It has been happening all the time now.   I am 9.9k power and I am getting opponents that are 18k to 20k power.   The matchmaking system is broken, plarium does not seem to admit it but it is.   I get a lot of tournaments with only 1-2 players on my side and 4 players on the opponents.   Balance does not exist in this game.  P2W is big in this game and good luck if you are a free to play player.  

The MM seems to get worse even season I swear.

Had a match yesterday against a 20k, 21k and a 19k with a 14k and 7k (yes, 7k) teammate. About 12-14k SP myself

It's possible is so bad simply (for me at least) because most people who are actually really high SP still only started in master, give it a week and hopefully they'll move up away from you

Matches are freaking rigged. Plarium won't admit it but they are. And every day the evidence mounts they grow more and more silent

The problem is players are dumb enough to think that they need to build their mechs to match the 20k power in order to win. One can take the slooooooow road or spend money to make it happen faster. The issue is the spending never stops because they introduce more powerful stuff for the whales to buy... 

As a F2P, I'll support u guys all. The matchmaking system should be repaired soon. Thanks for supporting me 

I dont know. Theoretically, if you keep losing, you'll lose points and drop rank. At some point you should start winning and reach an equilibrium where you win some, lose some. I see no benefit to purposely losing to drop rank because the rewards are less, and frankly it's not worth calculating. 

I did notice this season I started out at a lower rank than what I ended last season. I expected to come back the same. Not sure why this should be.

If matchmaking is based on win/loss, then SP or hangers dont matter. I think thats a fair system. However, I can't discount that they may throw in some kind of fudge factor.

I think hanger showdown matchmaking should also be based on hanger showdown win/loss record, or kill/death ratio in this . Then I wouldn't have a teammate with 3 common mechs or 6 energy weapons in tier 1.

My problem with your last comment is that we souldn't have to lose a week of progress just so these guys can clear out.  Isn't the point of these rewards to help those who are of lower power levels get to end game?  So how do we do that if we get hammered down for the first week or two?

It is possible that the theory of this match making would have worked IF EVERYONE started at the very bottom in the first season (and since that was so messed up, the second season too) and finally let things move on as planned from there (basically you drop one tier for the start of the next season).  That MIGHT have worked, but eventually non-end game players would still end up in this exact same problem.  

In other words, its a nice idea, but it'll never work.  People are just going to get frustrated with the constant losing and quit before they get past the first week or two.  Frustrate them enough and they'll never come back.

I applaud the fact that MA has made changed between each of the seasons.  They need to fix this.  ASAP.  My frustration with this game is always at its worst when matchmaking is bad.  You can send me all the rewards you want, but matchmaking is the real breakpoint.  Its why I've posted what I have over all these years.  Bad matchmaking = bad game.  Good matchmaking = good game.  Right now MA is a bad game.  It needs to be good again.

Hey, I didn't say that was a good thing, I wasn't supporting it. I just said that might be the reality, as it seems to be. Past few days I've not gotten many sour battles, though I suppose for people at different places it may take longer too see affects such as the one I predicted.

Also, when are you losing a week of progress? You still get SOME reward, even if only fortune keys and a handful of credits. And plus, if you're a good enough player, you don't even lose as much progress as you'd think. If you place top of losing team, you don't lose and TRP, and so, even a slim number of wins (call it 50%) will still allow you to move up.

And if you can't manage to get top or second spot given bots will very often fill many spots - do you really deserve to move up?

The whole point of rewards ISN'T to give weaker players more stuff, rewards are for everybody, not just yourself.