"A good match is a match where both teams have a nearly-equal chance to win."

This concise truth was typed by someone on a Twitch chat, a few months back. (I wish I could remember who, as I'd love to give them credit...) Since then, it has become my catchphrase about the shit-eatingly awful state of MWO's MatchMaker. Any time the MM pre-determines the outcome of a match by the teams it chooses, MM has failed to make a "match." Instead, it has made a stomp.

This was a guaranteed win for [MJ12]'s 4-man: https://old.reddit.com/user/ModernRonin/comments/12xxhcn/mwo_matchmaker_is_sewagegargling_crap_and_its/

This was a guaranteed loss for [AW]'s 4-man: https://old.reddit.com/user/ModernRonin/comments/12xxjr5/mwo_matchmaker_is_sewagegargling_crap_and_its/

These kind of matches are typical. They are not the exception; they are the norm. I struggle to remember any MWO play session I have sat down to in the past several months where I did not have multiple matches like the ones shown above. 12-2 (or worse) stomps, caused by the MM's inability to create a "match".

In both of the above cases it is the stupid, futile, moronic shoe-horning of groups into what should be a true SoloQ that caused the matchmaking failure. No MM algorithm that I can think of (or, as we've seen for the past two years, that PGI can manage to create) is capable of coming even close to properly balancing groups. It may be that PGI is simply too stupid to figure this out. Or it may be something that's inherently impossible to do it with the amount of computing power that's available to humanity at this point in history.

EITHER WAY, GROUPS IN SOLO-Q ARE THE ROOT CAUSE.

This won't get better. Not ever. PGI is mindlessly committed to keeping SoupQ, no matter how bad an idea it is. Paul Inouye's moronic reason for putting groups in SoloQ in the first place was that he was unhappy GroupQ was taking too long (about 6 and a half minutes) to create a group match. His solution? Puts groups in SoloQ, thus fucking SoloQ over too! BRILLIANT!!

PGI had tons of warning that was a terrible idea, by some of the best players in the game. This post is particularly prescient, IMO:

https://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/276865-combining-group-and-solo-queues-4-week-test/page__st__40__p__6329090#entry6329090

Finally... In the comments of this post, you will see an endless number of idiots crawling out of the woodwork to claim that SoupQ is not really a problem. Therefor, I say: Don't take my word or anyone else's word for it. Look for yourself! I ask you, individual player of MWO: Can you predict the outcome of your matches based on which groups are in the match?

Cuz if you can do that consistently... then guess what?