Base of reflexion : blizz stats
Blizzard repartition is totally doomed : 2% of player base in bronze, less than 5 above master, and almost eveyrone in plat/gold/diam. I cannot post link, just check last blizzard news.
If you are plat 2 or 3, you potentially match ( without wide match ) with 60% of the player base ( more or less ).
Don’t ask anything more, this is the reason matchmaking is not working.
The repartition should be :
bronze : 10
silver : 12
gold : 18
plat : 24
diam : 18
master :12
grandmaster : 5.5
champion : 0.5
With this repartition, at peak, player are facing 42% of playerbase witch is way more logical.
The only decisionnal about the placement is your algorithm. Do something.
And spoiler, no one care waiting 1 or 2 minutes more for a match if it’s more fair.
Just add phone verification do avoid smurfing problem in competitive. ( No phone => wide match, no mater your rank ).
That’s the solution, you’ll have crying baby here, but it’s the only way to solve the matchmaking problem.