Marvel Rivals

Anyone who knows me personally knows I’m a huge comic book fan, especially Marvel, I grew up with these characters, so trust me when I say I REALLY wanted to love this game long term... and honestly? The gameplay itself, the heroes, the maps, the references to the source materials, the dialogues between characters, all of that is genuinely amazing, so on paper, this should’ve been my most favorite multiplayer game ever, but the EOMM matchmaking completely ruins this experience. Now, and it's very important to read, before I start this review, I want to make it clear that this does NOT mean you cannot rank up, if you keep improving, master your main character, and especially if you queue with friends around your skill level, you will eventually climb, I’m not saying the game is completely unplayable or that it literally forces every win or loss, because that would be an exaggerated joke. What I’m talking about is an issue that has been heavily discussed across the global community, including by streamers and pro players, the matchmaking simply feels inconsistent and heavily engagement-focused at times, and that’s where most of the frustration comes from and my main topic here. OFC u r free to disagree with me, and I completely respect different opinions, as long as the discussion stays respectful and constructive. Marvel Rivals has one of the most aggressive and manipulative matchmaking systems I’ve ever seen in a PvP game which is the EOMM or whatever that goes by different name and functions the same way, and no, I’m not just talking about ranked, quick Matches somehow feels just as bad, the moment you start performing well and win 3 or 4 ( 5 if u r lucky ) games in a row, the game suddenly throws you into horrible matches with teammates who refuse to switch despite being hard countered, obvious throwers, or players who genuinely look lost, then after a long losing streak, the game randomly gives you the easiest match imaginable against what honestly feels like console bots just to keep you playing ( and it actually makes u feel more bad from the game ) none of this is natural or competitive. The EOMM matchmaking system ain't designed around fairness or skill, it is designed around systematically putting everyone toward a near 50% win rate no matter how good or bad they actually play most of the time, u can dominate the lobby, get multiple kills every fight, outperform everyone on your team and be the MVP, and still lose because the algorithm already decided before the match even started whether u will lose or not, then the opposite happens where you can play terribly and still win because the system decided it’s “your turn” for an easy game. And the worst part is that matches are filled with smurfs and insanely unbalanced skill gaps, u can literally queue in Gold or Plat and diamond and somehow end up against former Grandmasters and above with level 100 accounts and hundreds of hours played meanwhile some teammates openly sabotage games and nothing happens to them even after reports. So after enough matches, the game honestly stopped feeling competitive and started feeling exhausting to my soul, every session feels like gambling, either you completely destroy the enemy team or your team gets stomped into the ground, close matches barely happen anymore, and there’s no consistency, no feeling of improvement, and no satisfaction, just forced highs and lows that feel designed to keep you queueing for “one more game.” The community toxicity also becomes way worse because of this system, almost every lobby turns into blame, rage, or people flaming each other because everyone is frustrated, and nearly half the playerbase seems to have alternate accounts just to escape the matchmaking, and if you play as Vanguard in the new metas? good luck, that role feels like psychological warfare most of the time, especially if u will solo tank ur team, ooooooh boy the agony Now... what makes all of this sad is that the actual foundation of the game is GREAT, the characters are fun, the combat feels good and smooth, and the Marvel fanservice is honestly incredible, but the EOMM matchmaking poisons almost every part of this experience. At this point, I understand why more and more people are quitting, the game isn’t losing players because the gameplay is bad, it’s losing players because the systems around that gameplay is exhausting, manipulative, and unfair.

Most toxic community I've ever been a part of, genuinely more toxic overall than Rust. Devs are doing nothing about it, they just hand out an hour comm ban when they feel like it and call it a day. You shouldn't feel worse after playing a game, actual emotional anguish that I don't suggest anyone else subject themselves to.