Sometimes I feel like Crucible in Destiny is like a tennis club I joined so I can play a bit before work or on weekends. The club seemed normal at first, but after awhile, I found out it that when it comes to members playing against each other, it operates a bit weirdly. You see, members are always getting some kind of credit for playing in matches against other members -- towards various prizes, most of which aren't terribly compelling for most of them -- so the club management feels like they can't let members pick their opponents. I guess maybe they're worried that players would collude to get the rewards for little or no effort. And maybe management convinced the members it's easier if they just arrange the matches for them, whenever members show up looking for a game. The thing is, I keep getting matched up against the likes of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. I guess it's cool that they're also members of the same club, although I don't understand why we're getting matched up so often. Then after my amateur doubles partner and I get our clocks cleaned by those guys for about the third time in a row, the club management tries to fix the mismatch, but they just end up putting us up against Venus and Serena Williams. After [i]they're[/i] finished shutting us out in straight sets, I'm really confused and fairly annoyed with the club management. Putting down my racket before I smash it in frustration, I begin to think about it and I realize that a) for some reason, the management doesn't seem to be making any effort to match us up against other more casual amateurs, and b) actually, there are usually hardly any casual players around, anyway, since most of them pretty much quit, or only come when they feel like they absolutely have to (sometimes the rewards are too good, I guess). In general, though, the casual players just got sick of getting stomped all the time with little opportunity to play long enough to really practice and improve. I'm really curious about what exactly is taken into account for Crucible matchmaking. I'm guessing it's not documented, but does anyone know? Also: - Why do teams end up being so stacked match after match? As far as I can tell, the reshuffling of teams only works sometimes, and is unlikely to work unless more or less everyone from the last match stays for the next one. As often as not, it's just another blowout. - Why do players' past performances not seem to be factored in? The guys who can two-shot me from across the arena with a hand cannon, the ones who spend 90% of their time sliding on their butts, and the ones who kill me 5 times in a single match with Felwinter's Lie are obviously a heck of a lot better than I am. It's unclear why I'm even being matched against them, but okay, fine -- maybe sometimes no one else is around. But are their past crucible stats are being taken into account when setting up the teams? Or are the assessments based on season rank? Power level? (And what would those things have to do with crucible, anyway, where power levels are usually ignored, and rank is fairly meaningless? What else can be as relevant as past performance [i]in Crucible[/i]?) - Why isn't there any mode casual players who don't want to play against people that are basically professional caliber players? I don't even need credit for bounties, challenges, or whatever. (Or maybe progress can be earned in more casual matches at a substantially decreased rate.) Sometimes, I just want to enjoy myself and play against other casual amateurs who are around my skill level, and I rarely have enough friends around to set up a private match. And even on the occasions when I might be interested in playing against the Federer or one of the Williams sisters, why the heck would they want to play against me, anyway? In the past few months, I've tried to become more competitive in Crucible, and I'm much better than I was. But I'm generally nowhere near competitive in the vast majority of matches, and usually my teammates aren't, either. At this point, I can't even get most of my friends to play crucible at all, since they're all fed up with it for the same reasons. I'd really like to be able to play more casually, against people closer to my own level instead of against professional or semi-professional caliber players. It's so much fun when it's a fair match-up. Is this something that actually interests other players, or am I in a tiny minority here? And failing that, is there any indication that we might expect crucible matchmaking to be improved, to have past performance included in the calculation in a more significant way (and up front, not just by attempting to make an adjustment after a blowout)? I'm relatively new to the Destiny universe, but a quick google search reveals that many people seem to have been raising the subject of these kinds of PvP matchmaking issues for years. I understand that addressing this is probably a big challenge, but it seems like it could be a lot better than it is now. [i][/i]