The matchmaker will continuously evaluate player queues and build matches that balance tier, vehicle class, platoons, wait time, and fairness. Its primary goals are:

• Get players into battles quickly
• Preserve fair team composition (classes, tiers, platoons)
• Gradually relax rules the longer players wait

To demonstrate how the updated matchmaker works in a way that allows you to follow the process, we’ll use an actual example and take a look at the steps it went through to create team rosters for a Tier 8 match.

For every match, the matchmaker has overarching rules it needs to follow:

• Tank tiers are mirrored across teams. This is strictly enforced.
• Classes between teams are ideally mirrored (e.g. heavy tank vs. heavy tank), but “off by one” matches for tanks are allowed (e.g. heavy tank vs. medium tank).
• Light tanks are allowed to match only against light tanks. No limits on the number of light tanks per team.
• SPGs (artillery) are allowed to match only against SPGs. There is a strict limit of three artillery vehicles per team.
• The difference in the number of platoons per team cannot exceed 1.
• The difference in the number of platooned players per team is made as small as possible.

Additionally, each tank in a queue will also have a Battle Points value that’s based on the number of battles that that account/player has played:

The Battle Points based on win rate that was used from July 2025 through January 2026 has been removed. Only the Battle Points based on battle count as shown above will be used, which was what was in place prior to July 2025.

With all that established, let’s go through the steps in creating teams!

1. Adding Tanks from the Queue

The matchmaker tries to pull at least 40 tanks from the queue. It pulls more than the 30 required for a match in order to improve the odds that it can make pairs and we can end up with enough people to make a 15v15 game. The matchmaker pulls tanks in units that we call squads. (A “squad” refers to any entity that can be put into a match, whether it’s a solo player or a platoon.)

Here are the squads the matchmaker pulled for our example match. In this case, the “Queued at” number represents the number of seconds after the server has started. Tanks listed on the same line represent a platoon:

• Queued at 19.7: M18 Hellcat (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 24.1: Charioteer (Battle Points: 20), Lorraine 155 mle. 51 (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 24.2: T31 Demolition tank (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 24.4: Lorraine 155 mle. 50 (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 25.0: Excalibur (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 25.7: Champion Panther/M10 (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 26.5: Hummel (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 29.4: M18 Hellcat (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 29.6: SU-8 (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 31.5: Lycan T71 (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 33.5: VK 36.01 (H) (Battle Points: 2)
• Queued at 36.8: Sherman VC Firefly (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 38.0: 40TP Habicha (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 38.2: MT-25 (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 40.4: VK 30.01 (P) (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 40.5: Ikv 65 Alt II (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 41.0: Brummbär (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 41.3: Charioteer (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 43.0: M56 Scorpion (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 43.2: Type 59-II (Battle Points: 10)
• Queued at 43.3: Mantis (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 44.2: LHMTV (Battle Points: 2), HWK 12 (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 44.2: VK 30.02 (M) (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 44.9: LT-432 (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 45.4: Stone Cold Steve Austin TL-1 LPC (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 45.5: T32-A Proto (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 45.6: M-III-Y (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 45.6: M4A3E8 Sherman (Battle Points: 20), VK 30.01 (P) (Battle Points: 15), Brummbär (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 45.7: XM57 (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 46.4: Bat.-Châtillon Bourrasque (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 46.7: LTTB (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 46.7: Tiger I (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 46.9: Hotchkiss EBR (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 46.9: HWK 12 (Battle Points: 20), AMBT (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 47.6: AMX Chaffee (Battle Points: 20), Revenant Kraft’s Panther (Battle Points: 20)

2. Making Pairs for Platoons

On its first pass, the matchmaker starts with making pairs of platoons based on vehicle class and tier.

The matchmaker processes the platoons in order of the "Queued at" time mentioned above:

1. The first check is to see if an identical platoon exists.
2. The second check (for three-player platoons only) is to see if a two-player platoon and a solo player match exists.
3. The final check is to see if a group of solo players will match.

If no matches are found, the system moves on to the next platoon (“Skipping Squad”).

Here’s how it looks when the matchmaker searches for matches for the platoons in the group of tanks it pulled:

• Find Exact Match For: Charioteer and Lorraine 155 mle. 51
  • No Solution Found. Skipping Squad.
• Find Exact Match For: LHMTV, HWK 12
  • Found Exact Match: LT-432 and LTTB
• Find Exact Match For: M4A3E8 Sherman, VK 30.01 (P), Brummbär
  • Found Exact Match: M18 Hellcat, T31 Demolition tank, and Sherman VC Firefly
• Find Exact Match For: HWK 12 and AMBT
  • No Solution Found. Skipping Squad.
• Find Exact Match For: AMX Chaffee and Revenant Kraft’s Panther
  • Found Exact Match: Lycan T71 and Champion Panther/M10

3. Adding More Tanks from the Queue (Step 1 Repeated)

At this point, the matchmaker pulls in up to 30 more squads in order to increase the likelihood of making the full roster of 30 players. These are not pulled earlier in order to minimize the chance that they would pair up with some of the people waiting longest in queue. (You’ll notice that the first squad in this new list queued at 46.9 seconds, while the last squad in the list in Step 1 queued in later, at 47.6 seconds. The summary is that the system actually pulls from multiple queues, but the details of how those work are outside the scope of this article.)

• Queued at 46.9: HWK 12 (Battle Points: 20), Kanonenjagdpanzer (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 47.5: Hellcat 105 HMC (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 47.6: M4A3E2 Sherman Jumbo (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 48.0: Caernarvon (Battle Points: 20)
• Queued at 48.2: Vz. 68 Squall (Battle Points: 20)

4. Make More Pairs (Step 2 Repeated)

The matchmaker pairs newly added platoons and unmatched solo players by class and tier.

• Find Exact Match For: Charioteer and Lorraine 155 mle. 51
  • No Solution Found. (This squad was tried before, but the system tries again because we pulled more squads from the queue.)
• Find Exact Match For: Lorraine 155 mle. 50
  • No Solution Found. Skipping Squad.
• Find Exact Match For: Excalibur
  • Found Exact Match: M18 Hellcat
• Find Exact Match For: Ikv 65 Alt II
  • Found Exact Match: Brummbär
• Find Exact Match For: Hellcat 105 HMC
  • No Solution Found.
• Find Exact Match For: Hummel
  • Found Exact Match: SU-8
• Find Exact Match For: VK 36.01 (H)
  • No Solution Found. Skipping Squad.
• Find Exact Match For: 40TP Habicha
  • Found Exact Match: VK 30.01 (P)
• Find Exact Match For: VK 30.02 (M)
  • Found Exact Match: M4A3E2 Sherman Jumbo
• Find Exact Match For: MT-25
  • No Solution Found. Skipping Squad.
• Find Exact Match For: Charioteer
  • Found Exact Match: XM57
• Find Exact Match For: M56 Scorpion
  • No Solution Found. Skipping Squad.
• Find Exact Match For: Type 59-II
  • Found Exact Match: Mantis
• Find Exact Match For: Stone Cold Steve Austin TL-1 LPC
  • Found Exact Match: Bat.-Châtillon Bourrasque
• Find Exact Match For: T32-A Proto
  • Found Exact Match: M-III-Y
• Find Exact Match For: Caernarvon
  • No Solution Found. Skipping Squad.
• Find Exact Match For: Tiger I
  • No Solution Found. Skipping Squad.
• Find Exact Match For: HWK 12 (Battle Points: 20), Kanonenjagdpanzer
  • No Solution Found. Skipping Squad.
• Find Exact Match For: HWK 12 and AMBT
  • No Solution Found. Skipping Squad.
• Find Exact Match For: Hotchkiss EBR
  • No Solution Found. Skipping Squad.
• Find Exact Match For: Vz. 68 Squall
  • No Solution Found. Skipping Squad.

5. Making the Teams

At this point in our example, the system has determined that it has enough pairs to make two full 15v15 teams. These are all of the pairs that have been created, sorted by the time that they joined the queue as seen in previous sections (with the lowest “Queued at” time for any tank in the pairing used to determine the entire pair’s sorting):

Now it’s time for the system to decide which tanks from each pair will be assigned to each team.

5.1 First Pair

• Current State: 0 players per team. 0 SPGs per team. Platoons per team: 0, 0. Platoon players per team: 0, 0. Battle Points per team: 0, 0.

The first two Tier 6 pairs are skipped because they are bottom-tier pairs. The matchmaker prefers making a +/-1 match over a +/-2 match. So the first pair actually processed is the first Tier 7 pair.

The matchmaker decides:

Team 1 <= AMX Chaffee and Revenant Kraft’s Panther

Team 2 <= Lycan T71 and Champion Panther/M10

This is the oldest non-bottom-tier pair, so it gets assigned first. The platoon (the AMX Chaffee and the Revenant) goes to Team 1 because the number of platoons on both teams was equal (“0”) prior to it being added.

5.2 Second Pair

• Current State: 2 players per team. 0 SPGs per team. Platoons per team: 1, 0. Platoon players per team: 2, 0. Battle Points per team: 40, 40.

As above, the next actual pairs by wait time are Tier 6 pairs, so those are skipped for now.

The matchmaker decides:

Team 1 <= Charioteer

Team 2 <= XM57

This is the next oldest non-bottom tier pair. There is no significant difference, so the older one (i.e. the player waiting longer—the Charioteer in this case) gets assigned to Team 1.

5.3 Third Pair

• Current State: 3 players per team. 0 SPGs per team. Platoons per team: 1, 0. Platoon players per team: 2, 0. Battle Points per team: 60, 60.

The matchmaker decides:

Team 1 <= Mantis

Team 2 <= Type 59-II

This is the next non-bottom-tier pair. The Type 59-II has fewer Battle Points, so it gets assigned to Team 2 (since both teams have equal Battle Points).

5.4 Fourth Pair

• Current State: 4 players per team. 0 SPGs per team. Platoons per team: 1, 0. Platoon players per team: 2, 0. Battle Points per team: 80, 70.

The matchmaker decides:

Team 1 <= LT-432 and LTTB

Team 2 <= LHMTV and HWK 12

There is a platoon here (the LHMTV and HWK 12). Team 2 has fewer platoons than Team 1, so it gets the platoon.

5.5 Fifth Pair

• Current State: 6 players per team. 0 SPGs per team. Platoons per team: 1, 1. Platoon players per team: 2, 2. Battle Points per team: 120, 92.

The matchmaker decides:

Team 1 <= Bat.-Châtillon Bourrasque

Team 2 <= Stone Cold Steve Austin TL-1 LPC

Team 2 has fewer Battle Points than Team 1, so it gets the older of the paired tanks.

5.6 Sixth Pair

• Current State: 7 players per team. 0 SPGs per team. Platoons per team: 1, 1. Platoon players per team: 2, 2. Battle Points per team: 140, 112.

The matchmaker decides:

Team 1 <= M-III-Y

Team 2 <= T32-A Proto

Team 2 still has fewer Battle Points than Team 1 when the matchmaker gets to this pair, so Team 2 again gets the older of the paired tanks.

5.7 Seventh Pair

This is the point at which the matchmaker has run out of non-bottom-tier pairs. Now it will backfill the rosters with those bottom-tier pairs. The process goes by the order of when they queued up.

• Current State: 8 players per team. 0 SPGs per team. Platoons per team: 1, 1. Platoon players per team: 2, 2. Battle Points per team: 160, 132.

The matchmaker decides:

Team 1 <= M4A3E8 Sherman, VK 30.01 (P), and Brummbär

Team 2 <= M18 Hellcat, T31 Demolition tank, and Sherman VC Firefly

Team 1 gets the platoon because Team 2 has a Tier 8 platoon and Team 1 only has a Tier 7 platoon.

5.8 Eighth Pair

• Current State: 11 players per team. 0 SPGs per team. Platoons per team: 2, 1. Platoon players per team: 5, 2. Battle Points per team: 215, 192.

The matchmaker decides:

Team 1 <= M18 Hellcat

Team 2 <= Excalibur

Once again, Team 2 has fewer Battle Points than Team 1, so it gets the older of the paired tanks.

5.9 Ninth Pair

• Current State: 12 players per team. 0 SPGs per team. Platoons per team: 2, 1. Platoon players per team: 5, 2. Battle Points per team: 235, 212.

The matchmaker decides:

Team 1 <= SU-8

Team 2 <= Hummel

Once again, Team 2 has fewer Battle Points than Team 1, so it gets the older of the paired tanks.

5.10 Tenth Pair

• Current State: 13 players per team. 1 SPG per team. Platoons per team: 2, 1. Platoon players per team: 5, 2. Battle Points per team: 255, 232.

The matchmaker decides:

Team 1 <= VK 30.01 (P)

Team 2 <= 40TP Habicha

Once again, Team 2 has fewer Battle Points than Team 1, so it gets the older of the paired tanks.

5.11 Eleventh Pair

• Current State: 14 players per team. 1 SPG per team. Platoons per team: 2, 1. Platoon players per team: 5, 2. Battle Points per team: 275, 252.

The matchmaker decides:

Team 1 <= Brummbär

Team 2 <= Ikv 65 Alt II

Once again, Team 2 has fewer Battle Points than Team 1, so it gets the older of the paired tanks.

6. Finalizing the Teams and Returning Tanks to the Matchmaking Process

Tanks that couldn’t be assigned to a team for this match are sent through the matchmaking process again. The system works on pairing them with new squads to create different matchups.

In our example, these two tanks were paired, but the team rosters filled before they could be processed:

• VK 30.02 (M) and M4A3E2 Sherman Jumbo

These tanks were not paired, so there was no chance they could be added to the roster:

• Hellcat 105 HMC
• Tiger I
• VK 36.01 (H)
• M56 Scorpion
• Caernarvon
• VK 30.02 (M)
• M4A3E2 Sherman Jumbo
• HWK 12 and Kanonenjagdpanzer (platoon)
• Vz. 68 Squall
• HWK 12 and AMBT (platoon)
• Charioteer and Lorraine 155 mle. 51 (platoon)
• Hotchkiss EBR
• MT-25
• Lorraine 155 mle. 50

7. Final Roster

After all of that, the final teams are set:

With that, it’s time to battle!