Does Marvel Rivals’ Matchmaking Make You Play Longer?
Have you been grinding away in competitive mode in Marvel Rivals and feel stuck in your rank due to your team comp or match? Some players have noticed it and questioned whether Marvel Rivals’ matchmaking is purposefully making you lose games to play longer. Let’s look into Marvel Rivals’ matchmaking and see whether that’s actually the case.
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Nickmercs’ Marvel Rivals Engagement Based Matchmaking Claim
The topic first came about from famous gaming streamer Nickmercs. He was playing competitive matches in Marvel Rivals when he stated in his stream that the game is designed to make you play longer. He mentioned that the game will purposefully put players in matches with bad players after they win too many times.
“It’s by design to keep you on the game longer, they want you to continue climbing”
Nickmercs gives his theory on how Marvel Rivals uses matchmaking to keep you playing longer pic.twitter.com/Swkjyd0w1Z
— Marvel Rivals Intel (@RivalsAssembled) February 3, 2025
The claim sparked the debate, and players had a few things to say about his comment. Some agreed with his statement, while others disagreed. One notable comment was from another streamer, EskayOW. They disagreed with Nickmercs’ statement and rebutted that as players keep winning matches, they’ll play against better opponents.
If you win a lot your rating is higher so you go against better opponents o: people are inconsistent, maybe your teammate is having an off game, maybe your teammate is playing a hero they don’t play, maybe their main is banned, maybe they’re playing vs hard counter, maybe they…
— eskay (@EskayOW) February 5, 2025
The recent events have caused the community to discuss whether the game uses engagement-based matchmaking.
Does Marvel Rivals’ Matchmaking Make You Play Longer?
Most of the claims have been from game experiences without any evidence to back them up. Most games use Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM) in their ranked modes. It ensures players are paired with teammates and opponents on the same skill level. The claims say that Marvel Rivals uses Engagement Optimized Matchmaking (EOMM). Engagement Optimized Matchmaking focuses on making the player longer by adjusting their matches. A Redditor posted their analysis to show whether Marvel Rivals uses Engagement Optimized Matchmaking.
In their analysis, they mentioned that companies like EA released a paper about the EOMM Model and stated that it would help improve a player’s retention, playtime, and spending. NetEase, the developers of Marvel Rivals, also released a paper in August 2020 regarding Optimized Matchmaking, where their proposed model focuses on providing players with a fair and balanced game to gain more engagement. To summarize, the model would look at player stats and the heroes’ utility before putting them in matches. It may sound like the model uses EOMM, but it’s a different system focusing on fair and balanced matches. However, the claims from Nickmercs and other players state that the EOMM used in the game makes them lose and play longer.
The Redditor stated that NetEase’s paper never mentioned that the model would be used in their game. It’s safe to assume that the model from the paper wasn’t used in Marvel Rivals, but the Redditor made an edit that there is another EOMM paper by NetEase that they’ll read to see if there is any more proof regarding the ongoing claim.
With the community divided, players can only wait for more evidence to come out. Marvel Rivals relies on proper teamwork and communication when playing in competitive mode. Other factors, such as team composition or the player’s skill, also need to be considered before coming to such conclusions. If the player is skilled enough, they can rise through the competitive ranks with no problem. Despite the situation, Marvel Rivals is still a breath of fresh air in the FPS genre and continues to grow with its content and player count.
