Decoding Clash of Clan War Matchmaking Algorithm

First of all, I am not affiliated with SuperCell. I am a computer programmer and a math major so I am purely coming from my own war matching experiences and what I learned from the internet. So this is a post based on my educated speculation of how the system works.

First of all, this thread did inspire me so please read this one first :
How clash of clan war matchmaking works

1. How a clan's strength is calculated

I suspect rather giving a clan one number to indicate its strength, it probably has multiple numbers in each category, such as troop strength, defense strength, spell strength, hero strength, army camp size, etc.. A number and range is assigned to each category and then normalized through geometric mean calculation.

A geometric mean is often used when comparing different items and finding a single "figure of merit" for these items since each item has multiple properties that have different numeric ranges. For example, the geometric mean can give a meaningful "average" to compare two clans which are each rated at 0 to 100 for their troop strength, and are rated at 0 to 1000 for their base strength. If a numeric mean is used to calculate the ave strength, then the shifting of base strength will overshadow the troop strength. Using geometric mean basically takes the 'weight' out of the calculation and gives a more clear picture of a clan's overall strength from all aspects.

I also believe SuperCell gives Townhall level a different weight. I agree with what this forum says that a rushed fresh TH9 will weight more than a max TH8. That explains why our clan that barely has 5 TH10 got matched up with some clans that have 20 TH10. But when you look at their TH10 bases, they were super rushed.

2. How the search is conducted

So if Super Steve says "mis match is better than no match", I most definitely agree with the speculation that the longer you search, the greater chance the mis match will happen.

See the above forum thread for more explanation. But in short, if the system can't find you a close ranged match, it will expand the circle of search and the chances of your clan being matched with someone significantly weaker or stronger will increase.

Another factor that matters in search is the pool of available opponents that share the close range of strength with your clan. Majority of the clans out there have just a handful of TH10, 10-15 TH9, 10-15 TH8 and rest with baby bases. The bases and troops strength are also spread in wide range with some maxed and some rushed. So if your clan is so strong and so out of the normal pool of ranges, you will have much less opponents to choose from, thus the chance of being mis matched simply increases because there aren't many available choices available so you must go out of your range.

3. How to build a war clan to get fair balanced matches
 I believe SuperCell does a good job calculating and comparing clans' strength. The mis-match doesn't happen during the calculation, the mis-match happens during the search.

So based on the above speculated theories, here are my guidelines as how to build a successful clan for war:

1. Stay in the normal range of strength and don't become an elite clan unless you are ready. You will have much larger pool of clans to be paired with.

2. Recruit solid TH9,TH10 and TH8 and avoid rushed or fresh bases. That's because max TH8 still gets a smaller weight than a rushed TH9. But if your max TH8 player is a better fighter and base is harder to be crushed, might as well stick with a lower number which brings down your overall strength than having a higher TH player. Rushed TH10 definitely will hurt your clan more than having rushed TH9 or TH8 so choose your TH10 bases wisely.

3. Throwing 1,2 low bases will not help. But throwing 10 will. This is especially true for our clan while we have solid 30 fighters and that's all we need to win war. The bottom 15 players's contribution will be bringing our "strength" down to a good range while we have the top 30 fighting the war.  As you can see from the calculation algorithm, 1,2 low bases won't help much, but once you throw in a large number, it will.

4. This is the most important factor : re-search after a few mins, so you stay in your range. This is more important than balancing your clan bases. So cancel the search and re-do it every 5-7 mins.

Good luck!

Attack replays from war with Taiwan War Clan

I am not a creative video editor so I just did some simple video capture on my iPhone. So pardon the quality.

These guys have some real good attacks and i figured we can take a look at their army composition and troop deployment. 

1. Brett 3 starred by Gowiwipe
I think Brett got wiped because there were not many walls around to stop the troops from advancing. You also notice the attacker did place troops outside in various spots to cover all grounds.


 

2. Mixing hogs with Gowipe
Colton has a pretty strong TH9 base but the hogs did a lot of damage to it. It's an interesting combo and I did notice a lot of their players did this army composition with 14 max hogs

3. Air raid with Balloon and Minions
Hand picked the bad music as a tribune to Teddy Bear's questionable taste in music :) 



4. WhiteRun never gets 100% wiped, except this one

 With kitty's sad soundtrack :(

Leader's Epic 120 max wbs attack

When the number one guy decided to take out a baby #45 base, you know something epic is bound to happen.... This literally is the most hilarious attack I have ever seen :)
Enjoy!! And great job leader for entertaining us!

Meet the Fatmat boys and girls FINALLY!!! - Updated

There has been a lot of lovie dovie chats going on at night but nobody knows what each other looks like. To spice things up, some brave clanmates are willing to put it out there to showcase how purrrrdy they look like. If you would like to have a picture here, please email it to kitty at czheng_denver@yahoo.com

FatMat/Chris/Crasher
Yep three accounts and counting.
First up, of course is our fierce leader Fatmat. Guess which one is Crasher?

Brett
Guess what his real name is ???

Tracey

Coleader Brett's sweetheart Tracey is the 6 star dragon raider so watch out! Awwww you guys look so sweet

WhiteRun

with his soon to be deer salami/jersey

ZeddCypher - The real deal Zedd

For anyone who doesn't know the history. ZeddCypher, aka MK first joined the clan with Kitty and soon gave her the account. 2 years of clashing!!! He is off to better things now. Thanks to him, we have an account with max troops

ZeddCypher/KittyWrestler

Now the keeper of Zedd, but she is always doing something so the real Zedd hops in and out. So watch out when you spot Kitty having duel personality. That's why. 

Squatting Bear 

aka Teddy Bear as Kitty likes to call him, or aka Care Bear as Fatmat likes to call him. Bear also takes care of Kitty's account while Kitty is out there conquering the world. So watch out when Bear has duel personality.. Oh and don't feed him with green wizzies, cuz he will fart green smoke.. 

James/Bubble Child

If you are wondering why James always gets on Fatmat's nervous... wonder no further.. Already getting into trouble with girls .... 

Sadak

I have his picture but I still don't know how he looks like!! LOL!!

Aztec Warrior

Wow.. that's cool art eh? 

((Seb.67))

From New Zealand, Guess what Seb's name is? 

Flick
Flick is relatively new, from Milwaukee. Welcome Flick!!

Muzi
Long term clanmate from India.

Amrit

Also from India..

Jamespark

aka Batman cuz James calls him a fake. Can you find him?? 

here is the hint hint :

Now.... the final chapter... these pictures are from our clan but they were stolen so I can't identify who is who but you are more than welcome to take a guess.... 

Kitty's Net Elixer Contest : Closes Nov 5th Wed 9pm EST

This is an easy one. Not a lot of rules. Just subtract your army elixir cost from your total elixir loot, Biggest number wins. Dark doesn't count so feel free to use dark troops.

Two winners. Each wins $15 so the top two don't have to do cats fight between each other.. Doh.. that's exactly what Sadak and Muzi are doing :)

Here are the leaders :
First place : Joel.
Almost all dark troops, Even taken out the archers and 4 lvl 3 healing, his net is at 382815

Second Place : LastTwoWeeks
Also almost dark. Net is at : 380326

Third Place: Amrit . Net 296140

The cheating Davao OX clan

Here is a post about them cheating
Complain against dadao

Their Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/CLAN.BEKIMONS.2013

Not much we can do about the base but here is how you can use airplane mode to practice for 30 sec
1. Make sure u have ur entire army spells n heros. Don't do this when u have partial
2. Hit attack. Do not drop any army.
3, quickly swipe up from bottom to bring up iPad or iPhone shortcut and hit airplane mode. Make sure airplane mode says on
4. U can deploy now then watch how ur attack goes for about 30 sec then u will have connection lost message pop up. Close down the game app. Then turn off airplane mode and relaunch game, u will still have ur two attacks like nothing happened,
5. The key is u must not drop any army until airplane mode is on.
6, u should practice on a regular raid first.

Here is the shortcut to turn airplane mode on and off. Just swipe up from the bottom of your screen with one finger

Kitty's Barching Top Dog Contest Open till 10/29 9pm EST

OK guys, this is purely for fun.. Well also train some barching expert in case we need it in war :)

Eligibility: You must have participated the last two wars to be eligible or you have been here for a while. Sorry newbies. This one is for ppl who have done work for the clan.

Rules:
1. Barching (barbarians and archers), heros and spells only.
2. TH9,10 guys must barch a  TH10
3. Rest folks can barch TH9 or 10.
4. If you pass 50% destruction, you can enter your results to win. Most destruction rate wins.
5. Share your replay or take a screenshot of the base you are attacking and another screenshot of your final results and email to kitty: czheng_denver@yahoo.com

Prize: $15 card of your choice. 1 winner from TH9,10 and 1 from the rest.

Contest runs from now till Wed evening 9pm EST. Good luck and have fun

-------------------------------------

Entries : Muzi, Seb , Will and Sadak all entered. Muzi hit 58% on a TH10 without infernos so Will and Seb are still in the lead. Sadak didn't hit 50% one star, so that entry isn't qualified.

Here are Will's and Seb's. They are very close. Will hit a few percentage higher, But Seb had to deal with stronger defenses cuz of the max cannons. I call this a tie. They currently both win the prize.

Here are the screenshots;

Good TH8 TH9 war bases

We wasted 4 attacks on this freakin TH8 base and only two starred it. 3 attacks from strong TH8 players only one starred it. So go figure. Be creative where you want to plant tesla and bombs. I only red penned what I saw

This is my base. two guys tried.. barely one starred it. I would sub the north end of buildings such as lab, barracks to gold elixer or DE storage buildings. So it will take a while for dragons to get to that AD.  Remember to always use your storage buildings as a strong buffer cuz the hitpoints on these buildings are really high

Some Good TH9 n TH10 War Bases

I did find raiding Ringus maps is a bit more challenging. Golems would go the other way unless you place a jump right in time or break the ring. Here is a pretty good ringus TH9 map:

This one has multi layers making gowipe a bit harder. Plenty spaces for traps and double giant bombs if ppl want to hog raid you. Thx to Muzi for finding this one:

This one will be a tough 3 star base because you think you have an easier way to enter from south, But there are so many defenses there, could cost a lot of your troops by the time you entered the core. Teslas are right next to the Dark Storage on both sides. I raided this one and had a hard time passing 65% destruction with max TH9 troops. The north end is packed with walls and hitpoints heavy storage structures. Def a tough 3 star base:

This has been my favorite TH10 map. I think Reggie Fatmat myself all tried this one and the Heros just refuse to go into the core. If you dare to enter from south, the heavy defenses will fry you before you know it. If you enter from North, you go around and around. I am copying this one:

Grand Golem Prize Contest (Closed) Hosted by Kitty Ends 10/23 6pm EST

Congrats to Reggie. He won $25

This contest is aiming at bringing up our TH9 players ability to Gowipe or Gowiwi or Gowiwipe

Prize: I will upgrade your golem to the next level whatever it takes. So this could be as much as $40 win

Rules: Only TH9 players who don't have Golem lvl 4 are eligible. So brett and kitty are out.

1. You must raid a TH9 or TH10 base
2. You must use at least two golems
3. Everything else goes
4. Most dark elixer wins. Elixer and Gold loot don't count

Contest starts now till Oct 23 Thursday 6pm Eastern.   Good luck!

Reggie takes the lead, followed by Muzi and Will

War Against Chinese Snake Goddess Clan

Well, another Chinese Clan!!! Squatting Bear has a message to share here so we won't be tea bag terminated by the Chinese...


Except..... this Chinese clan is mainly female, taking the clan name after one of the oldest Chinese legends about a thousand year old beauty snake queen falling for a human man.. Jet Li even made a movie out of it :



Well, female snake or not, we are taking them down. First off, if you are new, please read our clan rules and war rules on the right hand side under "About" section.

Do not fill War CC unless you have max troops.

One most distinct features about this clan is they love their black walls. So carry wbs if you go ground. Here is the chart as how many wbs u need. So plan accordingly:

Base analysis:

Good Air bases : 

5,6,17. All TH8 bases have pretty high Air Defenses (ADs) and they are tucked away. If you are doing all dragon raids, here are the rule of thumbs : Always knock out ADs first and kill as many as you can before releasing dragons. It takes 3 lvl 4 lightings to kill 1 lvl 6 AD. If there are three lvl 6 ADs, you will not 3 star the base unless you kill 1 before hand and get lucky. Mark my word. You are better off raiding with 6,7 dragons and followed by bunch of max loons. But max only. 

Good Gowipe, Gowiwi,Gowiwipe Bases:

You want to look for spread out ones with less wall layers.  6,8,9,10,11,13 are not bad for the top dogs.  17,18,19,20,21,22,25,26,29,31,34 are all pretty doable. 

Hogging

Be cautious if you are hogging. I don't see many good options. 33 is not bad.. But look out for the 2x4 spaces inside. Double giant bombs kill a horde of hogs. Also, don't hog on TH10. You can't heal with infernos are on u. Especially if infernos are set to multi, ur hog army is dead for sure

Kitty's $20 No Dark Ground Troop Comp - Ends 10/11 6pm Eastern

This comp is hosted by Kitty. Runs from 10/9, ends on 10/11 6pm EST.

Rules:
None Dark ground troops only. Healers OK. Heroes OK. No spells. 1 Dark Elixer = 100 regular Elixer. Add all loot up. Most loot wins.

Winners:
One winner from each TH level. Yup. TH10 dudes compete among themselves, same for TH9,8,7. 4 Winners total

Prize: $20 itune card or google play card.

Goals: This comp is put together to help the clan to practice with ground troops while still be able to farm and save Dark elixer to upgrade power troops such as golem, valk and witch. Winners can use the cards to gem some power troops since golem costs boat load of DE.

-----------------------------------------------
TH10 Leader : WhiteRun

TH9 Leader : Squatting Bear at 948K beating everyone. Doh! He used spells.. Well I guess will is leading..

TH8 Leader :gary

TH7 Leader : Amrit

How to 3 star with lava Hound

Thanks to Whiterun. he found this video. Check it out if you are air raiding with Hound.

War against Poland Spring

This is not a typical clan we have faced, at least not from the bases we have seen. None of the base is rushed. They are all maxed at each TH level. You can read their clan desc that they require none rushed bases to join and the clan is newly created for war.

After scanning through the bases, very few can be raided by dragons and almost all bases are anti-hogging. So you must check in with a co before you want to dragon or hog raid any bases.

How to fight this clan?? After talking to Brett and Chris, your best bet is to go ground and use Gowipe - Golem, wiz and pekka. And a lot of wall breakers. Carry rage spells. Here is a sample army composition:

2 golems (3 golems if space allowed for TH9/10 folks)

-3 pekkas 

-14 - 18 wizards 

-9-12 wallbreakers 

-rest archers 

3 rage and 1 lightning

-Start every battle by checking clan castle for troops and killing heroes; Deploy both of your golems, apply rage and drop wall breakers right after; start dropping archers and half your wizards to clear the outside building to make a straight path for the pekkas; once outside is cleared, deploy your pekkas and the rest of your wizards plus your heros, apply a rage spell; Deploy clan castle if needed, once troops are near the center, use your last rage so they get the TH fast. You can ask for a high lvl pekka (25 space) or a golem(30 spaces)  from the leadership. If only 20 spaces in CC, ask for 5 max wizzies.

Advanced players can use Gowiwi or Gowiwipe. I agree with Brett, even lvl 1golem pekka will do better than dragons.

How to Raid TH9 and TH10 with dragons and balloons

I love air raiding but dragons are unpredictable. They always go the wrong way!!. Dragons are best raided if you think "Carpet Sweeping". You must have your entire dragon army cover the grounds and then just sweep across the map. Sp SPREAD YOUR DRAGONS.  Also notice both attackers took their time to pick off some outer skirt buildings first. If you have max loons, they take out defenses for the dragons.



 This video is for you TH10 folks with max dragons

War against Zoo Animals

Clanimals is a cute name.. But their bases ain't that cute. This clan will be tougher to deal with just by scanning through their bases, so you need to put on your A game when dealing with this clan. Again, we want to minimize wasted attacks as much as possible. So study the war bases and DO NOT aim high.

First of, even the lowly TH8 has purple Wiz Towers and Lvl 6 ADs. A lot of bases are anti hogs with rooms for double giant bombs. So count your tiles before you release ur hogs, Any space that is 2x4 inside of the base is bad news for your hogs. A few of their bases have very difficult CC, so make sure when you are scouting the bases, tab on the CC and see the range, then you know how to lure CC out.

For example, #29 seems to have double giant bombs by the lower left Wiz Tower but it's not. Wiz tower is 3x3. The space right next to it is 2x3 and the guy used two wall pieces to fill the holes. So there might just be one. But #26 by the Wiz Tower next to TH can very well be double giant bombs. So DON'T raid your hogs into that one.

#22 has very hard CC. Your will not lure CC out unless you get into the second tier of the structures. The base is designed to confuse the ground troops so you waste your time to go zig zagging... So this is a tough one if you don't place your troops smart enough.

Anyway, these are just the examples as how to study the war bases.. As usually, check in with a CO before you attack. We want to make sure you are not outmatched.

One more note, if you only have lvl 1 golem pekka, STAY AWAY from top 20 bases. You won't make it. Pick a TH8 to attack. Same goes to giants wiz archer armies. For lower members, if you only have level 4 ground troops, you will not even make it on the bottom bases. If you have level 2 dragons, you might be able to three star but these bottom bases are pretty strong TH8. The best you can do is to raid the base, do your best and expose the traps for other higher members to clean.

Good luck!

$20 Air Raid Comp hosted by Kitty (Open till 10/2 6pm EST)

Kitty is hosting an all air raid comp.
Rule: Anything flies goes. No heroes. Spells are OK.
1DE = 100 elixer, this gives lower trophy folks a fair chance.
Most loot wins.

$20 card prize. One winner from TH7/8 players, One winner from TH9/10 players.

Doh!! Bubble baby got beaten by Sadak. He got 695,698. Sorry James.

Chris leading TH9/10.: 756K

see screenshots:

War against the Rich Fat Chinese Clan 9/28

I know most of you can't read this Chinese clan name. Its translated as Big Rich People Clan. And their bases are reflected. Their #1,#2,#5,#9,#10 guys gemmed their ways to top 10. 16 TH10's! Ouch on the wallet!!!

The bases are not so impressive other than the infernos. There are many weak air bases and hog friendly bases especially in the lower half tier bases.So if you want to mass dragon or mass hog raid this clan, you actually can. This is the complete opposite situation from the last clan we dealt with. The only issue with this clan is how to deal with infernos.

If you are TH9, TH8 players. Don't touch infernos unless you have Brett's lvl 4 golem and max pekka, etc.

Note: most first raids r done, so please just clean one low base for the clan and do one raid within your ranking. It is still not OK to snipe higher bases until we r sure we win!
#1- 16 : aim for two stars
#17,#19,#20 can not be 3 starred via air. You should not attempt to three star those unless you have lvl 3+ golem, lvl 3+ pekka, lvl 5+ wiz and witch. 
Clean #24,#30,#31,#33


Here is a list of the bases being called. Please do not attack these bases unless your name is listed :

#15,#16; Brett
#17: James
#18: Kitty
#21: Jamespark
#20,#22: Seejay
#23 : Bear
#24 #30: Nardawg
#26: Aztec
#27, #31: Sadak
#28,#29: Req or Spash
#32 Crasher
#36 Tracey
#37 gary
#40 WhiteDragin
Anyone else called up base, let me know.

Brett's all minion contest (Closed)

Winners are Zedd and BrendN

Thanks to Brett for sponsoring the all minion contest. Minions only, no heros, spells are allowed. Most loot wins. 1DE equals to 200 elixer. Add them up, biggest number wins.
1 winner for TH8/7 , 1 winner for TH9/10

Current leader for TH9/10 is Zedd, followed by White Run. BrendN is beating Jamespark currently for TH8.

You win $10 iTune or Google Play card

Work your bases to be Anti-X

We learned through many wars that good defense is as important as offense. When enemy had to waste 10 attacks on you, you win!!! So I am going to call out a few bases that need some work here. If your name is listed here, CHANGE and ENHANCE your base!. Your base needs to be anti hog and anti air. You will not be able to do anti everything, but you can come close by using this guide. Also remember, if your base is too spread, it will become a weak Gowipe or Gowiwi base, so always always protect your TH, CC and Air defense and put double giant bombs inside of your walls!! Good luck. Here is the guide:

The Guide to Anti-X base

Nardawg, Your air defenses are way too outside.. They are already weak, so move them inside a bit. You are an easy target for air raid.. Best bet is to spread the course like Aztec's. Dragon raiders will think twice about it..

Buggerlugs: Your TH is way too outside. Easy to get two stars on you, Why give away stars. Spread ur base and hide your TH in the center

Nick: Your base is easy target for hogs. Too compact. And your giant bombs are outside. Spread your base and hide traps inside to kill hogs.

brenden: Your TH is easy target. Re-arrange.

Even if your name is not called, please read the above guide and enhance your base.

Fatmat's Contest (closed) : Most Loot 9/25

Unbelievable!! Sadak came in the last second barely beating Jake's record by 5000...Sadak's 257 dark sealed the deal!!! I am posting both of their raid pictures. Reggie held his 1.06mil  unbreakable record and won the TH9/10 category.

Two winners, one for TH7/8 dudes and one for TH9/10
1 DE = 200 elixer. Add them up.. Most loot wins.