Why people are leaving Marvel Rivals? Because of the EOMM!

[Cxcxcy]

Marvel Rivals is a game that had me hooked from the start. With its iconic characters, engaging gameplay and vibrant community, it seemed like the perfect game for fun. But my experience over time has taken a sharp turn and the root cause of my frustration boils down to one issue - the EOMM system.

For those unfamiliar, EOMM stands for Engagement Optimized Matchmaking. At first glance, it sounds like a clever idea - a system designed to keep players engaged by dynamically adjusting matchmaking to make the game more enjoyable. However, in practice, EOMM feels manipulative and deeply frustrating. Let me explain why.

The Flaws of EOMM:

Artificial Winning and Losing Streaks

EOMM seems to purposefully place players on streaks, both winning and losing. When you're on a winning streak, it feels great—but it’s clear in hindsight that these wins are often against significantly weaker opponents. Then, almost inevitably, you’re thrown into a losing streak where you’re matched against far more powerful players. This rollercoaster of emotions is not organic - it’s engineered to keep you chasing the high of victory, only to yank it away when you're at your peak.

Lack of Player Agency

EOMM undermines the core satisfaction of improving as a player. Your success or failure often feels disconnected from your skill level or strategic choices. Instead, it feels like the system is manipulating the odds to achieve its engagement metrics, leaving little room for genuine growth or mastery.

Community Frustration

I’m not the only one feeling this way. Many players in the community forums and on social media have expressed similar grievances about the matchmaking system. The shared sentiment is that EOMM prioritizes engagement metrics over player enjoyment and it’s driving long-time players away.

Why I’m Leaving

Gaming should be about fun, challenge and fair competition. Unfortunately, EOMM in Marvel Rivals undermines these principles by turning gameplay into a psychological tug-of-war designed to maximize player retention and monetization.

I’ve spent countless hours building my roster and strategizing, but the joy I once felt has been overshadowed by frustration and a sense of manipulation. I’m no longer willing to invest my time and money in a game that prioritizes metrics and skin sales over its players.

To the Developers

I hope the team behind Marvel Rivals takes this feedback seriously. EOMM might boost short-term engagement, but it’s driving dedicated players away in the long run. Consider revisiting the system and prioritizing fair, skill-based matchmaking that rewards player growth and strategy.

To my fellow players, if you’ve been feeling the same way, you’re not alone. Maybe it’s time we demand better or move on to games that truly value their communities.

UPDATE #1

Following 170 comments I see on this thread, I think it’s important to make a small announcement.

• First. Everything that is written here is my own OPINION, based on my personal experience and the experience of other players.

• Second. If you are asking me for a legal evidence to proof that it’s an EOMM, well I can’t provide you one. You need to be realistic, I am just a player playing the game. I am not from a game’s development team nor I have a team of 100’s of researchers who can gather data. The documents from devs been shared in this thread, where they express their views and research about matchmaking. Every person here interprets this document the way they want it to be due to it’s complexity.

• Third. When I made this post, I wasn’t aware that the game potentially also uses bots as well. It can be as a standalone practice or as a part of EOMM - I don’t know.

The thing that is true to me at this point, is that there are some serious issues with a matchmaking system, that does not separate SOLO PLAYERS IN RATED GAMES by their skill. Instead, it’s trying to satisfy everyone with 48%-52% win/loss ratio wether you are a noob or pro solo rated player. That’s what I believe.

• Four. I am not claiming that my opinion is the only one that is true. I am not asking you to believe me, follow me or agree with me.

The goal of this thread is to highlight a matchmaking problem that I believe exists and make players do an informative decision wether they want to carry on playing the game or not.

Ideally this thread would be seen by someone from the NetEase, so they could provide some clarity.

[ＪＡＰＡＮ³]

Publicado originalmente por Lunarkitsune20:

Publicado originalmente por OverChipz:

"game is dying"...349,674 24-hour peak as of this comment......sure thing buddy

Thats less than half of its peak player count and it's going down it was 400k roughly a week ago. It is dying due to eomm

that's what happens when hype dies for a game. Just move on if you're crying on every rival thread lol

[SLAIN]

Publicado originalmente por Mojo:

Its not just the eomm even though that's the biggest problem. cheating fps bug most tanks and healers are very boring lack of map diversity. and its pretty easy to see the decline in steam charts. its a f2p and marvel so you will have ppl playing qp just for that. but comp is a huge joke.

It was a flavor of the month, thats why they are pushing skin sales so bad and trying to create a rediculous amount of events.

Yeah steamcharts shows it dropping quick daily.

Everyone on the F list put around 10 hours at most on it before never touching it again.

[AAAkaneAAA]

It's a shame. They could have made a great game if they hadnt gone down the cash grab shortcut and manipulative matchmaking. Extremely stupid company which, even though they had Overwatch as a warning of what not to do, decided anyway to repeat its failure. Fools, just fools.

[Milkie]

Publicado originalmente por Blackwald:

• First. Everything that is written here is my own OPINION, based on my personal experience and the experience of other players.

Society's greatest failing was somehow convincing people like you that all opinions have equal value and that any push back is somehow forbidden.

[SLAIN]

Publicado originalmente por AAAkaneAAA:

It's a shame. They could have made a great game if they hadnt gone down the cash grab shortcut and manipulative matchmaking. Extremely stupid company which, even though they had Overwatch as a warning of what not to do, decided anyway to repeat its failure. Fools, just fools.

I agree.

[Marked]

Matchmaking is trash, and no role q is trash. You at least need two healers at the minimum in a comp considering nothing else, and cringe trash dps players are entitled to only dps. You cant even go into quickplay to practice dps so u can play it sometimes instead of bronze clowns because its an insta loss with guarenteed at LEAST 3 dps. What good is practicing dps in a super fiesta match?

[Pachislot Rockman Ability]

Publicado originalmente por Arc:

I have
2 loss
9 wins in a row
1 loss
3 wins in a row
2 loss
1 win
2 loss
5 win
The only actual issue is that you can't lose more than twice in a row because it puts you v bots to win for free

pretty much this

right now EOMM is on the same level as people running into random games to go "GEE I SURE HOPE NO ONE ADDS WOKE STUFF" aka it's a buzzword they know people vaguely think is bad and can get responses and go 'why do you want people to add that to the game' when people come in to ask wtf op is talking about

[CLUTCH]

Publicado originalmente por Arc:

I have
2 loss
9 wins in a row
1 loss
3 wins in a row
2 loss
1 win
2 loss
5 win
The only actual issue is that you can't lose more than twice in a row because it puts you v bots to win for free

in qp yes

eomm is ranked.

[CLUTCH]

Publicado originalmente por Pachislot Rockman Ability:

Publicado originalmente por Arc:

I have
2 loss
9 wins in a row
1 loss
3 wins in a row
2 loss
1 win
2 loss
5 win
The only actual issue is that you can't lose more than twice in a row because it puts you v bots to win for free

pretty much this

right now EOMM is on the same level as people running into random games to go "GEE I SURE HOPE NO ONE ADDS WOKE STUFF" aka it's a buzzword they know people vaguely think is bad and can get responses and go 'why do you want people to add that to the game' when people come in to ask wtf op is talking about

^^^^^^^^^^^^
pretty much not this you have no clue what is going on. its ok. most dont.

[Hawkshot86]

Yup just adding my voice here to say that I'm done with this game. ♥♥♥♥ it. Embarrassed I spent money on it.

Not getting another cent out of me until they remove this BS.


And yes: this is real. I play with my gf and our win rate is 43%, our friends who mainly solo queue have like 57% win rates. Wild disparity, regardless of skill (we're all roughly the same rank btw).

[Tiziel]

Publicado originalmente por Hawkshot86:

Yup just adding my voice here to say that I'm done with this game. ♥♥♥♥ it. Embarrassed I spent money on it.

Not getting another cent out of me until they remove this BS.


And yes: this is real. I play with my gf and our win rate is 43%, our friends who mainly solo queue have like 57% win rates. Wild disparity, regardless of skill (we're all roughly the same rank btw).

Rigged? Whatever it helps with you with your cope

[Get Out]

For some reason every time I see this post I read it on Tyler1's voice. It really reminds me of this clip of him :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISdNhIDKg7I&ab_channel=xQcClips

[LibertarianM8]

I play on Xbox & I’ve realized from the start how rigged the matchmaking truly is! I can’t even play a normal match of ranked because of EOMM & SBMM giving me trash teammates & potential cheaters on the enemy team! Playing ranked & climbing the ranks on this game is literally impossible at this point! I even feel like it’s even worse than Pokémon UNITE & Dead By Daylight’s matchmaking!

[Shadovar]

The honeymoon is over. Back to your regularly scheduled Overwatch and Apex.

[gremi]

games companies : Shout up and give us your money.
I really hope one day there will be a comp game with honest matchmaking who will just bury every other games and make the companies think about what they're doing

Blizzard shouted themselves when they saw everyone was gone for marvel rivals , they though way too long they was the kings of the hill with overwatch and now by magic they gave back the lootboxes, fkin greed , companies seems to forget their money came from the players.