7 replies to this topic

[Corusmaximus]

three questions:

1) When I join a PUG the enemy team is always already full, while I watch my team fill up. Why is that?

2) I am usually in beta lance, and occasionally in alpha. I noticed alpha tends to outperform beta in most cases. Is alpha/beta assignment Elo dependant? Am I being placed in beta because i have a low Elo?

3) Is there any significance to the order in which the players appear in the list when the PUG is populated? for example if I am one of the first ones in I will be in slot 1 of beta lance. as more people pop in, I might be pushed further down the list or I might stay there in slot one, it seems random.

[Corusmaximus]

Opps, just saw this post which asks basically the same as #3
http://mwomercs.com/...start-of-match/

[scJazz]

What you are seeing is basically latency and load time artifacts (network speed and speed of your computer) of the Match Maker. Pay no attention to any of it as it is all meaningless. However someone else is going to come in and answer and try to make things confusing so I'll add more detail.
The more I thought about it the more I realized what an epic wall of text would be needed to explain things.

So I'm just going to repeat it is a display artifact based on network and computer speed and means nothing of note. Except in a few cases where you can actually seen 2, 3, and 4 mans being loaded.

[Zordicron]

Alpha and Beta doesnt have anything to do with ELO. the premade groups dont have to be 4 guys, it could be 2, or 3, in which case they will be in one lance and then the rest fill in.

ELO does play a part in the roster though. For some reason, PGI decided to use ELO scores to "balance" team skill. Sort of like how you can have 5 Atlas and 2 ravens on one team and then 2 Atlas and a bunch of heavy mechs on the other. ELO balance works the same as far as I know, 6 really bads will get 2 really goods put in, to balance the team of middlin's on the other side. This turns out to be a total roflstomp in the end, and I hope to high heaven PGI discards whatever part of the formula uses ELO to balance teams out.

[TheCaptainJZ]

If there are any groups, they will be put into the same lance. PUGs fill up the remaining slots.

I have also seen an entire enemy team loaded while the matchmaker finds people to match but it's not every time. I'm guessing that's just a by-product of how the system works. It could mean that the enemy team has 2 groups (not necessarily both or either of size 4) and it then has to figure out how to match the other half, but I don't really know the details of how it works other than it tries to make teams of equal ELOs (That is, the team's average ELO). Weight/chassis balancing is apparently the second criteria it uses which is why you can have several assaults on one side and only heavies, meds, etc. on the other.

[ShinVector]

Corusmaximus, on 23 July 2013 - 02:32 PM, said:

three questions:

1) When I join a PUG the enemy team is always already full, while I watch my team fill up. Why is that?

2) I am usually in beta lance, and occasionally in alpha. I noticed alpha tends to outperform beta in most cases. Is alpha/beta assignment Elo dependant? Am I being placed in beta because i have a low Elo?

3) Is there any significance to the order in which the players appear in the list when the PUG is populated? for example if I am one of the first ones in I will be in slot 1 of beta lance. as more people pop in, I might be pushed further down the list or I might stay there in slot one, it seems random.

Only worry if the PUGs on the side all come from the same House...

[New Day]

Premade is always alpha. So if you're alpha lance, there is no 4man on your team (maybe a 3/2man). If you're bravo lance, alpha lance is posssibly a premade.

[Aym]

Nobody knows... Even PGI ;-)