Starcraft 2 news » Upcoming Changes to Match-Making

We’ve been closely monitoring the quality of match-making since StarCraft II was released to make sure that the ladder offers the most exciting and finely tuned competitive experience possible. It’s been a great success, and because of the small skill gap between competing players, most games are tightly contested. While it’s awesome that most games are very close, this also means that both players need to constantly be at the top of their games, because the slightest mistake usually means defeat. While we think this is a fun way to play, we’re not sure if it’s fun for every match to be this way.

As a one-season experiment, we will be relaxing the match-making settings slightly in Season 7 to introduce more variety into the ladder. In practical terms, this means you won't always be evenly matched with your opponent. You'll regularly compete with players at slightly higher or lower skill levels, to make the experience more well-rounded. These adjustments to the match-making system will also offer a chance to potentially get promoted more quickly, so stringing together wins versus more skilled opponents could potentially result in faster league promotions.

As always, we will be monitoring the effects of these changes and tweaking the match-making settings to improve upon the match-making system going forward. We’re excited to hear about your experiences and we’re looking forward to your feedback about these changes once Season 7 begins.

See you on the ladder!