitive mode and that this discussion is all over YouTube now. @FortniteFrankOG also agreed, stating that close losses are rare. @LlamaWithARPG added that they were one win away from Grandmaster before a losing streak dropped them back to Platinum, rousing suspicions around the possibility that the system is rigged.

Comments from the MR community (Image via X || @RivalsAssembled)

However, many players dismissed Nickmercs’ claim. @RealAsianRobot argued that if engagement-based matchmaking were real, climbing ranks would be impossible. Meanwhile, @TheXavierBrown bluntly said Nick is just bad at the game. @MowzaProduction showed off their win streak of 14 matches to disagree with Nick's statement.

More comments from the MR community (Image via X || @RivalsAssembled)

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Does Marvel Rivals have engagement-based matchmaking?

Yes, Marvel Rivals most likely has matchmaking based on engagement. This could be confirmed via NetEase Games' public document titled OptMatch: Optimized Matchmaking via Modeling the High-Order Interactions on the Arena. According to the document, the OptMatch framework aims to optimize player satisfaction by analyzing interactions between players and forming teams that enhance overall engagement.

By considering factors beyond just skill level, such as player compatibility and play styles, the system seeks to create balanced and enjoyable matches. This approach suggests that the matchmaking system is designed to keep players engaged by tailoring matches to promote prolonged playtime.

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