Decided to play Execution

Gears 4
1

Hi, can someone please clarify for us exactly how the matchmaking and ranking system works for Execution? We are Horde players that have decided to play some Execution to get our friend the “Getting Competitive” achievement completed for him. However, from our perspective we were constantly being match-made with people we should have no business playing against in this game type.

https://xboxdvr.com/gamer/tei-tenga/screenshot/10507398

Match #1:

In this shot we are a team of four on the swarm side that has not even completed our 5 placement matches yet, the one lone swarm that is an Onyx LvL 1 is a random that was placed on our side with us (our apologies). On the other side you clearly see 3 high rank Onyx players and 2 players that have yet to make placements like ourselves. Aside from their lack of rank placement, it was obvious to us that they were highly experienced players as they along with their other team-mates totally dominated the match.

Considering that we normally never play versus, and considering that we have yet to attain even a basic rank, how is it possible that we match up with a team that is technically 11-12 ranks already ahead of us. Should we NOT have been matched up with another person on our side that has still to do his/her placements or is a lower level Bronze rank? And should we NOT have matched up against another team of similar ranking across from us?

If rank is based on the previous season’s rankings… then we either have no ranking or we are very low level bronze status at best, as I stated earlier, we are Horde players just trying to get an achievement completed.

As you can imagine, the match ended VERY quickly and we moved onto the next match hoping for success…

https://xboxdvr.com/gamer/tei-tenga/screenshot/10507961

Match #2:

We are matched up with the SAME TEAM… AGAIN! …Of all the players playing this game, what are the odds that a majority team consisting of unranked players, matches up with a team that is 11-12 ranks ahead of them… for the second time in a row? Granted… gone is their Onyx 2 player, replaced by a Silver 2 player (but as you will see later with Match #3, he is with them as well). Once again we are matched up with a random player (our apologies once again), I do not know his overall rank, but I would assume he is likely Onyx as well, and I can tell you this… the other team suffered 11 deaths and you can see that our team only has 4 kills attributed to our totals. Our random player quit or had connection problems after the 2nd round, he had 7 kills at that time… we had absolutely 0 kills, 0 downs, 0 revives and 2 kills each among us. Rounds 3, 4, and 5 were a blur with our 5th member rejoining back at the very end, but unable to play, which is why his stats appear blank.

Disgusted, we left Execution and went to play Escalation instead. We were matched up against a team of similar rankings on Forge Blitz. The rounds went back and forth with our eventual defeat at the end. We are uncertain of the actual time spent playing Escalation, but if I had to make an educated guess, I would say it was well over 30 minutes and closer to 45 minutes or even longer of total playing time. That was far too long for us in our opinion to try to win even a single game 25 times, so we went back to Execution to try our hand with that mode once again.

https://xboxdvr.com/gamer/tei-tenga/screenshot/10507415

Match #3

ARE YOU SERIOUS??? …YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!! …Our 3rd and final match we get matched up with… you guessed it… the Onyx team again!!! You can see that they played at least 3 more matches against other teams while we were off playing Escalation as evident by their lone placement ranked member completing a few more matches, and to top it off, a 3rd Onyx Lvl 3 player joined their team. Our random that was assigned to us was also an Onyx player (no apologies whatsoever on our behalf), particularly Onyx 2. What are the odds that in 3 straight matches we get matched up with a team 11-12 ranks ahead of us for a third time in a row?

Does anyone expect this to be a fun experience? How can anyone expect a fair outcome out of this type of scenario? What’s the best way we can match up with similar ranked opponents that give us a fair shot at competing, is that NOT what the entire ranking system was designed for, to match up even level opponents against each other to level the playing field? There are obviously other players playing Execution as evident with the Onyx team earning at least 3 more match placements in our absence, are we to believe that EVERY player out there playing Execution is Onyx or above?

Thanks for reading… sorry for the long rant.

2

Sorry didn’t read all your post but got the geist. Re you being (mis) matched with players above your skill will almost certainly be down to a very small user base actually and activity playing the mode when you choose to. Happens to all of us at one time or another.

For what it is worth I agree to it being fun for absolutely no one, you get demoralised and the superior team can’t enjoy the win, if they do then that really is sad.

If you keep getting matched against the same players come out of that lobby, wait for 5/10 mins and search again.

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3

Mostly sweaties play execution and there’s not many people searching for matches on so you’ll find yourself in ugly situations often. Try TDM and KOTH for better matchmaking.

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4

Thanks… I know you stated you never read my full message above, had you done so you would have read that we played a full game of Escalation in between Matches 2 and 3. Appreciate the reply though.

Thanks… as stated above, we are going for the “Getting Competitive” achievement and those modes will not earn us the achievement. Appreciate the reply though.

5

Your best bet is to try during peak hours such as the afternoon and early evenings US Eastern/Central Time. That’s when I’ve had the most luck with Execution but even then it’s not a highly popular mode. Based on your profile you’re from Chicago (I’m in the suburbs so hey neighbor!) so hopefully you don’t have too much trouble earlier on.

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6

Thanks bud… .but yeah, unfortunately that was the time frame we played in, perhaps the weekends will be different, who knows. The thing stuck in my mind right now is from all the multiple times watching the Developer streams to claim skins and hearing that this game consistently has a better player percentage still playing it than all the previous Gears games during the same time frame. I just can’t see it…

7

Based on what I heard, that would be an outright lie (assuming that’s what they said). A friend of mine posted a Gears 4 retrospect on YouTube which included stats about the playerbase across the series. This one was sad at best.

2 Likes
8

Yeah… it was stated a few times over the course of multiple streams. Would you happen to have a link to that vid so we can view it please.

9

Here’s the link. It’s a somewhat long vid and I don’t recall where to find the relevant portion but I do remember him saying GOW4 fell to 17th place in the most played list shortly after release. This stuck in my mind because it shocked me. I thought Gears was up there with Halo and COD at one time. I’m not a big gamer so maybe my perspective is off.

10

Thanks… but there is no link present.

11

The player base in execution is extremely smll, mostly the good experienced players. Matchmaking TRIES to find suitable opponents, but when I cannot, well, it matches what is available. TC cannot manufacture opponents for you.

We see it in all modes, escalation recently. Usually lower than us, sometimes much higher (we ended up in a game against a team of diamond masters, highest we had was 1 onyx. I had one kill whole game)…

I think escalation is a much better choice for you guys…

1 Like
12

I only skimmed over your post, but I can say instantly it’s down to that Playlist being completely dead. Nobody has the time and patience for Execution anymore.

13

What others have, the playlist population is low… that’s why it pairs you up like that. I’m from the UK, I can only get matches in TDM and KOTH, everything else… it just searches and nothing.

There’s some big games coming out soon, I’m guessing the population will drop even more then.

14

Exactly this.

Forza Horizon 4 just came out and took me away from Gears for a bit. I’m sure this game and others will do the same for others but this is normal around this time of year. Escalation may be your best bet but those matches can go a long time so it is also a tedious chore if you guys don’t win every match.

15

We are hoping that a future 2v2 Gnashers on Boxes event counts as competitive wins and earns him his achievement… as this is just ridiculous at the moment.

16

Sorry, I put it in my post but it makes it not visible for some reason. Anyway, if still curious you can look up “Old Cyril Rise and Fall off Gears of War” which I think will pull it up.