1. Log in to a screen where you can invite up to three other players to your crew.
2. Start matchmaking.
3. Matchmaking finds a lobby/tavern where you can visit the vendors, sit in the hot tub, etc. while you wait for crews to fill up. While in the lobby/tavern, you can’t quit out without facing a penalty (i.e. can’t play Arena for 15 minutes, longer times for repeat offenders, repeat offenses reset on a weekly basis).
4. After a minimum amount of time to reach a minimum amount of crews, the match can start. If it doesn’t reach the minimum amount of crews after a maximum amount of time, matchmaking restarts into a new lobby/tavern (this shouldn’t happen unless there is a problem with the lobby, but it is basically a failsafe reset so that people don’t have to quit the lobby and face a ban).
5. Match starts. Players who quit during the match face a penalty as described above in step 3. Players who are AFK should be detected and booted and face a penalty as if they had quit as described above. If players quit or are booted during the first 15 minutes of the match, the matchmaking system should replace them with new players joining in progress.
6. Match ends. Splash screen lobby loads (not tavern) that shows the results and statistics from the previous match. Splash screen could have different tabs to cycle through the results/statistics. Open communication between crews is available on this screen. During the time this endgame splash screen is up, players may quit without penalty. Splash screen has a countdown timer so you know how much time before you will restart matchmaking.
7. Matchmaking completely restarts (as in step 3 above). If you started the previous match solo, you will restart matchmaking solo in a new lobby/tavern. If you started the previous match after inviting a friend as a group of two, three, or four in step 1, you will restart matchmaking as the same group of two, three, or four in a new lobby/tavern. If you started the previous match solo or as a group of two or three and made friends with your crew member(s) during the previous match and want to keep playing with them, you will need to quit matchmaking on the previous endgame splash screen (step 6) and manually restart matchmaking inviting your new friends to join you on the initial Arena log-in screen (step 1).
