The Marvel Rivals community has raised numerous questions about how the game's matchmaking system operates. In response to widespread player feedback and concerns about match fairness, the development team released an in-depth explanation of their matchmaking mechanics. This guide breaks down every component of the Marvel Rivals ranked system, from how your competitive points are calculated to why some matches feel unbalanced despite the system's best efforts.
Understanding Your Competitive Score
At the core of Marvel Rivals' matchmaking system lies your competitive score. This numerical value represents your current skill level and determines who you'll be matched with in ranked games. Your competitive score increases when you win matches and decreases when you lose. The matchmaking algorithm uses this score as its primary tool for finding opponents with similar skill levels.
Unlike your visible rank (Silver, Gold, Diamond, etc.), your competitive score operates behind the scenes as a more granular measurement of your abilities. This hidden number allows the system to make more precise matches than rank divisions alone would permit.
How Your Ranked Points Are Calculated After Each Match
Every time you complete a ranked match, the system recalculates your competitive score using a two-component formula. Understanding how these components work helps explain why you sometimes gain or lose different amounts of points for seemingly similar matches.
Base Points: The Foundation of Your Score Change
Base points represent the fundamental reward or penalty for winning or losing a match. Three specific factors determine your base point gain or loss:
- Match Outcome: Whether you won or lost is the most straightforward factor. Victories award points while defeats deduct them.
- Your Current Competitive Score: Your existing score serves as a baseline for calculations. The system needs to know where you currently stand to determine appropriate point changes.
- Enemy Team's Average Competitive Score: The system compares your score against the average competitive score of all opponents. This comparison creates a risk-reward dynamic.
When your competitive score sits lower than the enemy team's average, the system recognizes you're challenging stronger opponents. This scenario creates the following outcomes:
- Winning grants bonus base points beyond the standard amount
- Losing results in fewer point deductions than normal
The reverse situation applies when facing opponents with lower average scores:
- Winning awards fewer base points
- Losing deducts more points than standard
Even Match: Your competitive score is 3,500 and enemy team average is 3,500. Win result: +20 base points. Loss result: -20 base points.
Facing Stronger Opponents: Your score is 3,500 and enemy average is 3,700. Win result: +25 base points (bonus for beating stronger players). Loss result: -15 base points (reduced penalty).
Facing Weaker Opponents: Your score is 3,500 and enemy average is 3,300. Win result: +15 base points (reduced reward). Loss result: -25 base points (increased penalty for losing to weaker opponents).
This system incentivizes players to face challenging opponents while discouraging losses against teams with lower competitive scores.
Performance Points: Measuring Individual Impact
Performance points evaluate how well you played during the match relative to other players at your rank using the same heroes. This component exists because different heroes in Marvel Rivals have vastly different roles, abilities, and expected statistical outputs. Simply totaling raw statistics would unfairly penalize support players or tanks compared to damage dealers.
The performance point calculation follows a multi-step process:
- Normalization: The system converts your in-game statistics to a "per 10 minutes" value. This normalization accounts for varying match lengths and creates a standardized measurement basis.
- Performance Value Creation: These normalized statistics get converted into a single performance value number that represents your overall contribution.
- Hero-Specific Comparison: Your performance value gets compared against the average performance value for that specific hero at your current rank. This comparison also uses the per-10-minutes standard.
- Coefficient Generation: Based on how your performance compares to the average, the system generates a hero-specific performance coefficient. Performing better than average produces a higher coefficient, while below-average play results in a lower coefficient.
- Multiple Hero Weighting: If you switched heroes during the match, the system time-weights each hero's coefficient based on how long you played them. For example, playing 8 minutes as one hero and 2 minutes as another would weight your performance 80% toward the first hero and 20% toward the second.
- Team Comparison: Your final performance coefficient gets compared against your five teammates' average coefficients to determine your ultimate performance points.
A Diamond One player participates in a 10-minute match, spending 4 minutes as Loki and 6 minutes as Invisible Woman.
Initial Performance Values: Loki performance value: 1,200. Invisible Woman performance value: 1,000.
Average Performance Values for Diamond One Players: Loki average: 1,000. Invisible Woman average: 1,000.
Individual Coefficients: Loki coefficient: 1.2 (performed 20% better than average). Invisible Woman coefficient: 1.0 (performed at average level).
Time-Weighted Overall Coefficient: Calculation: (1.2 × 0.4) + (1.0 × 0.6) = 1.08
Teammate Coefficients: 1.0, 1.0, 0.8, 0.8, 1.15. Team Average: 0.97
Final Adjusted Performance Coefficient: 1.11 (player performed 11% better than team average)
This coefficient then translates into performance points that combine with base points for your total score change.
The performance point system creates an interesting dynamic: if a particular hero is underperforming in the current meta, the average performance values for that hero will be relatively low. Players who excel with that hero could potentially earn higher performance bonuses because they're significantly outperforming the average.
However, this advantage comes with a significant caveat. The underperforming hero will likely contribute to fewer overall victories, which means you'll lose more matches despite individual performance bonuses. The base points from losing will typically outweigh performance point advantages.
How Base Points and Performance Points Combine
Once the system calculates both components, it combines them using rank-specific weights. The weighting system changes as you climb the ranked ladder, reflecting different priorities at various skill levels.
Weight Distribution Across Ranks
Lower Ranks (Silver, Gold, Platinum):
- Performance points receive higher weight (approximately 60%)
- Base points receive lower weight (approximately 40%)
- Purpose: Help genuinely skilled players climb through lower ranks quickly
Higher Ranks (Diamond, Celestial):
- Base points receive higher weight (approximately 70%)
- Performance points receive lower weight (approximately 30%)
- Purpose: Emphasize consistent winning over individual statistical achievements
This graduated system serves two important functions. First, it prevents skilled players from getting stuck in lower ranks due to teammates who don't perform well. If you consistently deliver strong individual performances, you'll accumulate more points even in losses, allowing faster rank progression.
Second, it ensures that higher ranks prioritize team-focused winning over individual stat-padding. At top levels of play, what matters most is securing victories through coordinated team play rather than maximizing personal statistics.
The Matchmaking Queue Process
When you press the queue button for ranked play, the matchmaking system begins a sophisticated search process balancing multiple competing factors.
Initial Search Parameters
The system starts with three primary considerations:
- Server Selection: Your chosen server or servers form the initial player pool. The system will only search for players on servers you've selected.
- Team Composition Size: The system notes whether you're queuing solo or as part of a group. This information determines which other players you can potentially be matched with.
- Competitive Score Range: The system begins searching for players with competitive scores very close to yours or your group's average.
The Expanding Search Window
As your wait time increases, the system gradually broadens its search parameters. This expansion serves a critical purpose: finding you a match within a reasonable timeframe while maintaining competitive balance.
The competitive score range expands to include players both above and below your skill level. However, this expansion has strict limits. The system will not create matches between players with drastically different skill levels, such as pairing Silver players against Celestial players.
Once the system identifies 12 players within the acceptable competitive score range, it locks in the match. At this point, team creation begins.
How Teams Get Formed
With 12 players confirmed, the system arranges them into two teams. The primary goal during this arrangement is minimizing the difference between both teams' average competitive scores. The system attempts to create the fairest possible match given the available player pool.
This team arrangement process considers the size and composition of any pre-made groups that queued together. The system follows specific rules to ensure fairness based on group sizes.
Team Size Matchmaking Rules
Marvel Rivals implements different matchmaking rules depending on how many players are grouped together in a party.
Six-Person Teams
Six-player teams will only face other six-player teams. The system never matches a full six-stack against randomly assembled players or smaller groups. This rule prevents coordinated teams from having overwhelming advantages against solo players.
Finding matches for six-person teams takes longer because the system must locate another six-player group with similar competitive scores on the same server. The developers accept longer queue times as a necessary tradeoff for competitive fairness.
Five-Person Teams
Five-person teams have been disabled from ranked matchmaking since the game's launch. This restriction exists specifically to protect solo queue players. A five-person group matched with one random player creates a problematic dynamic where the solo player often feels excluded from team coordination and communication.
Four-Person Teams
Four-player groups follow a priority-based matching system:
- First Priority: The system attempts to match the four-player team against another four-player team.
- Expanding Options: If no suitable four-player opponent is found quickly, the system opens to mixed combinations such as 4+1+1 versus 3+2+1.
- Wait Time Impact: Longer queue times result in broader competitive score ranges and more varied team composition matchups.
Starting in Season 3.5, the developers temporarily restricted four-player teams from matchmaking at higher ranks. At top-tier play, there aren't enough players to create balanced matches for four-stacks without excessively long queue times or severely imbalanced skill gaps.
Smaller Teams and Solo Players
Teams smaller than four players (duos, trios) and solo players follow similar expanding search patterns. The system prioritizes matching similar group sizes initially, then broadens to mixed compositions as wait time increases.
Why Matches Can Still Feel Unbalanced
The matchmaking system performs calculations and balancing before players select their heroes. This timing creates situations where matches feel unfair despite technically balanced competitive scores.
The Role Selection Problem
Consider what happens when the 12-player match begins and players start selecting heroes. Set A might have role selections where the three-player team picks Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist. The two-player team chooses Vanguard and Duelist. The solo Platinum player selects Duelist. The original Duelist player switches to Strategist to fill the missing role.
Set B's role selections might have the three-player team picking Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist. Additional players add another Strategist, another Vanguard, and another Duelist.
The resulting imbalance: Set B has a significant strategic advantage because all six players are playing their preferred main roles. Everyone performs at their expected competitive score level.
Set A faces two problems: A Duelist player was forced to fill as Strategist, meaning they're playing a role they're less comfortable with. The lowest-ranked player at Platinum One is playing Duelist, which may weaken the team's damage output.
This scenario occurs because the matchmaking system completes team balancing before role selection happens. The system cannot predict which heroes or roles players will choose.
The developers explained why they don't implement role-based matchmaking or role locking:
Freedom and Variety: Allowing players to select their favorite superheroes and create diverse team compositions encourages varied strategies and more engaging gameplay. Role restrictions would limit the creative team-building that makes Marvel Rivals distinctive.
Queue Time Impact: Adding role-based matchmaking would significantly increase queue times. The system would need to find not just 12 players with similar competitive scores, but specifically two tanks, four damage dealers, and two supports per team.
Role Population Imbalance: Not every role has equal player populations. There aren't equal numbers of players wanting to play Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist.
Hero-Specific Skill Variations: Even if assigned your preferred role, you might select a hero within that role that you're less skilled with. The system cannot account for hero-specific skill levels when balancing teams before hero selection occurs.
The 20-Sided Dice Analogy
One useful way to understand match variance is thinking of each game as rolling a 20-sided die:
- Rolling a 20: You get the perfect team composition. Everyone plays their main roles and heroes. The enemy team is uncoordinated. You dominate the match.
- Rolling a 1: You experience the opposite. Everyone on your team plays roles they're uncomfortable with. Multiple teammates select heroes they rarely use. The enemy team is perfectly coordinated, possibly with multiple players in voice communication together.
- Rolling Anything Between: Most matches fall somewhere in the middle of these extremes, with varying degrees of team coordination, role comfort, and hero familiarity.
Every time you queue, you roll this metaphorical die again. The system cannot control the outcome because hero selection happens after matchmaking completes. This randomness explains why you might experience strings of excellent matches followed by strings of frustrating ones.
Understanding Win Streaks and Loss Streaks
Many players believe that consecutive wins or losses indicate matchmaking manipulation. The developers addressed this concern by explaining the statistical probability behind streaks.
The Mathematics of Probability
Assuming both teams are truly evenly matched (50/50 win chance), probability mathematics produces these results:
Over Three Games:
- Chance of three consecutive wins: 12.5%
- Chance of three consecutive losses: 12.5%
Over Ten Games:
- Chance of experiencing three or more consecutive wins or losses: 50%
This means that over enough games, every player will eventually experience win streaks and loss streaks. These streaks are not evidence of matchmaking manipulation but rather natural statistical outcomes.
Why The Game Isn't Pure Mathematics
While probability explains baseline expectations, several in-game factors increase the likelihood and impact of streaks:
- Imperfect Team Balancing: Team average competitive scores are rarely perfectly balanced. One team might have a slightly higher average, shifting actual win probability away from exactly 50/50.
- Consecutive Queue Player Overlap: When queuing consecutively, you may face some of the same players in back-to-back matches. If you happened to match with tilted or frustrated players in one game, you might face them again immediately afterward, carrying over negative outcomes from the previous match.
- Pre-Made Team Impact: This player overlap issue becomes even more pronounced with team matchmaking. The pool of available team combinations is smaller, especially during off-peak hours or in less populated regions. You might repeatedly face the same pre-made teams across multiple matches.
- Tilted Players: Player mental state affects performance. If you encounter a frustrated teammate having a bad session, their underperformance impacts your win probability. Matching with this same player across multiple consecutive games compounds the problem.
- Low Population Times: During early morning hours or late night sessions, fewer players queue for ranked. This reduced population forces the matchmaking system to accept broader competitive score ranges and more varied team compositions to avoid extremely long queue times.
The Scale of Rare Events
Even if a particular matchmaking scenario has only a 1% probability of occurring, Marvel Rivals' large player base means many players will experience that rare outcome. What feels like a manipulated personal experience is actually a predictable statistical result when examining millions of matches across hundreds of thousands of players.
Addressing EOMM Concerns Directly
EOMM stands for "Engagement Optimized Matchmaking." This term refers to a matchmaking philosophy where games allegedly manipulate who plays against whom to keep players engaged longer by engineering specific win/loss patterns.
The theory suggests that games using EOMM intentionally give players wins when they're close to quitting and losses when they're becoming too confident, maintaining win rates around 50% through deliberate manipulation rather than skill-based matching.
The Developer's Statement
The Marvel Rivals development team directly addressed these concerns with a clear statement: Marvel Rivals does not use EOMM.
The confusion arises because Marvel Rivals, like most competitive games with skill-based matchmaking, naturally produces results approaching 50% win rates for many players. This outcome isn't manipulation—it's what happens when the system successfully matches players of similar skill levels against each other repeatedly.
When players of roughly equal skill compete, both have approximately 50% chances of winning. Over many matches, this produces overall win rates hovering around 50%. This result demonstrates the matchmaking system working correctly, not evidence of engagement manipulation.
Why EOMM Doesn't Make Practical Sense
Beyond the developer's explicit denial, several practical factors make EOMM unlikely in Marvel Rivals:
- Priority One - Queue Speed: The matchmaking system prioritizes finding matches quickly. Adding layers of engagement optimization would require longer searches to find not just skill-appropriate matches but matches that fit specific engagement patterns for each player.
- Priority Two - Technical Complexity: Implementing engagement-based manipulation would require the system to track each player's recent session patterns, emotional states, and likelihood of quitting, then coordinating 12 players' individual engagement needs into teams. This complexity far exceeds standard skill-based matching.
- Priority Three - Natural Variability: The role selection system and internal team imbalances already create enough match outcome variability without requiring additional manipulation systems.
Improving Your Personal Win Rate
Understanding how matchmaking works reveals several actionable strategies for improving your competitive results:
Strategy One - Expand Your Hero Pool
Learning multiple heroes across different roles gives you flexibility when team composition demands it. If you can competently play at least one hero in each role, you reduce the probability of being forced onto an unfamiliar character.
Strategy Two - Master Role Fundamentals
Even if you prefer one role, understanding the fundamentals of other roles improves your overall game knowledge. This knowledge helps you make better decisions about when to switch heroes mid-match and how to coordinate with teammates playing other roles.
Strategy Three - Manage Your Mental State
Take breaks after frustrating losses. Queuing while tilted or frustrated often leads to worse performance, creating self-reinforcing loss streaks. Your reduced performance combines with probability and potentially matching with other tilted players to extend losing patterns.
Strategy Four - Avoid Consecutive Queue During Off-Peak Hours
If you're playing during low population times, consider taking short breaks between matches. This reduces the probability of repeatedly matching with the same underperforming teammates or against the same strong opponents.
Strategy Five - Communication and Flexibility
Being willing to fill needed roles and communicating with teammates during hero selection improves team composition quality. Players who adaptively fill gaps in team composition win more often than those who rigidly stick to one hero regardless of team needs.
Strategy Six - Focus on Controllable Factors
You cannot control matchmaking outcomes, teammate hero selection, or probability. You can control your own performance, hero knowledge, communication approach, and mental state. Focusing on these controllable factors improves your win rate over time.
- Sophisticated competitive score calculations that go beyond visible ranks
- Performance-based adjustments reward individual skill contribution
- Graduated weighting system helps skilled players climb appropriately
- Team size restrictions prevent unfair coordination advantages
- Expanding search windows balance queue times with match quality
- Cannot predict hero selection after teams are formed
- Role flexibility creates composition variance
- Low population times force broader skill ranges
- Consecutive queuing may result in player overlap
- Natural statistical streaks feel like manipulation to players
The Developer's Ongoing Commitment
The Marvel Rivals development team continues analyzing player feedback and refining matchmaking systems. They acknowledge the system isn't perfect and recognize that certain scenarios create frustrating player experiences despite technically balanced competitive scores.
Future updates will introduce more Vanguard and Strategist heroes, potentially helping to balance role populations naturally. The team also continues exploring solutions for high-rank team matchmaking challenges without severely increasing queue times.
Understanding that matchmaking balances multiple competing priorities—speed versus quality, role freedom versus team balance, individual performance versus team winning—helps contextualize why some matches feel unbalanced despite the system's sophisticated calculations.
The matchmaking system operates based on competitive scores, statistical performance, and team balancing algorithms. It does not manipulate matches for engagement purposes. Win streaks and loss streaks are natural statistical occurrences in any game where players of similar skill compete against each other repeatedly. The role selection system and hero variety create match outcome variability that no matchmaking algorithm can completely eliminate without sacrificing the freedom and creativity that define Marvel Rivals gameplay.