Queueing and matchmaking

The matchmaker's job is simple to state: pair you with the closest-rated player it can find, fast, on a server you can both play on. This article explains every choice you make before pressing FIND MATCH and exactly how the pairing works.

Your loadout#

The command bar holds everything the queue needs to know. It locks while you search; leave the queue to change it.

Race#

Pick Terran, Zerg, Protoss or Random. Every race has its own rating book, so the matchmaker uses your rating for the race you play.

You can pick more than one race. Select two or three races and you queue as all of them at once. When an opponent is found, the matchmaker picks the race whose rating is closest to theirs, so you play the fairest game your races allow, and the result is booked on that race. A set of races avoids mirrors the same way a backup race does (below): a mirror is only played if it is clearly the fairer game, and then only after you agree. A set has no backup race, since the set already says what else you are happy to play. In 2v2 and 1v2 you play the strongest race of your set (your highest team rating). One race on its own works exactly as it always has.

Random is picked on its own, never alongside other races (it already means any race).

Random is rolled to a real race at the moment the match is made, and the result is booked on the race you actually played. While you wait, a Random entry is matched on the average of your three race ratings (a race you have never played counts at your starting rating). The lobby's race line tells both players it was "rolled from Random", and the match screen tags it.

Backup race and the mirror shield#

The fifth tile, tagged 2ND, is your backup race. Click it to cycle through the races other than your main one. It is only available with one specific main race, not Random and not a set of races.

It exists to avoid mirrors. When both players queued the same race and at least one of them set a backup:

• One side switches to their backup, whichever switch leaves the two ratings closest. Your rating for the backup race is what counts, so a backup you have barely played is judged on that book.
• The switch has a fairness limit. It may not open a rating gap much bigger than the mirror itself would have. Specifically, the switched game's gap may not exceed the larger of "the mirror's gap plus one search step" and "the starting search range plus one step". It is measured against the ratings, never against how long anyone has waited.
• If the switch would be too lopsided, the shield asks you. A prompt reads "No off-race opponent in range" and offers to play the mirror or Keep waiting. Your answer holds for that queue entry. Keep waiting (or pressing Escape, or just ignoring it) holds the shield: you will only be paired off-race. Leaving and re-queueing, or being requeued automatically after a void, asks again.
• A Random opponent is rolled away from your race if you set a backup, as long as another race is left.

The lobby's race line says what happened: it marks a player who switched to their backup race to avoid the mirror, or notes that the mirror was kept because the backup was too far off in rating.

Ranked or unranked#

The RANKED / UNRANKED toggle sits between your rating and your race tiles, and the choice is remembered per ladder.

• Ranked: your rating and league move with every game.
• Unranked: nothing moves and nothing is on show. The bar swaps your crest and number for an unranked crest and the word UNRANKED. Matchmaking still pairs you fairly using a hidden rating kept in its own book.

Unranked and ranked players are paired together. If you queue unranked against a ranked player, they play a normal ranked game against your hidden rating, and your side changes only your hidden number. Your hidden rating starts at your ranked rating for that race if you have one, otherwise at your starting seed. You still earn Clash XP in unranked games, without the win-streak bonus, and neither player in a game with an unranked seat gets the upset bonus. Results and chat lines show you as "unranked" with no numbers.

Servers#

Pick every server you can play on. The server policy, the ping probe and how the match server is chosen have their own article: Servers, regions and ping. A pairing needs at least one server both players selected, so more servers means faster matches.

The search window#

When you press FIND MATCH, your search starts at a narrow rating range around you and widens on a timer. The scan strip shows your current range as SEARCH ±N, and its tooltip spells out the rule.

The numbers are tuned live by the ladder admins without a site update. At the time of writing on Patch Clash:

Starting range	±175 rating
Widens by	±40
Every	5 seconds
Maximum	±450

So after about 35 seconds you reach ±450 and stay there. The in-app guide's "This ladder" section always shows the live values.

Who gets paired first#

The rule is greedy by wait time:

1. The queue is scanned from the longest waiter down.
2. For that player, every other searcher who shares a server and fits the range is eligible, and the closest rating wins.
3. Either player's range is enough. A long waiter whose range has grown can pick up a player who just joined, even though the newcomer's own range is still narrow.

That last rule is deliberate. On a thin ladder, requiring both ranges to cover the gap locks the top of the ladder out: a strong player waits ten minutes while every newcomer inside their range pairs with someone slightly closer first. With one-sided ranges the longest waiter takes the nearest newcomer.

Pairing is attempted the moment anyone joins and on every queue poll, so a match can land within seconds of the right player arriving.

The matchmaker uses your full rating, even during placement when the board shows a lower walking number. See Ratings, placement and leagues.

While you wait#

• The queue follows you around the site. A floating chip in the corner shows "RANKED QUEUE" with the clock, plus VIEW and a close button that leaves the queue. You can watch replays, read the wiki or browse the Build tab.
• Keep one Vespene tab open. The queue checks in every few seconds, even from a background tab. If no tab has checked in for 90 seconds (the browser was closed, the laptop slept), your entry expires and the screen tells you so.
• The match-found alert plays once per match. Mute it or change its volume from the Match sounds door.
• The counters in the room header show how many are in queue, how many games are live and how many people are online site-wide.
• The chat announces queue joins as "N in queue" with a league crest per player, never a name or a rating. See Ladder chat and the Discord bot.
• Recent games to watch live in the Leaderboard door's Replays tab: public ranked games from the last 48 hours, ordered by the weaker player's rating, so games where both players are strong come first.
• Abort search leaves with no penalty.

When the queue changes on its own#

• You can search Patch Clash and SC: Evo at the same time. Joining one ladder leaves your search on the other running, and each ladder's screen shows the other search with its own clock and a way to leave it. Abort search leaves only the ladder you are looking at. The moment either ladder finds you a match, your search on the other one ends, so you are only ever in one game. Joining the same ladder again replaces your search there.
• Starting another SC2 game cancels your search if the Companion is running (games you only watch, and games against the A.I., are ignored). It notices the game start and pulls you out so you are never paired while playing someone else, with a notification saying why. If your Patch Clash match was still in the map draft at that moment, it is voided with no fault and your opponent goes back into the queue if they are still on the site.
• A no-fault void puts you back in the queue with your wait time kept. If a match is voided because your opponent never accepted, never arrived or went AFK, you rejoin automatically with the same settings, and your search range picks up where it left off. You need to have been active on the site in the last minute. Re-queueing by hand starts the range fresh.
• A lockout blocks the queue after a strike for missing a match you were paired into. It starts at one minute and grows with repeats. See Fair play: voids, strikes, AFK and disputes.
• You cannot queue with a live ranked match. Finish or resolve it first. A match held for moderator review does not block you.

Your ladder name#

By default the ladder shows your BattleTag name. On your own player card (click your rating on the command bar) you can choose Show me on the ladder as one of your other Battle.net-verified characters. The choice picks up an in-game rename after your next Battle.net sign-in, and falls back to your BattleTag if that character is unlinked. It changes what the board, chat and cards show; hosting orders and invite lines always use the character on the match's server, so your opponent can still find you in SC2.

Related#

• Servers, regions and ping for regions and ping.
• Match found and the map draft for what happens when the match is found.
• Ratings, placement and leagues for how the rating the matchmaker uses is built.