Just going to post this for clarity: [quote]RANK-BASED MATCHMAKING Used in the Competitive playlist, rank-based matchmaking matches based on skill only in placement matches before you have been ranked. Once you have been ranked, your current rank is converted to a value we can use in place of skill (in a range between -1000 and 1000), and you are matched based on that. For example, if you are in Gold II, it tries to find you other Gold II players. If it cannot, it will expand to look within the neighboring minor ranks, in this case Gold III and Gold I. If there are no available players after a given amount of time, the matchmaking will continue to expand through the minor ranks until it reaches a maximum of just beyond one major rank up and down. The only exception to this maximum bracket is if you are in Ascendant II or Ascendant I, where there are not always enough players to match in such narrow bands. These players can be considered Ascendant III for matchmaking purposes, helping to prevent extremely long queue times. Following placements, you will never be matched based solely on skill. The only time skill will come into matchmaking at all is as part of our match quality standards to combat “smurfing.” This affects a small number of players whose skill is dramatically higher than their rank, and in these cases, it will blend the rank and skill of these players and match them between the two values. This prevents players from being able to throw placement matches or de-rank to match against much less skilled players, ensuring we do not have extreme skill outliers in lobbies.[/quote] https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/this-week-in-destiny-02-22-24