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Tournament Progression Update | Navigating the New Curve

We’ve been closely analyzing system performance and player progression after the changes made to Tournaments. Your feedback has highlighted matchmaking as a key issue and a significant source of frustration for many of you.

In our upcoming update, we'll introduce foundational adjustments to the Tournament system, specifically to how you progress through the lower Ranks. We’ll also be balancing the rewards available. To explain what is changing, why it’s happening, and how we’re hoping to address your feedback, we have prepared a deep dive.

Check out the breakdown below, and please continue sharing your thoughts with us.

The Pacing Experiment Explained

Before we talk about the future, we want to take a step back and look at where we started. When we launched the reworked Tournament system, our goal was to address some major systemic issues with the old format.

In the past, veteran players could leverage the matchmaking system by adjusting their Squad Power (SP) to get easy, unfair wins against beginners. Additionally, the old 20-player brackets heavily rewarded extended playtime, meaning someone could easily pull ahead in the standings simply by being able to play more often or being in a favorable time zone.

By introducing the 8-Battle limit and the new Tournament Ranking Points (TRP) system, we addressed those core pain points. However, as with any system overhaul, new challenges emerged. While Season 1 succeeded in shifting the focus to match quality, it also revealed that our current progression pacing and reward balance were off.

While we saw a lot of appreciation for the inaugural season of the new system, your feedback has helped us see that the new matchmaking algorithm needs more work. Here is what we found, and how we are fixing it.

The Matchmaking Dilemma

Currently, early-Rank Battles are too forgiving. While winning easily feels great initially, it creates a massive "slingshot" effect. Players are earning immense amounts of TRP and rocketing straight into the Master or Grandmaster Ranks before their Hangars are truly ready.

The result is exactly what many of you have reported: you arrive in the higher Ranks with an underdeveloped Hangar (e.g., 6k SP) and suddenly hit a wall. You are matched against 20k SP veterans who have the same TRP as you, resulting in Battles that feel impossible.

The Fix Part 1: Harder Bots

To fix the "slingshot" effect, we are making a direct gameplay adjustment:

  • Bot Difficulty Increase: The AI logic and overall difficulty of bots encountered in Tournament Battles will be enhanced across all levels.

Smarter bots will act as a genuine test, requiring you to think critically, manage cooldowns, and improve your tactical approach. This will stop the inflated win rates, ensuring you progress at a natural pace based on your skills and aren't boosted into Ranks before you’re ready for the challenge.

The Fix Part 2: Rebalancing Rewards for the Long Term

Alongside the matchmaking adjustments, we also need to address Tournament rewards.

Let’s be completely blunt: when we launched the new Tournament system, we made a miscalculation regarding the reward payouts. Season 1 saw a massive increase in A-Coin income compared to the old tournaments.

While we love rewarding our players, keeping rewards at our inaugural peak isn't sustainable for the long-term health and balance of Mech Arena. To correct this, we’re making an adjustment:

  • A-Coin Rebalancing: A-Coin reward payouts are being reduced across all Ranks. Rewards will continue to scale up significantly once you reach Grandmaster.
  • Victory-Based Rewards: A-Coins are now only being awarded for Battle victories. However, all players will continue to earn Credits and Fortune Keys regardless of the outcome, ensuring every Battle contributes to your progress. 

Please note: to ensure fairness across all modes, A-Coin rewards in Free-For-All will be awarded to the Top 5 players. While only the Top 3 are traditionally considered winners, this adjustment ensures reward consistency with team-based modes.

We know that seeing reductions isn't fun, but we want to highlight a crucial point: Even with these changes, you will still earn several times more A-Coins than the old Tournament system. So the new system remains more rewarding than the old one; we are simply bringing it down from an inaugural spike to a healthy baseline.

What this Means

We want to be completely upfront about what these two changes mean for you. Early progression will slow down, and your early rank A-Coin earnings will be lower than they were in Season 1 (though, again, still much higher than the old system).

These are two distinct but necessary changes: the smarter bots will improve the matchmaking experience and stop the frustrating Grandmaster "wall," while the A-Coin rebalance corrects a miscalculation to ensure the game economy remains balanced.

Growing Pains & Next Steps

This was the very first season of the Tournament update, and a brand-new system does not become perfect overnight; it needs a few more seasons to gather data, let the Ranks settle, and sort everyone into their ideal SP ranges.

We are treating these adjustments as the next step in tuning the system, not the final destination. We are committed to continuous improvements. We will actively monitor player progression, the algorithm's performance, and the economy in the coming seasons to ensure they function properly. 

We'll have a dedicated feedback channel in our Official Discord once the update goes live. Let us know how the pacing feels, how the bots are behaving, and where the challenges are.

Thank you for your passion, your honesty, and for helping us shape the future of the Arena. 

i


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825
Comments
118
May 5, 2026, 13:2305/05/26
May 13, 2026, 12:154 days
03/25/26
5
rompecraneos

Velocity I played the new tournament I don't think it's fair but what I actually want u to check is how 2 out of my 8 maches had plarers/ bots with maxed mecha hangars like 7k my hangar it's only 4k I don't get it. 


Can they fix that It's not fair

play a normal cpc and the problem is solved

May 13, 2026, 12:364 days
May 13, 2026, 12:36(edited)
01/23/26
180

unfortunately its solved just for that person, the system is one out one in.. and IN will be a bot. 

Do you call it a tournament if you compete against bots? no its not tournament its just a weapon trial with rewards. RIP Tournament.

May 13, 2026, 14:364 days
03/25/26
5
Papa

unfortunately its solved just for that person, the system is one out one in.. and IN will be a bot. 

Do you call it a tournament if you compete against bots? no its not tournament its just a weapon trial with rewards. RIP Tournament.

Come on, let's be at least a little realistic. You're just making judgments based on feelings. Spoiler (yours, from the comfort of your bedroom).

Let's not get confused: the difficulty of the tournament is one thing, but matchmaking management is another. There's no point in hiding it: the game doesn't have enough active players to guarantee what you ask for without compromising the experience.

We need to consider the technical reality:

Latency and Infrastructure: To play without lag, you need to play against people from your region. As a European, if you play against an American, you get +110ms ping; against an Asian, you get +225ms. To lower this, you need local servers everywhere and a huge population density.

Wait Times: Want only real players? Then forget about 30-second matchmaking. You'd have to wait for nine other players of your level (to avoid getting wiped out) and from your area to be online and start the match at the same time.

Costs: To achieve the necessary critical mass of users, massive investments in marketing and cloud infrastructure would be necessary. The result? Goodbye F2P model and hello mandatory monthly subscription.

Bots are a necessary evil to keep the game flowing and accessible at all times. Without them, you simply wouldn't play at all. 

May 13, 2026, 15:274 days
May 13, 2026, 15:31(edited)
02/12/26
2

1-They can fix matchmaking easily. Simply base it off of WIN PERCENTAGES. That will end SP dropping and automatically group people together with the same skills and/or gear.

2-The bots should NEVER be better geared or skilled than the players !(again this can be done with win percentages with more powerful bots assigned to the higher win % games)

3-Since there are only 8 tournament battles per day, the players should be able to CHOOSE the battle mode they want (control point, 5v5 deathmatch, or FFA).

4-FFA should be made a permanent battle mode along with the others.

5-AFKers in tournament games should be punished for ruining other player's experiences.

6-Give players an ignore option both in chat and on the field. Some people just aren't compatable or cant mesh their play styles.

Thanks for reading these few ideas. I hope they help!

May 13, 2026, 16:394 days
May 13, 2026, 20:47(edited)
01/23/26
180

that could all make sense if you were reading everything and not just parts of the forum. 

Latency and infrastructure. I dont really care what Asians or Americans are doing when i play because its likely they are sleeping, different regions you know, meaning not only latencies but also angles at which sun is shining on our planet. 

Waiting times. Said it many times before im happy to wait 2 minutes for good battle instead of 30 seconds for a crappy one. 

Costs. Giving extra acoins costs nothing unless maybe they buying them from Amazon? If government gave you free money, would that mean that you would stop paying VAT taxes or add your own money to buy something? 

Active player base is exactly what they are destroying here, and exactly what im talking about. Give losers some rewards and we will have active base. Be greedy and we will have bots.

When i play hangar showdown i get 3 players within 20-30 seconds because they are interested in playing and getting rewards. Wait another 60 and you got 9. So stop you crapshiet and be real, you can add "no bot" toggle and we will decide ourself wait 30 seconds or one hour. 

God blessings

May 14, 2026, 03:204 days
08/26/23
6

It is not fair in a tournament format where you have limited amounts of entries and where you only receive a reward that's worth anything if you win to have to face teammates like this. Besides the fact their hangars are all over 60k and mine is not even 30k. It's one thing to have to deal with it when you can enter as much as you want, then you can write off a loss and move on. But this is just not fair. Teammates should not be able to enter tournaments together.

i


May 14, 2026, 05:464 days
04/01/26
7

We got a chance to win 100  of a coins but after the debuff I think I need to uninstall MA it feel like trash 

May 14, 2026, 10:153 days
04/19/26
3

hi

May 14, 2026, 11:573 days
11/30/23
3

Just put the game back the way it was in the beginning. Now it's all messed up, nobody can really follow what you all have done to kill the game for us. So many rules and changes, I can't follow all the grap anymore. Just go back to the old way before the babies started crying ☺️🙏

May 15, 2026, 02:253 days
08/26/23
6


i

This is who I had to face in back to back tournament matches. My hangar is 28k. This is wildly unfair and shouldn't ever happen. This is not an anomoly with the current matchmaking. It really needs to be changed.

May 15, 2026, 06:523 days
05/03/26
5

dusaoddurhkddnlgo

clsrnemfdk ghklxld!!!

qkdwkdslachlrhchlrhchlrh

May 15, 2026, 07:592 days
01/23/26
180
Lukas1234


i

This is who I had to face in back to back tournament matches. My hangar is 28k. This is wildly unfair and shouldn't ever happen. This is not an anomoly with the current matchmaking. It really needs to be changed.

This is what happened to me once, please notice they are from the same clan. The game has idiotic algorythms when dealing with team matches.. in short i dont think matchmaking is able to deal with it at all, feels like its not capable to matchmake it..

I was as frustrated as you, but in tournament should not even be allowed to play.as a clan team. Thats my experience below:

https://forum.plarium.com/en/comment/Topic_1814154/

May 15, 2026, 10:432 days
04/30/23
2

All players should be able to reach Grandmaster status.. within their SP bracket.. 

A 5k sp player should not meet 8k plus etc

A 9k sp player should not meet 13k plus players.

If in a team, then the opposing team should be similar sp..

Bots should not have all mods installed at level 5 or 6 max.. unless players are at that level.

I have 1 maybe 2 mods per mech at level 3 or 4.

But face bots with all mods installed at level 5 or 6.. thats a joke....


VelocityCommunity Manager
May 15, 2026, 10:442 days
04/05/21
1232

📢 Hello everyone,

We’ve taken note of your feedback regarding the Tournament Rebalance and understand that many of you are dissatisfied with the recent changes.

To be fully transparent, we are currently conducting a thorough review. The team is actively analyzing the data and discussing potential adjustments.

Please rest assured that this is being treated as a priority and is not being overlooked. We will share further updates as soon as we have clear, actionable next steps.

Thank you for your patience and understanding 🫂.

May 15, 2026, 10:522 days
04/30/23
2

If on the losing team.. but best player on the team.. perhaps there could be a small reward and 5 points.. 

If on the losing team.. but the best player overall.. then that should be rewarded and plus points..

Also with implants.. if mine are all level 5.. the bots should not be all level 6.

With Mods.. if ive only got 1 or 2 mods.. then bots and real opponents should not have all mods installed and with bots, they should be of a similar level.


May 15, 2026, 11:522 days
08/26/23
6
Papa

This is what happened to me once, please notice they are from the same clan. The game has idiotic algorythms when dealing with team matches.. in short i dont think matchmaking is able to deal with it at all, feels like its not capable to matchmake it..

I was as frustrated as you, but in tournament should not even be allowed to play.as a clan team. Thats my experience below:

https://forum.plarium.com/en/comment/Topic_1814154/

I agree. It's not my first time facing a clan in tournament.. Which I posted up before.. But this particular experience was even worse since I had to face the whole team two games in a row! With limited tournament entries, it's totally unfair. With virtually unlimited entries, it's just a frustrating thing that happens from time to time and you can write it off and move on to the next game but you can only play 8 times and you only get a reward if you win. So I played 25% of my tournament games against a super team that destroyed us! That should never happen and you're 100% correct that clans should not be able to participate in tourmanent matches.

May 15, 2026, 13:292 days
01/23/26
180
Austaurean

All players should be able to reach Grandmaster status.. within their SP bracket.. 

A 5k sp player should not meet 8k plus etc

A 9k sp player should not meet 13k plus players.

If in a team, then the opposing team should be similar sp..

Bots should not have all mods installed at level 5 or 6 max.. unless players are at that level.

I have 1 maybe 2 mods per mech at level 3 or 4.

But face bots with all mods installed at level 5 or 6.. thats a joke....


thats not going to work, and i hope nobody will even consider it. That is a standard matchmaking, where you can add 4 low level bots and use one super advanved legendary full of mods, go to 1k sp hangars and make 50 kills to earn rewards and beat kids. 

if you want to be a grandmaster, buy weapons or improve skills, simple as. Then we will see top500 for who they really are and not a 1k hangars full of titles that they did not deserve.

The initial version of tournament was ideal, it just needed lowering rewards by some 50% or whatever and maybe reduce rewards in novice league to add to grandmaster league.. novice dont need as much, upgrades are cheap, grandmasters have not much use of 100 acoins, all maxed out and upgrades cost thousands. 

May 17, 2026, 13:106 hours
10/28/22
1

Let's be honest about why the matchmaking system doesn't work. It's because individual mechs and weapons have the wrong values ​​assigned. Weapons such as Revoker can't have the same power when they're on Eclipse and Brickhouse, because a specific weapon gives a specific robot significantly different abilities with which it kills opponents.

I recommend that you take inspiration from the rating system for individual robots and weapons as it was done in the game World of Warcraft.

The placement of players in battles should have a small dispersion from the center. For example, if a player has a hangar of 6000, he shouldn't get opponents with a hangar value of less than 5500 and higher than 6500 against Sopba. Furthermore, the player's ability to control robots and weapons should be included in the matchmaking, as evidenced in particular by the time in the game and the number of games played in proportion to victories in these games. The hangar value should then be added to this and only then create a final value based on which the player will be assigned to his opponents in the game.

At the same time, the rule is that the matchmaking value for a specific player with a specific hangar will obviously differ in individual game systems (CPC, 5v5, 2v2 and FFA). What works in FFA will definitely not work in 5v5.

Final recommendation for the Plaria team. Please do not confuse concepts with impressions, work harder and faster and especially more accurately. From what you are demonstrating so far, it does not look like that at all.