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Respawn isn’t making its solo-que ranked experiment permanent. Despite helping eliminate premade squads from Diamond through Predator lobbies, other metrics didn’t improve during Apex Legends‘ recent matchmaking test.
Trials removing premade groups from Ranked saw players experiencing similar match outcomes to before, while Diamond players encountering Masters and Predators actually increased. Separately, Ranked participation decreased among highly-active duo and trio players.
Tested to Improve Matchmaking Balance
Respawn tested solo queue Ranked to reduce balance issues created by premade trios. By examining its Matchmaking Systems player tiers (also known as RP), Respawn noticed that:
- Premade trios win 17% more matches than teams composed of three solo queue players
- 85% of Masters competitors are premade three stacks
In testing, Diamond, Master, and Predator-ranked players were prohibited from queuing into Ranked playlists with friends. Respawn theorized players would experience more balanced matches if premade stacks were removed.
However, testing data showed removing premades didn’t improve match outcomes.
Spread Masters and Predators Throughout Matches
While testing Solo Queue Ranked, Respawn found something rather odd: players experienced similar rates of matching with Masters and Predator-tier players.
Respawn says its current matchmaking system breaks down the 60 players it needs into three separate groups to form squads. Since there were now fewer players with max-tier RP queuing into premades, Masters and Predators players were spread across more teams.
Solo queue also didn’t change the win-rate spread between good and bad teams. According to Respawn, there was only a ~9% win-rate difference between the highest and lowest tiers of Masters players.
Fewer Duo and Trio Players Queued Ranked
Respawn also discovered that Ranked participation dropped among normally active duo and trio players in the Diamond rank and above.
Respawn says these players make up core of Apex‘ Ranked population, so maintaining players playing and queueing into Ranked is important to maintain short queue times and healthy skill ranges. By driving players away from Ranked, Solo Queue worked against the health of Apex’ Ranked playlists.
Respawn conducted a second matchmaking experiment that restricted premade groups to the same tier or one tier apart. Currently, players can premade with others up to two tiers higher or lower.
In testing, Diamond players encountered 8% fewer Diamond opponents and 8% more Platinum opponents. No significant changes were observed in other tiers. Respawn says it won’t enforce that restriction either.
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