4Game

Data up front if you don't wanna read why I did this and why its applicable to the game and it's health.

Results are for a two man platoon – tiers 6 thru 9 only

31.7% of games were bottom tier in +/-1 MM
24.2% of games were +/- 0 MM (all tier 8 for example)
23.4% of games were bottom tier in +/-2 MM
10.9% of games were mid tier in +/-2 MM
8.6% of games were top tier in +/- 1 MM
1.1% of games were top tier in +/- 2 Mm

Methodology: platoon with a friend, and record the match making (MM) on a word doc on the secondary monitor
– results were recorded at varying times of day, during peak and slow hours on the EU server cluster with a bias towards peak hours over the course of about 3 weeks (late October/early November 2021)

Note: if I were to do this again (I probably will) I wouldn't include tier 9 in the data. Even though it is my favorite tier to play and is where you'll spend the bulk of your time grinding, the fact that the MM spread is different than the mid tiers skews the data.

I plan on making a similar forum post on the EU forums, will link it in the comments whenever I get the time to do so. I also plan on recording some refined data on platoon MM and some on my own solo MM in the future.

Now the autobiography begins, if you just have a comment about the data please add it. I really want to discuss whether players view this as fair or unfair for those who platoon and how they think it impacts the game.

I have nearly 100k games in world of tanks, it has been my favorite game and a staple of my free time since early 2012 when I first started my NA account. I played roughly my first 30k games as a totally free to play player. My first 40k or so games were on a computer that could barely break 20 fps on a good day. Not all of my games are on my accounts. I've played on countless friends accounts to help them grind for a marathon tank that they were close to getting that they didn't have time to do, or to last minute grind for tanks needed for clan wars or just their own personal collection. Some of this was done for fun, and then I realize that I was a broke college kid and needed to eat and so I started charging enough money to feed myself while doing this copious amount of grinding. I've played for fun, and I've played to grind. I've struggled to save credits for my first tier 10 as a free to play player and played countless games in my first tier 8 premium with a standard account to buy my next few. I've played for fun and I've played for missions and though I don't personally own a 260 or 279 e I've done plenty of missions to help people get there. I've seen nearly every part of this game that there is to offer short of pro play. I've ground my butt off for a free premium tier 8 that I didn't have money for, and I've opened my wallet to buy a premium for a friend or myself for credit grinding. I've played in terrible clans, medium clans, and what most would consider to be a good clan. I've been a terrible red wn8 player and I've also been deep into the 3k wn8 recents and 3 marked a few tier 10s and countless mid tier vehicles. Heck I even got my own jingles video once. I've been very kind to people and I've been very toxic. I've been temp banned for my behavior in games and I've sent in countless reports of toxic behavior and bot programs. Heck, I've even ran illegal mods for about a week (2016 or so) just to see what they were like. (I no longer play with those [or any] mods or on that account and do not condone their use.)

I played on NA for nearly all of my games and escaped to the EU cluster about a year and a half ago to delay the encroachment of the 15-5 meta that seemed to grow early and fast on the NA cluster, and I brought a good friend with me to make the game fun. Nowadays I play over 90% of my games platooned with my friend because it works with our schedules and I like cooperating and chatting with a buddy on discord. However I believe that platoon matchmaking is absolutely, unequivocally, inexcusably, totally fucking BUSTED!

I'm not talking about 15-5 metas, im not whining about premium tanks, I'm not even here to talk about the general toxicity in the community that I proudly contribute to. Under what circumstances is it fair that I have to shoot at a tier 9 in my tier 7 nearly 25% of the time but I only get to do it the other way around 1 out of 100 games? When I play solo my matchmaking is instantly and measurably better (working on collecting data now but it's slow going as I nearly always platoon, but the trend is obvious)

I fully understand that some people believe that platoons have the opportunity to carry more games, and so on and so fourth but I can say with 100% certainly that I get a lower win rate while platooning and I believe that it's a direct result of the chronic down tiering of myself and my friend. We bust our butts for a 56% win rate in a platoon while I can play solo and comfortably achieve 58-60% consistently. I'm not here to brag about myself, because I'm not nearly as good as I have been when I no-lifed this game and now I make mistakes constantly and throw on a semi regular basis, I'm here to bring up the fact that I am quantitatively punished for having the audacity to play an online game with my friend.

I have to fight against higher tiered vehicles in 65% of my games and get to be on the giving end of that trade in only 21% of my games (only 10% if you don't count being mid tier)

This post is to hopefully spark a discussion and even some interest in recording some of your own data, I'm only one person and 350 isn't the biggest sample size but I believe that it shows a clear trend.
I don't believe that is is good for the health of the game as many new players come in to play with their friends and are being measurably punished to do so, which turns players away and probably costs WG money.
Do y'all see similar results when platooning? Do you platoon often, infrequently of nearly never? Do you think that this matchmaking is fair and that I'm just being a baby, or are you just mad that no one wants to play with your potato ass? (that's a joke) please let me know what y'all think. I'm going to try to stay on top of most of the constructive comments here.