After improving AI behavior, we have gradually tightened MMR matchmaking restrictions and moderately increased matchmaking times in an effort to pair players with opponents of similar skill.
However, due to the limited number of high-skill players in some regions, further improvements are currently difficult to achieve. Additionally, excessively long matchmaking times would significantly harm the overall experience, which is not an outcome we want.
These quotes are copied from a post where @Nemo answered some questions recently.
This specific reply about matchmaking is incredibly bothering to me. And highly contradictory.
What you're doing here, but failing to communicate it clearly with us, is that you are actively choosing to prioritize protecting mid tier players from facing stronger opponents, even if that means high skill players struggle to find games at all. You saying you don’t want long queue times, when in reality veterans are already experiencing the maximum wait times, repeated search resets, and often being pushed into AI lobbies instead of real matches. And let me tell you, your "improvements to the AI" don't matter at all. AI is a nuisance and no one enjoys playing against it, nor alongside it, but I digress So this problem with never ending queue times, that you claim you don't want to have, already exists. It's there. And you know it's there. The strict matchmaking restrictions remain, but not because they reduce queue times for everyone, but because loosening them would expose mid tier players to larger skill gaps, and they might get frustrated and quit the game, but you can't have that. So the practical decision being made is to sacrifice the experience of a smaller group of high MMR, long term players, to shield a somewhat larger group of mid MMR, more casual players, and let them keep their more positive experience. From a numbers perspective, I guess it makes sense for you. What frustrates me the most is how you keep denying this is happening. And it really hurts, when the most loyal and invested players are being deprioritized at a time when the game can't afford to permanently lose them either.