Destiny 2’s Team Balancing Gets Changed for Crucible

Destiny 2 is tweaking team balancing yet again for PvP matches in the Crucible. Though Bungie got rid of skill-based matchmaking last summer, recent player feedback has prompted them to modify the team balancing system yet again.

In Bungie’s latest weekly update, the developer reported that they would be testing some new lobby balancing methods in the Crucible to see if they could improve the PvP matchmaking experience.

The developer explained that the algorithm they implemented back in June 2020 would attempt to even out the average skill level between teams. While this may sound good on paper, the algorithm would sometimes create vastly unbalanced teams based on the skill range of everyone in the match.

In the TWAB, the new tweaks to the algorithm have been likened to a “School Yard Pick” or “Snake Draft.” In other words, the changes “will attempt to place the best player on team one, second best player on team two, third best player on team two, fourth best player on team one, and so on.”

The tweaks come just in time for Iron Banner, though some issues have already presented themselves during the event. For one, it was causing some groups of players to have trouble joining matches. Because of this, the changes have been removed from the original Iron Banner event. However, they are still in effect for Iron Banner: Freelance, the solo player’s playlist for this PvP event.

Bungie reports that they are closely monitoring player feedback to see how this algorithm change affects team balancing and the player experience. While the updates have only been rolled out on Iron Banner so far, the developer stated that they plan to implement the new algorithm on other Crucible playlists if and when they see positive results.

For now, you can jump into Iron Banner: Freelance to see for yourself how the team balancing tweaks affect your own matches.