Ive noticed that I keep getting paired with the same players on the same templates. I had always assumed that it meant that the only template both me and the other player had that was overlapping was the template we kept getting, but when Ive asked them theyve told me that they have other templates that I also have selected.

Its possible its just a coincidence, but I was wondering how QM templates are selected? Does the selection happen in tandem with the pairing? Is it random? or is it like "once a match is found, select the highest combined rating of all the common templates"?

I suspect it also has to do with your ratings being closest together on that template

I also recall that matchmaking is essentially open to all people below a certain rating on a template, then is more selective above a certain threshold (might have been template rating 500?)

Edited 7/7/2025 16:59:33

Good response to this question here: https://www.warzone.com/Forum/668327-quickmatch-match-players (copied below)



QM works by trying to find an opponent for any of the templates you have selected that has about your rating.

To achieve this, it will initially start searching for a player with +/- X around current ratings. However, to make sure people are not stuck waiting for game, X slowly gets bigger as you wait in the queue longer.

This also means, that if a player with a much higher or much lower rating than you has been waiting for a game for some time, you can instantly get matched with them, since you are the first available opponent that falls within their rating +/- X.

After a match between players is found, QM will then check the maximum coin fee of all players, and set the game with that entry fee (for 99% of the games, this will be 0 coins, so a game without any coins at all).

EDIT: the above applies to RT games, idk how it works for MD games, but probably something similar, but just with X going up a lot slower

Yea this was the only post i found after we chatted, fork, but it doesnt explain which template is selected. Maybe it makes sense to add the concrete example that got me thinking:

Fork and I only play Biomes... but we realized we overlap ~4 templates. Is it because we have similar ratings for Biomes and not for other templates? Or is it just a coincidence?

yeah maybe it means we're within the initial +/- threshold for biomes but not the other overlapping templates

yeah you're 10 points from each other on biomes, very close

what are the other templates?

pretty sure strat was one of them

Idk about when we've matched in the past, but as of our game today we overlapped FB, YB, Strat1v1, Biomes

Whenever Fizzer was asked about this topic, he said that template rating has more weight than global rating, iirc by a significant margin. It would only make sense, within his thinking, that the same would apply to matchmaking (template choice).

90% on template vs 10% global iirc from the AMA

Thats for determining IF you match, but you think its also for determining which template? It would make sense if pairing is done with some deterministic process like that (if so id think having some randomness around template selection would be a decent feature request so Fork and I can play something other than Biomes)

hmm, that depends on how small of a range X starts off with i guess

on your global and/or RT ratings you guys are pretty far apart, so Biomes might be the only template that is within +/- 10 rating for both of you thus finding you a "valid match" pretty much instantly

but thats all speculation, so it would be really cool if Fizzer could comment on this too

Hmmm, I always assumed neet.Biomes and neet.Strat were each treated as a player-template in the pool and the algo tries to pair player-templates

Doesn’t this make way more sense than pairing players and only then figuring out which template they should play?

Right and if thats true, then that explains why neet.biomes and fork.biomes will always pair before neet.strat and fork.strat. Feels suboptimal though