This is all hypothetical because the matchmaking variables have been kept under lock and key, but if they just applied the same "we don't account for characters under 6k in GP" you'd get a pretty happy crowd.
In my alt account's final battle I actually used 30 characters with low GP. I set a Chewie defense with 5 weak teams - all 5 teams below 20k GP. My opponent had far better geared characters, but he had terrible ships. I applied that strategy since I was confident, that his fleet would never beat mine, while I could easily beat his. However, in order to win, I needed to clear his board, while my fleet survived. I needed all my strongest characters - and some reinforcements - for offense. The strategy worked, and I'm happy, that I had all those weak characters for defense. With a 6K minimum GP, I might not have been able to pull it off. The roster was quite ... thin.
Edit:
Just checked the roster. I might have been able to just pull it off even with a 6k GP limit, but I'd have to carefully select the weak defense teams - which I didn't do in the actual match. As @DarkHelmet1138 sugested, at low GP rosters, a 6k minimum might be a problem
Are you at a low enough gp where g7 is still used? I know a lot of the complaints are from higher gp players. At 3 mil gp g7 characters are pretty much useless. I am at 2.9 mil gp and have enough g11/g12 squads to fill most of the defense with good teams and still have enough left for offense.
I have some characters leveled that are useless fluff but still have some at g1 so my fluff is probably below average and I've won every match easily enough so far.
But I'd imagine at lower gp, having a bunch of g7 or g8 rather than 1 g12 team could be better but eventually you have to get those teams higher to stay competitive. But I wouldn't consider them fluff at that point.
I'm aoround the 2.3 million mark now. i think its more of a comment on how my competition has played/built their roster compared to me. I haven't gone all in on few teams, but have tried to diversify my toon portfolio.
I also have my swgoh.gg profile linked in my signature so you could have checked it out.
i also lost my first round this past GA by only 12.
On the subject of GP matchmaking, and matching players with a broader diverse investment base vs a more focussed one. It’s toungh.
In isolation, GA does seem to favour the latter, as you will only use the top X characters.
However, if you look wider across the game, different areas do reward different investment strategies...
Arena - max focus on 1 - 2 teams is best of course
Events - balanced, rewards diversification as you can succeed in more events, but might not reach the top tiers in many
TW - matchmaking still rewards a more focussed investment strategy (but you might suffer a bit in not having enough of key teams to break a ‘wall’) although gp<6k are excluded I think.
TB - slightly rewards diversification as you’ll have wider range of toons to fill platoons
GA - currently rewards a focussed strategy, but again you might fall short against opponents with teams that need a specific counter team.
Overall, a focussed investment strategy is better in more areas I feel, but the worst choice I think is bringing lots of toons up in gear/lvl, but not high enough to use in a fight... having all your ‘tail’ at 50+ and <g7-8 is largely wasted resources, and hurts in key areas like GA.
Bigger issue for GP matchmaking in GA is at the levels where key end-game toons are borderline...
If you come up against a Revan and you don’t have him... you are likely lost regardless of GP and breadth, similar with Traya and maybe C3P0, they can make 1 Defense team imposible to remove.
(Hounds tooth in fleets can be a real obstacle too) - but this is more a criticism of the few OP’d toons than specific to GA... they cause the same ‘I have no hope of progressing further’ in arena.
But I also sympathise with CG’s option, while GP is overly simplistic, it is clear and unambiguous, if they made it more complex or hidden mechanism, people would complain more that ‘it’s just unfair ‘cause I don’t understand why i’ve Been matched against
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In my alt account's final battle I actually used 30 characters with low GP. I set a Chewie defense with 5 weak teams - all 5 teams below 20k GP. My opponent had far better geared characters, but he had terrible ships. I applied that strategy since I was confident, that his fleet would never beat mine, while I could easily beat his. However, in order to win, I needed to clear his board, while my fleet survived. I needed all my strongest characters - and some reinforcements - for offense. The strategy worked, and I'm happy, that I had all those weak characters for defense. With a 6K minimum GP, I might not have been able to pull it off. The roster was quite ... thin.
Edit:
Just checked the roster. I might have been able to just pull it off even with a 6k GP limit, but I'd have to carefully select the weak defense teams - which I didn't do in the actual match. As @DarkHelmet1138 sugested, at low GP rosters, a 6k minimum might be a problem
I'm aoround the 2.3 million mark now. i think its more of a comment on how my competition has played/built their roster compared to me. I haven't gone all in on few teams, but have tried to diversify my toon portfolio.
I also have my swgoh.gg profile linked in my signature so you could have checked it out.
i also lost my first round this past GA by only 12.
In isolation, GA does seem to favour the latter, as you will only use the top X characters.
However, if you look wider across the game, different areas do reward different investment strategies...
Arena - max focus on 1 - 2 teams is best of course
Events - balanced, rewards diversification as you can succeed in more events, but might not reach the top tiers in many
TW - matchmaking still rewards a more focussed investment strategy (but you might suffer a bit in not having enough of key teams to break a ‘wall’) although gp<6k are excluded I think.
TB - slightly rewards diversification as you’ll have wider range of toons to fill platoons
GA - currently rewards a focussed strategy, but again you might fall short against opponents with teams that need a specific counter team.
Overall, a focussed investment strategy is better in more areas I feel, but the worst choice I think is bringing lots of toons up in gear/lvl, but not high enough to use in a fight... having all your ‘tail’ at 50+ and <g7-8 is largely wasted resources, and hurts in key areas like GA.
If you come up against a Revan and you don’t have him... you are likely lost regardless of GP and breadth, similar with Traya and maybe C3P0, they can make 1 Defense team imposible to remove.
(Hounds tooth in fleets can be a real obstacle too) - but this is more a criticism of the few OP’d toons than specific to GA... they cause the same ‘I have no hope of progressing further’ in arena.
But I also sympathise with CG’s option, while GP is overly simplistic, it is clear and unambiguous, if they made it more complex or hidden mechanism, people would complain more that ‘it’s just unfair ‘cause I don’t understand why i’ve Been matched against