Ever since "Fortnite Battle Royale" was released, in September 2017, Epic Games has tried to change the meta and improve the game in numerous ways. As a result, the video game has become one of the most popular titles in video gaming history and, almost two years later, it still keeps growing. The strategy to release constant updates has paid off for Epic Games, which is why the company will keep doing it every single week.
The most recent update, which was the v9.10 patch, released on May 22, 2019, has brought a few big changes to "Fortnite Battle Royale." Hot spots are arguably the biggest addition that was released with this update, but the game developer has also made some matchmaking changes and improvements. These changes have mostly affected competitive modes, and Epic Games has revealed that more tweaks will come to the matchmaking system in the future.
Matchmaking changes
Epic Games has released the Arena mode for "Fortnite Battle Royale" players who want to participate in the competitive play. Unlike regular modes, the Arena mode has skill-based matchmaking enabled.
Playing this mode is essential for competitive players who want to win money and qualify for the Fortnite World Cup. The "Fortnite" developer gives out at least $1 million every week to most successful players in the competitive mode.
The matchmaking system of the Arena is different than the matchmaking system in other modes as it tries to match players with the same skill levels. Players get points for placing high in matches and getting eliminations, earning Hype and advancing to higher divisions. However, the current competitive system only has seven divisions, and the last division is reached by earning 300 Hype.
Before the v9.10 was released, the matchmaking system would search for players with a similar amount of Hype.
After 15 minutes of searching, everyone who has over 350 Hype would be put in the same lobby to shorten waiting times.
However, the new matchmaking system uses a set of Hype ranges which define a series of buckets. "If a bucket doesn’t have enough players participating in it, it will merge with a neighbor bucket after a certain amount of time," Epic Games explained. "We are expecting this to create better matches for players in all divisions."
More changes are coming
The "Fortnite Battle Royale" developer announced that there would be more changes made to the matchmaking system. At the moment, the system is not perfect, so the development team will try to find a way to make it better and fair for everyone.
In addition to this, the video game creator could release some matchmaking changes without releasing a separate patch. There might be some interruptions during the adjustment process, but in the end, it should all work without any issues.