What we've been playing - our favourite matchmaking moments

3rd May 2024

Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. This week we've gone with a bit of a theme: matchmaking. We've pulled on some of our most memorable matchmaking experiences from games we loved. Can you remember any of yours?

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

Conversations in RuneScape

RuneScape is a game with a lot of grinding and, in many cases, this means a lot of standing around. Be it Woodcutting or Fishing, you'll find yourself fixed to one location where the only movement is between skill-spots or when it's time for a bank run to deposit your goods. (Unless you're a litterbug who just dumps everything on the ground.) Due to this I, and many other RuneScape players, have partaken in the long standing tradition of chatting away as your XP slowly climbs to the next level.

The beginning of every conversation usually follows the same pattern: Why are you here? XP. What level are you? Around the level needed to do this. From there, however, I've spent hours talking about books, films, bird migration (no, I don't know how we got onto that topic) and, of course, RuneScape lore, all while bashing away at a rock with my pickaxe. When I was 16 I even helped another player finish their maths homework! Typically I never cross paths with these players again - at some point one of us has to log off or decides to wander away into the wilds of Gielinor. Yet, there are the odd occasions where we end up talking in private chat - and that's how I've met some of my longest in-game friends.

One friend I met while exploring Varrock Sewers, another from blasting through the early levels of Archeology on its launch day. Over the years, we've shared little tidbits of our lives, but I'd be lying if I said the main topic of conversation wasn't RuneScape. My oldest RuneScape friend, however, is someone I know nothing about. Well nothing real that is. We met on World 42 - RuneScape 3's role-playing server - and let me tell you, they're dedicated to playing the part. I could easily write you a piece covering their fictional history and adventures across Gielinor. I even know their favourite colour; don't know if it's their favourite colour in real life though. There's something special about knowing absolutely nothing about this person in reality, but being given even the smallest of details about who they choose to be.

-Lottie Lynn

Unspoken understanding in Apex Legends

Back when Apex Legends was really finding its feet with themed events, I had a matchmaking moment that I won't forget for a long time.

I was playing as part of a Trio during a Halloween event, and we came close to being on the winning team on our first match. That wasn't the impressive part. The impressive part is when I realised that we were communicating with ease via the ping system and working smoothly together as a team without speaking.

I'm not entirely sure what happened that night between the three of us, all strangers, but something just clicked. One teammate was the sniper, they covered the high ground and kept an eye on the distance, while the other teammate and I were looting boxes or setting up an ambush for unsuspecting enemies. I knew that my job was to highlight places where these ambushes could happen, the other non-sniper teammate would set them up, and the sniper would flush enemies into the trap through 'missed' (intentionally I should say) shots. Complex roles, yet, no words were spoken. We either gestured by using jumping and crouches, 'talked' via the in-game ping system or just used our intuition to figure out the next move.

When it was time to return to the lobby, the same duo invited me back onto their team for the next one, then the next one, and so on. Four hours later we finally disbanded. For those four hours, we continuously became better until we perfected our quite literally unspoken plans. Disbanding was a bit sad, but the sheer joy of finding a team you gel with like that, without necessarily needing to talk at all, more than made up for it. In all the time I've played Apex since, I've never found a duo or an experience quite like that.

-Marie Pritchard

Sticking together in Brawl Stars

Brawl Stars' battle royale mode is compact: small maps, and just 10 players. Brilliantly, though, you can play it in duos mode, which means five teams of two, and everyone's matched with a random. I love this way of playing, and largely that comes down to a little UI feature that kicks in once the match is over.

Once the match is over, you can decide whether you want to keep the team you've just played in, if you play again. This is surprisingly tense. I vote yes, but will you, having just suffered through a match with me, vote yes as well?

Listen: I am bad at Brawl Stars but deeply enthusiastic. I draw fire, rush out into the open, and get killed pretty quickly. In other words, there would be a lot of reasons to not want a second game with me on your team. Sometimes, though, people do. They want more than one game, and this always fills me with joy.

Firstly, that's because it means someone cares about having a bizarre experience more than they care about points, because you lose trophies when you lose a match, and that sets back your progress in various things that Brawl Stars tracks. Secondly, it's because I get a chance to get a proper sense of the person I'm playing with, and Brawl Stars, it turns out, is particularly good at revealing character through play.

Just last week I was matched with someone who stuck with me through endless losses, who kept saying "yes please" to another game. And as I watched them play, hanging back as I rushed forward, reloading at sensible moments, using cover and foliage and timing specials just so, I swear I became a slightly better player. They had patience and they approached the game with an eye on tempo. Each match was a series of moments they had foreseen and prepared for.

By the last few games, we were actually winning. I think we probably won five in a row together, with me perfectly fitting into their cautious, perceptive style of play. Eventually I heard a voice from downstairs saying it was time to take the cat to the vet, and I had to ditch the game - never to be matched with that same patient, brilliant person again.

-Chris Donlan