Let me know your thoughts in the comments! And as always be cool to each other. No problem if you disagree, just dont troll

A way to support better matchmaking is by helping players get better and learn how to play the game (there's nothing besides youtube right now). One easy idea is to add in info screens before a match like "Did you know scoring points is faster when teammates are standing on the pad" or "try to save your unite for the Ray fight"

At least in Ultra, we need teammates that don't just stand there and move every once in a while so that they can't get reported.😂

This is mainly anecdotal evidence but i feel like the top end and the low end of the skill bracket gets paired together on the same team pretty often in solo q. My hunch is they try to balance the TEAM'S mmr and when that happens you get games we meme about where you get paired with 4 people with a less than 50% winrate. The high winrate player feels like a balancing chip which makes the game feel unfair for that person in partiuclar. I use to get sniped by a player with a fairly good winrate pretty often and they almost never ended up on my team and was most of the time against me.

The best matches in pokemon unite are when that 1 time a month occurrence happens where both teams rotate properly. The match is where it's so even and both teams know what they're doing that none of the towers go down and everybody sitting at 11 or 12 for levels because there's never farm. Win or lose, those matches are fun

I think ranked would be a lot better if they took the bot matches out or lower ranks and make the grind to Masters more punishing. You should get stuck in Expert or something if you're not contributing to your teams' victories.

I think the reasonable take people have is Masters should feel like the pinnacle of the playerbase. The current issue is players are in masters that play absolutely terrible, yet there they are. Its frustrating having players who literally never rotate to objectives especially ray(zap). I have lost a lot of games that I felt were fair and balanced and simply the better team one. No hard feelings, on to the next. But the most frustrating ones are when players watch you die, avoid objectives, or do the most dumbest thing you would only expect from someone in like veteran but they are in masters. I remember like over 50% of the playerbase is in masters and thats a terrible system. The matches would feel much better if bot games were removed and everyone got demoted back to rookie to climb up again. That way if you make it to masters you actually earned the rank and you can reasonably assume your teammates aren't dumb and you can trust they are playing to win as well. Matchmaking is fine, the actual laddering mechanic is busted beyond belief. Its horrible that you can climb ranks through bot games just so you don't wait over a minute thirty

Haven't played in a hot minute, but I miss seeing you Spragles! You are the best part of this community. 💕

I think the most important point you made is that with the majority of players playing on mobile, the game is competing with TikTok, KZfaq, etc. literally everything else someone can do on their phone. That was something that I haven’t considered when reading through the current discourse on the matchmaking.

The quality of matches will improve if good players keep playing after reaching 1600. To keep them engaged, TiMi needs to fix the meta to improve the gameplay experience (obviously) and offer more/better performance-based rewards.

It's baffling how master rank players doesn't know how to prioritize objectives

I think the problem with matchmaking right now is that teams are not playing in the same conditions. Whenever the game wants me to lose they put me with duos or trios that are clearly inferior than the ones on the enemy team and stats at the end of the match prove it, and also the guy with probably the worst hidden MMR of the team (the one at the top of the table or at the right position in prematch screen) insta picks jungle. That shouldn't be a thing but it feels it's done on purpose. Same when you have a bad streak they put you a match against bad/new players you probably should not lose, even while trolling, because your team will probably carry in a 4 V 5, that's how trolls have a 40 % winrate and not a 0%.

Live stream was fun as always! Thanks Spragels!

Jake I hear what you're saying about people leaving if they can’t get into matches within 20 seconds but I believe more people are leaving the game due to bad matchmaking, AFK teammates, meta issues, etc. I think Unite needs to separate the line harder between ranked and standard. If you want to have fun, mess around with a new Pokémon, play a bunch of quick games Unite already has the standard and quick game modes. Ranked needs to be more than standard with a number that goes up or down.

I think they should generally narrow matchmaking a bit. For example, Instead of generalizing a whole rank, they should match veteran class 1 players with others of that class, vet class 2 and Ultra class 5. I think that's all they need to do, because you're trying to climb so it makes more sense to replace a person in that higher class.

I 100% agree that we need a pick/ban turn on the ranked format. There would be so much more strategy into your picks Most times i can tell how my matches will go just from seeing the enemy teams picks.

Hey Jake banger video as always! I have an idea for your next road to masters. How about nuzlocke from pokemon and items only from original release?

Do you think an idea where standard matches have short queue times but ranked matches have quality matchmaking would be a good idea?

Spragels you hit it towards the end. THERE NEEDS TO BE LEGITIMATE PUNISHMENTS FOR THROWERS/GRIEFERS! Period! The reporting system is just a step above a joke (it used to be a legit joke) and if they changed it so that players were punished for purposefully performing malicious actions to their team, it would help the game so much. Playing with toxic griefers makes me want to put down the game and i know I'm not the only one.

They should just make the matchmaking more and more lenient on MMR difference as your queue time increases, up to a point... and get rid of botgames or make them opt-in.

+Ideas: -More in-game: guides, training modes, accurate info on mons moves etc, loading screen tips, mandatory training to learn play support mon which is the one that can teach you more -I'm good and I'm still learning, mid players are the big key playerbase

I think that while is important to see the downsides of possible fixes or suggestions, dwelling on it doesn't help improve things, things are at such a low point, that any improvement is welcome at this point, so it's better to focus on solutions right now than spending to much time on the downsides of said suggestions.

Oh boy response will probably be out tomorrow morning. Lots to discuss!

Idk why but they always put me in a team of new players and the other team is full of pros and and keep losing cuz my teammates keep scoring 0 points 💀

live stream + new video = it is Friday and happiness is back

outside of ranked, i get day 1ers in EVERY single game, or its a Bot game. Ranked is stressful in masters so i'm not always in the mood.

Spot on with the pose and the title. Wonder how many people get the reference.

I would argue that more people would play more often if the matchmaking system was better and balancing was better.

I do agree, it's hard to balance a game, I played dota 2 at high levels, some times you wait 30min for a match, and each game typically last 35-50min

Yes i think the balance can be sharpend in this system, and i hope that there will be a draft option soon. I'm looking forward to the future of the competitive side of this game

I’d like to see a more in-depth in game communication system. Like 30-40 messages we can choose 7-8 to use in battle to talk to team mates.. and also showing us teammate rank in pregame

How about a ranked system where you get MP based on personal performance in game. So you would either gain or lose points based on your performance and your team winning would only add "boost" to those points Meaning individuals performing good will be rewarded and those going afk in match won't necessarily effect your progress

Jake I never wanted to hear the name of that Star Wars film again, it shattered me to pieces. All the horrible memories

From the stream, to the video😎

That first sentence about Star Wars hit deep😂 My girlfriend has listened to my rant about Rian Johnson and the last jedi way too many times😂😂

here from the stream! let's do this!

one thing that does not need fixing is spragels beautiful mustache

That would be pretty nice if they did these things. I like your thoughts on all of this! I understand why they put you into a bot match if you’re on a losing streak (even in ranked). But I really wish they didn’t allow any bots in ranked at all. Not even to fill out games. Bots just make the match hollow, they’re too easy to beat. Draft at masters would be cool, maybe only do it for MMR 1200+? Or maybe everyone wants it. It does slow down the start of games, but maybe they could make a quick version

How many active players do we have in pokemon unite?

Straight coming from the stream LETSGOO !

This is true. Unite wants to remain casual. Which is fine, is the balance that's making matches not fun to play.

Thanks for this video. Question: Instead of matching people with very similar MMR could not just check (inside 60s) everyone looking for a match and rank than splitting in groups of 10? 10 biggest MMR on that minute play together, 11-20 play together etc maybe sometimes you will match with low lvl as high lvl. But will be matched with the best available at that minute

Was MMR the fiery thing we could see in our profile in past

I think that ban phase is rly good, I used to play power league in brawl stars which was essentially ranked from Pokémon unite (but it had the ban) and Power Leauge sucked but without the ban power league would be un-playable

I think the biggest problem is that they are releasing too many pokemons and off course it’s difficult to balance when you have too many. I think they should focus more on bringing different maps because than the meta can change according to the map. I’m trying to compare with Overwatch for example and it was a good example.

They may need to use a matchmaking system like Hi-Rez uses for Smite. Matches start every 4-5 minutes and it makes the best match based on who is in que at that time. and the start time is different for each type of match, ranked, normal, quick. I just need to not have games where people only have 1 or 2 items when it starts. every now and then its fine, but not every. single. game.

I’ve experienced a couple of games that me & my random teammates wr are 50% below then the opponents side all are 52 to 60+% wr. How is that a decent matchmaking?

I'd like to hear more about spragels thoughts on the last jedi😂

i wonder if the Chinese beta gameplay rework will enter our game as a different map and you get a random gamemode every time you queue like heroes of the storm has

Just got three AFKr’s in a row that my biggest gripe tbh

From the stream let’s go!!!!

I’m from the livestream from TikTok!!!

If you want Quick games That is what standards are for

Ive been getting some funky teammates this season, i out play there best player (on the left) 80% of the time, but the enemy team just has a well rounded team i just struggle when the enemy team has more expirience

What matters why I quit the game long ago is the AFK teamates in start and mid game. It's 2v5 and still count as lose. Is it fix?

standard mode and quick matches exist if you dont want to wait for long queue times

sprags wdym there isnt a 3 minute wait time. i on average have to wait 2 to 3 minutes to find a match

Another big problem right now is the way they sort of promote queueing every 30 seconds or any sort of parameters go out the window, at least for solo players

I think the most feasible matchmaking improvements Unite can make is creating more Ranks in between Veteran, Ultra and Masters. 1) Create 2 Additional Ranks in Between Veteran and Ultra. My thought is that there will be a bigger buffer for players to get to the higher ranks 2) Make the in game ranks drop harder like instead of Masters going to Ultra put them in Veteran and others in Veteran should go lower like back to Great rank 3) I believe less bot games will help as well, ultimately the first three ranks are just bot training and that should not be the case 4) More diamonds to rank up, this will make players have to work harder and be more consistent to climb, I think the mechanics in place to protect your rank dropping from bad games will still be useful but less impactful with 5 diamonds instead of 3 5) increase the rewards at lower ranked ranks and even give a free Skin for reaching the middle of the rankings where Masters having a very high amount of rewards for the work it takes to get there I really think this won’t affect the casual players or low level players harshly and the higher ranked players will be where they truly belong

Last night I was stuck at veteran 1 and 2 because of those 2 leavers every game. Then last night I got 2 bot games and 1 real game where the enemy team had an afk mewtwo Y. So I finally got to ultra after being away for a year

I have lost last 8 matches being Mvp in 7 of them along with 10+ kills and scoring 100+ still my dumbass teammates aren't able to do anything... they just keep getting koed or either they just forfeit the match Its soo frustrating to play Pokemon Unite sometimes😢

YEEHAW A NEW VIDEO!!!

We can wait in ranked mode but in standard i don't like too

I agree with what you’re saying in the video. I think matchmaking, while it can definitely be a problem, is not a as big a problem as having one balance update like every month. The lack of balance updates in terms of quantity is made worse by the fact that each one also has nerfs that are often not strong enough to reel in some of the strongest pokemon (Mewtwo Y). This results in periods of time that are way too long where a Pokémon is dominating and making it nearly impossible to climb consistently without. If they choose to continue doing the sparse balance changes, i can see two solutions to make the game more tolerable in times of rough patches. Like you said in the video, implementing a ban phase to at least remove the problematic Pokémon from games would be one option. This would be a short term solution if they wanted to keep the same schedule of balance updates. Another way is for them to make stronger, bigger buffs and nerfs to make the effects more impactful. I just wish they’d be more frequent in the balancing, especially since they tend to go very light with their changes.

I do agree on most points; however for myself, a good solution towards encountering multiple teams that have no synergy whatsoever, don't respond to pings, misunderstanding the point of team play, would be a simple button. A button that allows you to stay inside a team right after the fight. That way, if you have good chemistry, you could continue to enjoy it for as long as it lasts. Exiting the game, adding players as friends or going to lobby usually ends up with those players already being in the next match.

In oce, matchmaking is already 0:50 to 4:00 to find a match and I would appreciate faster queue times. 😂

I feel that Last Jedi comment so much. Here from the stream

I'd rather play against a Smurf but have teammates around my skill level. They could also implement better communication systems or just better ping messages, so you can actually tell the clueless what to do instead of "Watch out!". I know VC exists but right now it works as a self-ban button

I am stuck in ultra and wonder why matchmaking in this season is worse than ever what happened to it !!?

The main issue with matchmaking i faced is when the opponing team has a golden badge pokemon and i have an entire team that goes top lane before taking out the regi bottom. (Btw i'm elite rank)

Matchmaking directly correlates with rank system. They fix their rank system, matchmaking automatically gets fixed. Master should be a class where only a handfull could reach and not players who play worse than bots.ayou may say that it might take a lot more time for matchaking at higher level but isn't it the xase in every other game? Player at higher level have more waiting time for eg. Valorant, clash royale etc.

I swear that every time I try to play the game, my teammates are outrageous. There's this one game where my garchomp was getting level gated and was at lv 8 at ray, while I was at lv 15 as cram, then we lost.

I was winning a few match with good players when I lose 2 game and they add me to a lobbies with bad players

10:00 I don't see how they could be 'fighting for retention'' AT ALL if they refuse to fix the other problems with this game. IF they (Timi) want to retain players, make a good game, don't ruin it. The best option has nothing to do with what the devs intend, why? Because the devs intended to make accurate power-level legendary Pokemon and they succeeded---especially as of late (STILL broken M2Y). The devs intentions nor word should be treated as gospel for how a game SHOULD be made; if anything I believe other gamedevs can learn here on what NOT to do when making a video game (certain aspects). The playerbase size wasn't a problem until Mewtwo Y remained un-nerfed for an unacceptably long amount of time (and dev letter lies). And if you saw Teed's video, yes, 60,000 android (Samsung) users have already left the game. Timi is killing their own game. 12:39 This is a reach which fails to consider the factor of convenience. Overall I believe your fear the game will die if the devs so much as attempt to overhaul matchmaking---so they shouldn't, while a valid opinion, is illogical as a slippery slope logical fallacy. The chances of that happening isn't as high as you might think considering the IP. If the IP wasn't as strong the game would already be dead. Yes, I'm mad at TImi, not the players of whom I can't and won't define------either way they deserve better from them.

Good topic, I like your points. I think the issue is: **very low mmr** and **very high mmr** players: -The game *punish very hard high mmr players* ... not fun... is a handicap most of the times. -The game *rewards extremely low mmr players* who dont really play the game, those players should not be in rank mode not on master... at least they should have their how long wait matchmaking with afk players.

I've played this game on and off since its release, and i just came back to it at the beginning of last season. I wasn't very competitive before then, and im still learning certain mechanics. But now, I think I am atleast an average to above average player. learning more about this game has really opened my eyes to all of the issues it has. I was around 60% win rate before, and between the end of last season and this season started i dropped to about 49%. i get so many games that people make poor decisions in that cost us the game. It's so unfair when a decent or skilled player has their account penalized because a troll or "confused" player who doesnt quite understand the mechanics makes a bad decision. I try to play fairly and as a team, and then ill get a teammate or two who thinks they can 1v3 just because they play a pokemon like mewtwo or zacian when they're already underlevelled. I've finally got my win rate back above 50%, but it took awhile. I think that only through playing with players of similar skill level can you get better. this probably isnt news to most people, but if you relate to this just know that it isn't just you dealing with it

I haven't logged into the game in weeks, i uave never seen this pika skin and I am jealous

Good man. Maybe Filoni can save us

It really wouldn't be hard to fix. I'm sure some sort of metric can be worked out for what a "good" match is. Score X points, do Y damage, whatever. For example, average charizard does 50k damage and scores 75 points. Regardless of a win or a loss if you put up a 20k 0 point game you move down in rank. This starts to filter the afks and trolls out of most games. Once the trash is cleared up it won't be nearly as bad having a top tier player on the other team when you know the people with you can actually help.

Yup. Makes complete sense. Everytime I lose 1 game, the next match becomes ridiculously silly, getting total weirdos on my team who doen't even care to level up or score like a normal human/ bot.. 😖😬 Then if I lose that, it goes worse and worse and worse, I swear some players I got paired with can't even play like a beginner. 🤷‍♂💢

I just don’t like how match making frequently makes me, a 54% winrate player have a team of all sub 50%’s VS a bunch of players who are all 52%+ These aren’t even stacked matches we are all SoloQ, why not just balance out the win rate so both teams average a similar winrate?

We love you Jake

i think the devs might be waiting to hit a certain ammount of released mons before implementing ban phase, maybe not tho

My dream for unite is not only a draft phase, but queueing up for roles like LoL. Not having a five Speedster or Attacker game every second game would be amazing.

My biggest gripe as a solo queue player is simply that I hate getting queued with 2 duos or with a trio. 4/5 trios I queue with spam surrender vote if we miss first Regieleki. Half of double duos I get are complete chaos. Fighting over jungle, spamming thanks, stealing farm. Just give me an option for solo queue that at most has 1 duo in it.

Yay spragels is not sick anymore! 😃

I kinda took a break on pokemon unite since zacian and its just gone downhill since then.

The biggest 2 issues are balance and lack of tutorials or tools to help players understand the game. The fact that I can hop in a match with a teammate garchomp holding a shell bell or an attack based Pokemon holding glasses is ridiculous. They need to have things in place to help players make better decisions and understand the game, rather than hope players will hop on KZfaq to learn the ins and outs.

The fact that I can play with people in master rank and they just stay and farm and never go for reggie or ray ever, while the other team is unified and are on top of every objective, is proof that how they matchmake and rank people up needs to be severely changed But i also think ranked itself is a joke, the fact that I can break my back carrying my team while they do nothing and lose and go down in rank is in no sense smart or logical

I have a question for you guys. is there a BOT / AI system in ranked? i always go duo ranked with my gf. sometime we found teammates or enemies with "odd" behavior. They just "patrolling" in respawn place or score base, even in the bushes. Its frustating to fight 2vs5 in ray, and seeing our teammates just go back and forth in the base, until the enemy show up. If it's in early ranked, we don't mind. but in expert/master rank too?

I just want games where the jungler doesnt stay on 1 lane all the time and where the other lane suddenly abandons their lane and take mids creep or clearing the lane iam on and than ping madly to other players (or me) to check it out. Basicly i want to play a bit more with team players.

Logging in for the first time in weeks bc I realized that I'd definitely get the returning player event. Woo

i have question. why the hell my mic get suspended for 240 hours. i dont even use it too much.

When you talk about what people want, how do you know that? Did you poll people or read survey data?

is the title the meme from gravity falls "One who does not simply theach kids swear"?

Making matchmaking something like league of legends is necessary they can have little more headroom while matching players

Im not the best, i lose and i know when i throw or cause my team to lose for any reason. But i DO get paired with very low levels, get teammates follwing me stealing my last hits, don't show up to objectives...so yes sometimes i vlame my teammates, but for good reasons. But i also know that occasionally i screw up or throw being tilted because of constantly having bad team comp vs multi queues that have good comp and i still stand here saying they need to tweak matchmaking better

I consider myself an average player, but I could totally relate to what you said: I feel obliged to play a hard carry Mon every single game. If I want to climb the ladder, I have to carry the game. That's really annoying because I love playing off-meta and my favourite mon are Defenders and Supporters. But when you constantly get paired up with leftovers/exp share junglers, half of your team constantly stealing your jungle, trolls, afks, people without any idea of the basics, objectives, when to use Unite move, saving it for ray, feeding the enemy team all game long, breaking goals by 1 or 2 aeos coins... and the list goes on... you are forced to carry, instead of having fun and playing a different role. You just lose interest in the game. It is not fun to play, it's plainly stressful. Pair that with horrible metas of overpowered pokemon that dictate whether the team wins or not, and we're in a terrible spot right now. All of this in high Ultra and Master rank.

When I took a hiatus (very long one 😂) it was largely because the wait times we're getting too absurdly long and worse that didn't seem to lead to better matches so now I was stuck waiting upwards of 2-3 minutes for a 10 minute game...that because my team ran around like headless chickens wanted to surrender right at the 5 minute mark...hooray the wait time is now half the length of the match! As much as I hate some of the bizarrely bad teammates I get paired with (or great teammates who have to carry my ass as the casr sometimes is😅) I'll reluctantly accept it if it's only taking 20-30 seconds to pair me up.

You have valid points but overhauling the system would be best and the times would relatively only effect people on the low and high end of elo but people that want the sweaty matches will wait imo and they need to stop masquerading their rank system as a rank mode and not just regular standard and at that point people would actually go to standard matches and it would balance the modes out