How does tf2 matchmaking work

Q: What is matchmaking? A: Matchmaking is a system that ranks your ongoing performance in competitive play and assigns you a score called your Matchmaking Rating MMR , which is then used to match you with players of a similar skill level. It is not displayed to other players. What are ranks? A: Ranks are groupings of similarly skilled players. Competitive Mode has 13 total ranks and titles, from least to most skilled:.

Casual Mode is a Team Fortress 2 main menu matchmaking mode , offering a wide selection of game modes and maps for players to choose and queue for, alone or with up to 6 others.

In Casual Mode, you are preferably sent to a game that is in the setup phase, and to a server hosted in the location nearest to you. You are matched into any game that fits these two criteria; however, the game might not fit these criteria e.

Additionally, in Casual Mode, you are allowed to filter which maps you would like to play in. During events , additional categories may be added, such as selected Halloween maps for the duration of Halloween events. In each of these subcategories, the maps can be further filtered out individually.

In Casual Mode, you can start or join a "Party", in which you can be a member of a temporary group consisting of 6 players maximum. This group of people will travel to servers simultaneously, and will result in all players playing on the same team if it successfully connects to a server.

After a game ends, the team will still be together. It will only be disbanded once everyone quits. Previously, games that friends were in could be joined by pressing "Join Game" on their Steam Profile. This is no longer possible in Casual Mode, due to the mode disabling "ad-hoc connections" as in Quickplay, but it is still possible in community servers. In Casual Mode, you aesthetically level up, gaining experience points from victories and points scored in-game, of any type.

There are levels, with each level requiring more experience than the last. Each level changes the image on your "Coin", which is visible in the top left of the Main Menu. These levels are first divided into six stages, Civilian, Freelance, Mercenary, Commando, Assassin, and Elite, with Civilian being the lowest stage and Elite being the highest stage.

Each of these stages consists of 25 ranks. Each stage also changes the color of your Coin, ranging from light blue to rich red. Within each of the stages, there are another five sub-stages consisting of five types of Coins. In the first of the sub-stages, you are given a plain Coin. Leveling up the five individual levels within this stage will add one star at a time starting from one onto your Coin.

Every five levels obtained will gain you more accessories for your Coin, but will reset the star-count to one. After 25 levels, this accessory system will reset, but the Coin will become a different color. In addition to levels, there are Tiers. After you surpass level , you will be reset to level 1, while your Tier will increase by 1, and your badge will change its appearance accordingly.

There are 8 Tiers in total, making the maximum level , Tier 8. The Casual Mode Level is a cosmetic feature that shows how much and how well you have played with others.

These levels can never be lost, and they do not affect matchmaking. Casual Mode's levels are different from Competitive Mode's ranks; Competitive Mode's ranks do affect matchmaking and can be lost. July 14, Patch 1. August 3, Patch. August 29, Patch. September 12, Patch. September 27, Patch. September 28, Patch. October 12, Patch.

October 21, Patch Scream Fortress November 2, Patch. November 23, Patch. December 21, Patch Smissmas January 16, Patch. February 14, Patch. October 20, Patch 1 Jungle Inferno Update. March 28, Patch 1. March 26, Patch. At least you didn't disappoint me more than usual. Click to listen. Main article: List of maps. February 29, Patch Added content and features necessary to begin limited public testing of the TF2 Competitive Mode beta.

We suggest disabling them if you experience any problems. Updated content and features for the TF2 Competitive Mode beta. Previously a Name Tag. Fixed team medal totals not matching the total medals handed out during the match summary. Increased the rate at which medals are revealed during the match summary.

April 26, Patch Fixed the round timer not showing up in non-competitive games. Added new sound vo files for Competitive Mode. Added check to prevent players with P-REC loaded from participating in matchmaking. Prevents P-REC crashing which results in players receiving abandon penalties. Fixed class change notifications appearing to the enemy team for a period of time after teams swap sides in Competitive Mode.

July 28, Patch Abandon penalty times are now longer for first-time abandoners with a low number of games played. Abandoning a game now results in significant rank loss. This loss is always greater than losing a given match. Fixed an issue where players could drop and reconnect too many times before triggering an abandon. August 16, Patch Players in the first tier of ranks now lose substantially fewer rank points on match loss.

August 29, Patch Fixed Competitive mode badges incorrectly displaying the level 1 badge when at max level. September 12, Patch Fixed an exploit related to not respawning in the spawn room at the beginning of Competitive Mode matches. September 27, Patch Competitive matches no longer terminate when any player abandons the match. Bots will now fill in for players who have abandoned, or temporarily disconnected from, Competitive matches.

Matches that finish at an advantage or disadvantage e. Competitive matches that lose more than one player per team will keep the current behavior of ending the match. Players who abandon Competitive matches still receive a large skill rating penalty and Competitive matchmaking cooldown, regardless of whether a bot was allowed to take their place. October 12, Patch Players will now be randomly selected to participate in a survey at the end of Competitive matches.

Maps will continue to enter and exit this list over time. December 21, Patch Smissmas Matchmaking Improvements. Players can now set their maximum acceptable ping by clicking the new gear icon in the top right of the Casual and Competitive matchmaking lobby screens and choosing "Ping Settings". Matchmaking The Competitive maps list has been updated. June 2, Patch Fixed Competitive match history sometimes appearing as empty when connection to matchmaking servers is lost.

October 20, Patch 1 Jungle Inferno Update Redesigned the matchmaking screens to be lightweight overlays that can be summoned and dismissed from anywhere within the game. Moved the Casual and Competitive badge panels to the main menu. The old 18 Competitive ranks have been consolidated into 13 new ranks.

The new system - by way of placement matches - considerably shortens the time required to reach an appropriate rank The requirements to access Competitive Mode have changed: If you do not own a Competitive Matchmaking Pass, you must now be at least Casual level 3 in addition to being a Premium user and having a valid phone number associated with your account.

Fixed not using the initial observer point when first connecting to a Competitive server. April 12, Patch Changed the timeout before a missing player is marked as having abandoned a competitive match to be three minutes from the first time a player disconnects from the server, rather than from the moment the match is formed.

Moved the Competitive MMR change notification so it no longer overlaps your rank.