Matchmaking: The Basics Making Teams

The matchmaker is a system for distributing players between teams that ensures the teams are balanced in terms of ship types and tiers.

The main parameter considered when distributing ships is the battle tier—the highest tier of ships in an individual battle. For example, a battle that involves Tier V–VII ships is a Tier VII battle. The maximum battle tier in which ships can participate is set for each ship.

The matchmaker follows a specific set of rules when creating Random Battles

• The teams have an equal number of players. An ideal battle is played in a 12 vs. 12 format, but the required number of players can be reduced in cases where the waiting time spent by the first player in the queue exceeds 3 minutes.

• There is a maximum difference of one tier between ship tiers in battles involving Tier II–IV ships.

• The maximum ship-tier difference in a single battle is two tiers for Tier VII battles and above.

• Please note: this article explains how the matchmaker works in Random Battles. The rules it follows in other battle types can differ due to the specifics of each battle type. This information is relevant to Update 0.9.3.1.

Features of the Matchmaker

The matchmaker is integral to World of Warships, and we are constantly making efforts to improve its algorithms. It's designed to assemble the most effective and balanced team lineups while having as little adverse impact on the battle queue waiting times as possible.

Types and Tiers

In addition to the ship's tier, the matchmaker also takes each ship's type into account. The following rules are applied for these two parameters:

• The matchmaker initially tries to assemble exactly mirrored team lineups in terms of ship tiers and types. If the matchmaker isn't able to assemble a battle in this way, it then proceeds to match ships of lower tiers while ignoring the ship-type parameter. For example, in a Tier VIII battle, it's possible for a Tier VI battleship to be matched to a Tier VI cruiser, or even a Tier VI destroyer. This rule doesn't apply to aircraft carriers.

• The matchmaker limits the numbers of ships of specific types in a battle. While teams consisting of only battleships would probably be able to fight in a very efficient manner, such a battle would hardly be interesting or diverse. For example: the number of destroyers and battleships in a team won't exceed four and five ships, respectively, provided that the matchmaker's queue has a normal number of players waiting. The number of aircraft carriers won't exceed two ships in a team for any battle tier.

• AddedThere are certain tier restrictions in placein Update 0.9.3 we added a soft restriction on the minimum number of ships allowed that are two tiers lower than the battle tier, and also on the maximum number of ships of the highest tier in the battle. For example: even in a Tier X battle in which you're playing a Tier VIII ship, you'll meet several enemies of the same tier as yours. For Tier X battles, a team should include at least three ships of Tier VIII, if such ships are waiting in the queue, and a maximum of five ships of Tier X, if the matchmaker's queue has a normal number of waiting players.

• If possible, ships of different nations are distributed between teams on an even basis.

• The rules described above constitute the soft restrictions. For each battle tier, several sets of settings are used that replace each other, depending on the