tl;dr: Does player level affect matchmaking or is it based on stats?
Recently, matchmaking in Overwatch has been extremely weird.
A few times I've gotten games with huge player level gaps. Recently, I played a match where we had a level 6 and a level 97 on our team.
However, what makes me believe that level does matter is that when I hit level 31 I started getting matched with higher level players. Whereas before I was consistently getting matched with level 2-12 players.
What seems to be the case now is that matchmaking is based on player stats but that still does not explain the huge level differences. A 50% win rate on a level 6 player doesn't compare with a 50% win rate for a level 97 player, at least in my opinion.
Most of the time, I get players in the 30-50 level range, but it's not entirely consistent and it could still mean that players with that amount of play time would have similar statistics.
So does my level affect the players I would be matched with or is it based on something different, specifically player stats? Also, what could cause the huge differences in player levels if there is a connection between time played/levels earned and matchmaking?
Best Answer
According to Jeff Kaplan,
So, level shouldn't matter. To further break down what each of those categories are, this post here describes what the matchmaking system looks for when trying to balance teams.
Though, it should be noted, the longer you are searching for matches, the looser the constraints will become in attempt to get you into a game.