What Does "EOMM" Mean in 'Marvel Rivals,' and Does the Game Actually Use It?

With the Marvel Cinematic Universe growing by the year, an entire culture has sprung up around the world of superheroes.

The fandom has always been robust, but now that the MCU is branching out into more mainstream games and merchandise, the fandom's reach is growing, too.

One game released from the MCU that has struck a positive chord among players of all stripes is Marvel Rivals.

The game's plot centers on variants of Doctor Doom, and creates a landscape wherein heroes and villains across multiple MCU timelines and worlds fight together and against one another.

However, as people discuss the merits of Rivals, one major con has emerged: the dislike of EOMM. But what does EOMM mean, and does Rivals even actually use it? The answer might surprise you.

One of the things that made the Avengers movies so popular was the fact that they brought so many worlds and storylines together. You had Tony Stark and Peter Parker brushing elbows with Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, and Ant-Man came up with creative solutions for Bruce Banner.

This is also what appeals so broadly to Marvel Rivals. All of your favorites in one place.

But disgruntled rumblings have emerged about something called EOMM, which is rumored to be used in the Rivals programming.

So what exactly is it? According to PC Gamer, "EOMM stands for Engagement Optimized Matchmaking — as opposed to Skill-Based Matchmaking, EOMM is designed to, as the name suggests, optimise engagement."

In essence, the site explains, EOMM "doesn't just take your skill into account, but also your recent win/loss streak in an effort to reduce 'churn', i.e., players putting the game down."

The system is not widely popular with gamers, who feel it matches them unfairly and can punish people who do well by pitting them against poorly matched players.

But with all the buzz about how much people dislike EOMM, Marvel Rivals developers claim that the game doesn't even use it. In a post shared to X (formerly Twitter), developers wanted to emphasize that "Marvel Rivals does not use EOMM. We are currently working on a video to demonstrate our developer insights on the matchmaking and ranking system, which is expected to be released next week."

However, fans immediately cried foul, turning to social media to declare their distrust of this statement.

In the comment section of one TikTok video, one user wrote, "Yeah, it's definitely real and they're lying because they know the community hates it and they're afraid to lose players if they admit that it's in there."

They added, "However, they don't want to remove it because they don't want to have the time sink of actually coding proper matchmaking."

One person explained what may be happening, suggesting that while it's not "EOMM," it's essentially the developer's version of it, under a different name; "They said they used their OWN matchmaking system, it’s not called EOMM, but that’s the basis of what it is."

Players eagerly awaited an explanation from developers, but it's clear that EOMM is not popular, and the Rivals team would do well to distance itself from any hint of using it.

Ample ranking systems exist in other games to guide their options, but EOMM just isn't it, as far as players are concerned.