Ratings-based matchmaking is opt-in per island, so players meet others of similar rating rather than a field drawn without regard to skill or other factors set by the creator.
An island that opts in can track one or more numeric ratings for each player who plays it — skill or ELO is the common case, but the developer defines what each rating measures, and matchmaking draws on one of them at a time. Each rating is configured separately, including the default a new player starts at and the minimum and maximum allowed into a match. Ratings are readable from Verse and held per Verse module, so today a rating built in one island does not carry into another; once Verse multi-module ships, developers can share ratings across their islands or keep them per island.
This sounds like a great addition for maps with higher player counts. For smaller maps and off-peak hours, though, splitting an already limited player pool by rating could make filling matches harder.
Could we also get an opt-in option for creators to combine matchmaking regions? For example, North American players could be matched together on NA Central instead of being split across NA East, Central, and West. Not every game mode needs the lowest possible ping, and having a populated lobby can matter more.
I’d really like to see this added before or alongside ratings-based matchmaking, potentially with automatic region pooling when player counts drop. My understanding is that some competitive Fortnite tournaments already bring North American players together on Central, so a similar option for islands would be very useful.
