Why do I need this when Valorant custom games have an autobalance button?
The built-in team balancer is a great resource if you have exactly 10 players and just don't know how to configure the teams. If you have a pool of more than 10 players and could potentially be running multiple games at once though, it cannot be used to fairly determine who should be in which lobby. That said, this isn't just for enormous Discord servers that will have hundreds of players joining at once; it can also be used to determine good 2v2 or 3v3 matches from a pool of available competitors for Skirmish or other modes.
How does matchmaking work?
When the host clicks Lock In & Create Teams, Matchmaker looks at everyone signed up for each game and builds teams automatically using the rank information players provided (current rank and peak rank). For each player, it calculates a single skill number by averaging those two ranks. That number is what gets used for sorting and balancing, not just current rank alone.
The host chooses a matchmaking mode when creating the event:
- Balanced (default). Best for casual games. Matchmaker splits the rank ladder into as many bands as there are players per team, then puts one player from each band on each side so the two teams stay even. If more people signed up than can play at once, it still fills those bands (typical ranks of each band first) rather than only taking the highest-ranked or lowest-ranked players.
- Rank Grouping. Best for serious practice. Matchmaker groups players of similar rank into the same lobby. If there are too many players and not everyone can play, it keeps whichever skill level most players belong to (for example, if most signups are lower rank, lower-ranked players are prioritized for roster spots).
After teams are formed, a few other things happen automatically:
- Players who marked Can substitute during sign-up may be placed in a sub pool instead of a team if there are more signups than spots.
- Players who did not mark Can substitute and did not make a team stay signed up but are listed as unplaced for that game, and will not be included in the Discord Pings list for that game.
- If enough players signed up, multiple lobbies can be created so more than one game can run at once. Matchmaker opens as many as the substitute minimum allows. It only skips an extra lobby when filling it would bench every substitute volunteer and the remaining players still cannot form even teams. If those teams would already be even, the extra lobby stays.
- One player per lobby is assigned as lobby host from the players on a team (whoever volunteered first, or the earliest team sign-up if no one on a team volunteered). Substitutes are never chosen as lobby host.
- Duo requests. If two players list each other's Discord username as their duo partner, Matchmaker tries to put them in the same lobby and on the same team. Balance comes first; duos are not guaranteed if fairness requires otherwise. Only one duo pair per team is attempted. Both players must enter each other's exact Discord username (not a Discord display name, Matchmaker display name, or in-game name) for the request to match.
The host can still review the results and make manual changes afterward, and they will see a warning if the teams are not balanced.
For more detailed technical information, see the matchmaking notes on GitHub.
How do I know the matches are fair?
Matchmaker does its best to create even teams, but perfect balance is not always possible, especially when signups span a very wide range of ranks.
After teams are created, each lobby is checked for balance. If Matchmaker could not get a good result, you will see a warning on that game or lobby. The message explains that teams were formed with the best available balance and which of the problems below kept that lobby from being fully fair.
A warning usually means one of two things:
- One player is much higher or lower ranked than everyone else in the lobby (a large skill gap).
- The two teams' average skill levels are still noticeably different after balancing.
If you are the event host, you can also see each team's average rank on the team headers to judge balance yourself, even if the balance difference has not triggered a warning.
Fairness warnings are a heads-up, not a failure. The teams are still playable. The host can always adjust rosters manually if something looks off.
How can teams be edited?
After you click Lock In & Create Teams, the host can adjust rosters without deleting and recreating everything. Edits are done one game at a time (each scheduled match in the group has its own teams/lobbies).
To move players around:
- Open the event group page and select the game you want to change.
- On any player card in a team, subs, or unplaced list, open the ⋯ menu.
- Choose Swap.
- Pick another player from the dropdown: anyone on a different team, in another lobby, in the sub pool, or on the unplaced list, and click Submit.
A swap exchanges the two players' spots. Each player takes the other's exact placement (lobby, team, sub slot, or unplaced status). You can use this to rebalance teams, move someone into or out of subs, pull an unplaced player onto a roster, or send a rostered player to unplaced.
A few rules to be aware of:
- You cannot swap two players already in the same group. You can't swap two players on the same team; you can't swap two substitutes in the same lobby with each other; you can't swap two unplaced players with each other. They won't appear as options for your swap.
- If a rostered player who did not sign up as a substitute is swapped into a sub slot, they become unplaced instead. Only substitute volunteers can fill sub spots.
- If your event requires a minimum number of substitutes and has more than one lobby, a swap is blocked when it would leave any lobby below that minimum.
After each swap, Matchmaker refreshes lobby hosts and fairness warnings for the affected lobbies so you can see whether balance changed. The original warning from lock-in is kept separately so you can still tell what the auto-generated teams looked like.
If you want to undo many changes at once, see the next FAQ entry about Delete teams.
I've edited a team, but I don't like what I've done. How do I get back to where it started?
To get back to the default teams that were created, simply click "Delete teams" in the event header. Doing this will reset the event back to registrations-only from before teams were created, but registrations will remain closed. To regenerate the teams, click "Create Teams" in the event header and the teams will be created again the same way they were before.
I've closed registrations and created teams, but a new player wants to join. How do I add them?
As the host, you can't manually add players; all players must register themselves. To let the new player in, click "Delete teams" in the event header. This will reset the event back to the registrations, but registrations will remain closed. To reopen them, click "Edit" in the event header. At the bottom of the modal, there is a "Registration Status" toggle. Toggle it on and click "Save Settings" to allow new players to register.
Why is an event blocked, and how does the Discord server lock work?
Hosts can lock an event to one or more Discord servers they belong to. Anyone else, including lobby hosts, must be in at least one of those servers to open the event or register. The event owner is never locked out. Saving the lock with no servers, or turning it off, makes the event open to anyone with the link again.
Discord is having trouble and users can't register for events. What do I do?
Generally wait, and check discordstatus.com. If the Discord API is having an outage, it can affect Matchmaker's ability to check server membership. Hosts are never locked out of their own events, so they can temporarily turn off the Discord server lock and save until Discord's API recovers, then lock it again.
Why does my display name and event name hit the 50-character limit so fast when I use emojis?
Display names and event names are capped at 50 characters. Ordinary letters and numbers usually count as one character each, but many emojis (and especially ones made of several parts, like some family or flag emojis) count as more than one toward that limit even though they look like a single symbol on screen. That's just how computers store those characters; it isn't a bug in the counter. The counter on the form shows how much of the limit you have left; if it turns red, shorten the name or use fewer emojis.
I missed an event I registered for and was marked absent. What happens now?
If this is the first time it's happened, it probably won't affect you this time, but it's up to the host of that event. An absence is only visible to you and the host who marked it, and it doesn't count toward events created by other hosts. If you missed several games within a single event, that counts as only one absence. No-shows are counted on a rolling 6-month basis: only absences from games in the last 6 months count, and older ones drop off automatically. Each host decides whether to deprioritize no-shows at all. Hosts who do can change how many no-shows it takes before a player is deprioritized, but the default is 3, so missing one event is unlikely to affect you.
If you later find out you can't make a game you've registered for, delete your registration for that game ahead of time. If teams have already been created, let the host know in advance so they can find a substitute in time.
I've missed several events I registered for and now I see a warning that I'm being deprioritized from matchmaking. Should I still register?
Yes. Being deprioritized means you're left out of the initial team creation, not that you can't play. While it's unlikely, you might still be placed on a team if you're needed to fairly balance a game or if there aren't enough other players to fill the teams. More likely, you may be called on to substitute, so make sure you keep Can substitute turned on in your registration.
No-shows are counted on a rolling 6-month basis, so each absence stops counting once the game it was for is more than 6 months old, and the warning goes away when you drop back below the host's limit. In the future, if you know ahead of time that you can't make a game, delete your registration for it if you can. If registration has already closed and you've made it onto a team, let the host know in advance so they can find a substitute in time.
I was marked absent for an event I attended. How can I clear my name?
First, check whether you were on a team for more than one game in that event. If you were placed on a team for two or more games and only played in one of them, that still counts as an absence.
If you played in every game of the event that you were on a team for and were really marked absent by mistake, past games are still available in Matchmaker. Reach out to the host and ask them to mark you present for each game you were marked absent in.
