Online games often struggle with balanced matchmaking. Destiny 2 is no exception to that rule with its PvP facing particular scrutiny. However, the Flawless Pool from the game’s Trials of Osiris seemed like a good solution. It was certainly popular with fans, as many were unhappy to see the Flawless Pool replaced.
It seems Bungie wasn’t satisfied with the new system either, according to the latest This Week at Bungie blog post. The Destiny 2 developer revealed that Trials of Osiris is returning to the card-based system when the event returns on November 12th.
Before the change, Destiny 2 players who completed Trials of Osiris seven times in a row without failing a round gained access to the special Flawless matchmaking pool. However, Bungie replaced the Flawless Pool with a system that matched players based on their overall number of wins. Although that sounds like a good idea in theory, it didn’t quite pan out as Bungie hoped.
According to the Destiny 2 Team, matchmaking times were up an average of ten seconds from before Bungie implemented the change. While that doesn’t sound like much, it got significantly worse for the highest-ranked players, with some waiting more than five minutes to find a match. Additionally, the overall number of games played dropped by 33%. Trials of Osiris also saw a significant increase in one-sided matches. Ironically, this is something Bungie hoped that replacing the Flawless Pool would reduce.
The blog post goes on to explain that solo play was up, as was the play-time number of low to average skilled players. However, the latter increase was marginal and offset by a loss of highly skilled players. In addition, the most skilled played a full two hours less than average. With so many downsides and very few upsides, it’s not surprising that Bungie is switching back to Destiny 2’s Flawless Pool for Trials of Osiris.
This doesn’t mean it was a complete waste, as Bungie says it gained some valuable data from the experiment. The studio plans to continue tweaking Trials of Osiris as it continues to hone in on what it wants from the definitive version of the weekly event.
The studio has several plans for what it wants to implement before the controversial The Witch Queen expansion drops on February 2nd, 2022. However, the studio isn’t ready to discuss the details, promising more information in next weeks’ blog post. Destiny 2 Fans will have to wait until then to learn what Bungie has in store for subsequent Trials of Osiris.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Seres X/S.
Source: Bungie