Matchmaking is getting ridiculous. I'm not sure how long it's been in the state it is now, but it seems to me like an endless cycle of new players who get stomped by top-tier players with their gold curses, causing them to leave, and the only players left are the same ones who curb-stomped them. I was just doing some casual HG trying to help out some new players, and after two fairly even matches (against the same players, mind you) we have an unfortunate encounter with triumphant sea dogs wearing their allegiance 1000 titles. Among my crew, our levels in the SoF were 3, 6, 20, and 175, myself. Our first match was an example of good matchmaking, the second I would argue not so much since we already beat them in the first round, and then the third.
Some changes that could be implemented to encourage players of all skill levels to join in could include daily rewards, even if it's something small like gold. Additionally, playing a certain number of matches each day could guarantee you one level for each day, even if you don't win all of them. I know this would encourage loss farming, but what matters is that some may be motivated to try and actually win so that they get the winning exp on top of the daily bonus exp. Smaller rewards between levels 1-100 could work too, but that ship has likely sailed. I just hope this mode doesn't end up being worked on for a season, and never touched again outside of bug fixes, because bug fixes aren't going to add longevity to this mode.
