[2022] Lopsided matches are just boring.

It's not about work, it's about the result.

Yes, if teams were matched by some form of skill metric then teams would likely feel more evenly skilled. The downside is that you move to a point where matches are 50/50 and the only way to actually push through and win is to play hardcore. If you don't give it your all, you slide back and lose over and over.

In a competitive sense, that's great. Effort = Reward. In an enjoyable game sense, it means it's Tryhard or lose... which can get really frustrating long-term in that there's no ability to just... play.

Random will yield weird results sometimes, but on a whole it's just going to be a random smattering of whoever's on and hit the Battle button, so it gives a lot of replayability due to the completely unpredictable nature of what you'll face and see. Also, given the nature of the random, sometimes you're the best on the server and other times you're the worst... so it can make for highlight reels one game and a lot of learning the next.

We've used SBMM in "Brawls". It worked out for people that had wins and losses, but it rapidly got awkward for people that won repeatedly.

That being said, it's still on the newer side of trying it out so iteration is still a thing. After a change last Brawl, match times were helped out for instance.

SBMM is used in other games and can be accurate for placing players within shouting distance of each other, so @TheArc is correct on this.

Always worth remembering that our focus in on replayability which is why you find folks with 10,000+ matches. As such, Random Battles will likely always be Random to help keep it as diverse and chaotic as possible.

Official Reasoning.

Random produces the most varied experience, so it allows for the most longevity of experience. Also, other games which do utilize SBMM experience skill-walling or "tryhard required" situations which can destroy the ability to experience casual play.

Ranked is also Random, but the pool of players is hard-limited to "Only Players in [x] League". So Bronze has ALL players at the start of a season, Silver is a first filtering, and Gold is a second filtering out. While some players do spam games to overcome their skill-barriers, the majority of players simply play to their skill capabilities or stay in a lower League to farm Steel more easily.

Ranked can and is used by players as a way to play among players which have separated themselves out from the main queue through moving up Leagues.