Multiplayer Guide - Trophies, Leagues, and Matchmaking

     I have noticed that many players commonly struggle with finding good opponents to attack.  Either they cannot seem to find anyone with high enough loot to be worth attacking, or when they find someone worth attacking they are much too difficult to be able to attack successfully.  This is a super common problem in Clash of Clans.  In this post, we are going to look at some of the biggest reasons this happens, and take a look at some convenient ways to avoid this situation. 


Trophies and Leagues

     The best place to start when looking to improve your multiplayer experience is to learn more about how the trophy and league system works, and how to use it to your advantage.  When you begin the game, you start out with 0 trophies and have to work your way up the ranks from there.  As your village grows, you will have no trouble gaining trophies and can quickly get up to Bronze I and even Silver leagues, but is this the best way to go?  Should you try to climb to as high a league as you can as early as you can?  Let's breakdown how trophies and leagues work in Clash of Clans, then come back to these questions. 

Trophies:

Trophies are part of each player's statistics in the game; they are awarded to a player when they win a battle, and are lost when a player is unable to get any stars in a battle.  The amount of trophies that can be won or lost in any particular battle are determined by several factors.  These factors include the TH levels of both the attacking and defending players, the amount of total trophies each player has, the league each player is in, the amount of stars the attacker is able to get in the attack, and of course whether or not the player even wins the fight in the first place.

The amount of trophies shown when you are looking at a possible base to raid is the number of trophies you will win if you 3-star their base.  If you win the battle, but only get 1 or 2 stars, you will get a much smaller amount of trophies, usually around half or less of what is displayed before starting the attack.  So, if you are looking for as many trophies as possible, you will want to always give it your all and use strategies that are aimed at 3-starring bases.  The amount also changes depending on the difference in trophies between you and your target.  If you both have an identical amount of trophies, a win will get you 30 trophies while a loss will cost you 20.  If there is a really large number of trophies between you and your target (for example, say they have around 600 more trophies than you), you will only lose 1 trophy if you don't get any stars while winning will net you up to around 60 trophies!

The amount of trophies you earn with each battle decreases each time you go to a higher league.  This amount is also affected by your current TH level.  If you are a low level TH and are in a higher league, you will get more trophies than someone in the same league that is a higher TH level.  For farming or when you are at a lower TH level, it is highly suggested that you stay in the lower leagues like bronze and silver to farm your resources.  We will talk more about which league is right for you later in the league section.

Leagues:

Leagues are groupings of players with similar trophy counts.  These leagues have seasons that last for one month, after which they reset and start over.  The seasons seem to reset the first Monday of each month at midnight EST (US - Eastern Standard Time).  According to how many trophies you have (provided you have over 400), you will be placed in a league upon your first attack of each new league season regardless of whether you won or lost the attack. 

Each league has 3 tiers, for example, there is a Bronze I, II, and III, with III being the lowest trophy group and I being the highest.  The new Legend League only has one tier, and at the end of each season all it's members have their trophies reset to 5000, although they do receive Legend Trophies for how many trophies over 5000 they had when the reset occurs.  Legend trophies are a prestige thing; they are placed on your profile permanently for everyone to see, and simply show that you consistently excel in Legend League. 

The members of each league will be grouped into smaller sub-groups of 100.  The league is still called by the same name, but just remember that the group you see when you check your league standing is simply a random 100 people you are grouped with when you joined that league, it does not represent the entire group of people in that league, and the rank it shows for you is just your rank within that group of 100.  If you are promoted or demoted into another league, you will be matched with a completely different set of people.  If you were to be promoted/demoted, and found your way back to your original trophy league, you would be placed in a completely different group of 100, not the same one you were with originally. 

The sub-leagues were always somewhat of a disappointment to me.  I always wished they had found some way to make it more interesting, like always grouping you with players that were within 100-200 miles of you or something like that, or group players by state or province, anything to make it more interesting by turning it into your local league somehow. 

While you are in any sub-league, the game will track your offensive and defensive wins, which will show up on your profile and by your name in the league screen.  Keep in mind that there are bonuses for winning attacks while in a league.  To get the full league loot bonus, you must get at least 70% destruction.  You get 80% of the league loot bonus with 50% destruction.  League loot bonus is not awarded if you lose; its also not awarded for revenge attacks, defensive wins, or single player missions.  The league bonuses have been improved since the TH-11 update, but they are still no comparison to the amount of loot you can get from attacking, therefore don't join a league because of the bonus, find the league that has good opponents for your TH level and skill, and stick to that league.

Each league and each tier in that league has a trophy requirement to join.  As soon as you reach the trophy requirement you are promoted to that league.  To be demoted, you have to drop over 100 trophies below the limit required to join that league.  The first 2 Bronze Leagues have a trophy range of 100, while the leagues from Bronze I to Master I have a range of 200 trophies, and any league higher than that (Champion League onward up to Legend which is the highest possible league) has a trophy range of 300.  Here is a table with the breakdown for each specific league including the league loot bonuses for each separate league tier, and the amount of trophies you must reach for promotion and demotion to the next league.

League	Trophy Range	Demotion at or Below	Promotion at or Below	Gold Bonus	Elixir Bonus	Dark Elixir Bonus
Bronze III	400-499	300	500	0	0	0
Bronze II	500-599	450	600	1,000	1,000	0
Bronze I	600-799	550	800	1,300	1,300	0
Silver III	800-999	700	1,000	2,600	2,600	0
Silver II	1,000-1,199	900	1,200	3,700	3,700	0
Silver I	1,200-1,399	1,100	1,400	4,800	4,800	0
Gold III	1,400-1,599	1,300	1,600	10,000	10,000	0
Gold II	1,600-1,799	1,500	1,800	13,500	13,500	0
Gold I	1,800-1,999	1,700	2,000	15,000	15,000	0
Crystal III	2,000-2,199	1,900	2,200	40,000	40,000	120
Crystal II	2,200-2,399	2,100	2,400	55,000	55,000	220
Crystal I	2,400-2,599	2,300	2,600	70,000	70,000	320
Master III	2,600-2,799	2,500	2,800	110,000	110,000	560
Master II	2,800-2,999	2,700	3,000	135,000	135,000	740
Master I	3,000-3,199	2,900	3,200	160,000	160,000	920
Champion III	3,200-3,499	3,100	3,500	200,000	200,000	1,220
Champion II	3,500-3,799	3,400	3,800	225,000	225,000	1,400
Champion I	3,800-4,099	3,700	4,100	250,000	250,000	1,580
Titan III	4,100-4,399	4,000	4,400	280,000	280,000	1,880
Titan II	4,400-4,699	4,300	4,700	300,000	300,000	2,060
Titan I	4,700-4,999	4,600	5,000	320,000	320,000	2,240
Legend	5,000+	4,900	No Limit	340,000	340,000	2,400

Bronze League

Silver League

Gold League

Crystal League

Master League

                                                                                  

Champion League

Titan League

Legend League

* As you can see, the loot bonus gets very significant in later leagues, but I wouldn't suggest trying to enter anything above Crystal until you are TH-9 or above, otherwise you will have a really tough time hanging on to any of your resources.  After you get to TH-9 and get your base mostly maxed out, you should be able to hold your own in the upper leagues for the most part, if you are a skilled attacker, actively play the game, and have a difficult base layout to defeat.

Also, note that there are achievements for reaching certain leagues.  These achievements yield a great deal of gems for reaching the higher leagues like Crystal, Master, and Champion.  We will discuss this in greater detail in the post on Achievements which will be released soon.  I only mention it now to let you know that it may be worthwhile at some point during your play through the game to farm trophies in order to get into these leagues.  You don't have to stay in them, only to reach them, so you can immediately drop your trophies again by intentionally losing attacks (by dropping a single cheap troop then quitting the battle).  It can be well worthwhile when you really need some gems to get the 3rd, 4th or 5th builder.

Matchmaking

To take advantage of the matchmaking system, you need to first know how it works.  For all leagues below Champion III, the matches you get when searching bases to attack are determined by both your trophies and your TH level.  Once you get to Champion III and beyond, it only matters how many trophies you have and your TH is not factored in at all, so you may face any strength of opponent as long as they are near you in trophies. 

If you have already read my post on Loot Calculation, you will know that there is a loot penalty for attacking a town hall that is lower than your own town hall level, but if you haven't read it yet, click the following link to learn more about loot calculation (http://soyouwannaclash.blogspot.com/2016/01/loot-calculation.html).  This loot penalty is meant to keep higher level THs from picking on lower level THs, because they won't get nearly as much loot for it, making lower THs much less appealing targets.  The most important thing to remember is that the penalty makes a huge jump when attacking players with THs that are 2 or more levels below yours.  It jumps from 90% of total loot at 1 TH level below yours to 50% loot at 2 TH levels below you!

You will typically be matched with players that are within 2 TH levels of you.  You will also typically be matched with players that are within + or - 200 trophies of you.  Since a player at any TH level can be placed in any league and have any amount of trophies, there is no set area you can find a certain strength of player at.  You will find some low level players in the higher leagues, and there are definitely higher level players in the lower leagues.  In general, however, the competition will become tougher as you go up in leagues, so try to find the league that fits you; find the one that you find the most players that are near your strength but you can also raid successfully and get loot from. 

For example, my TH-8 alternate account usually hangs around between Silver II and Gold II, and this seems to suit him pretty well for farming.  Generally the leagues I have found the most beneficial to different TH level players are:

TH-1-5 = Bronze I, II, III
TH-6    = Bronze II to Silver I
TH-7    = Bronze I to Gold III
TH-8    = Silver III to Gold II
TH-9    = Silver I to Crystal I
TH-10  = Gold I to Master I
TH-11  = Master III and up

* Bear in mind these figures are based on my experience and not in any way meant to be set in stone or thought of as the only, or even best, way to do it.  Also note that I was a little generous on the higher league figure in each of the THs, just because I wanted to emphasize that there is a wide range that can work for different players of different skill levels.  If you are a skilled player, it would likely benefit you more to move into the higher figures shown above.  But if you find that you struggle with attacking and want to get into a league that will allow you to farm good loot but also get in practice attacking easier opponents, try going for one of the lower league figures above.

Pulling the Clan Castle - The Golden Rule for Wars

     If you have ever been in a war or even been part of a clan during a war, you have most likely seen clan mates talking or even been told yourself about the importance of pulling the Clan Castle in war attacks.  This is one of the most critical (arguably the most critical) parts of any successful attack.  In all ground attacks and almost all air attacks, proper pulling of the CC can (and often will) mean the difference between a 100% 3-star victory and a 2, 1, or no-star defeat.  The CC pull is really a simple step in most attacks, but it can easily be overlooked or done improperly, resulting in not only troop losses and wasted spells, but also lost time which can cause the battle to end just as you reach the TH or just before you destroy the last building in the village.


Always Check the CC Range Before an Attack

     It is always a good idea to scout your intended war target before launching an attack so that you can plan out the details of your attack, like which side you will approach from, where the best spots are for dropping your funneling troops, where and when you want to deploy your wallbreakers, are there any buildings hiding in the corners, and many other things.  Unfortunately, one of the most overlooked and forgotten parts of a good scout is checking the range of the enemy CC and having a precise plan for getting the full CC pull, as well as defeating the troops inside once they are pulled.
     As a leader, co-leader or elder, it may be helpful to yourself and the rest of the clan to send out a clan mail during the prep day of each war reminding everyone of all the biggest things to look for when scouting their opponents.  This would include such things as CC radius, whether TH is located in center of off-center of base, how many walls to get to the TH from each direction, locations/levels of air defenses (for air attacks), locations of high hit point structures (like storages) and ways to avoid or bypass them, level of CC, level of defenses (making note of abnormally low or high level defenses), checking for hidden corner buildings (usually builder's huts in each corner), whether or not the enemy CC is full (clicking on the CC will show the number of troops it contains over the max capacity), level and location of hero (or heroes), level of walls, and layout of walls looking for weak points and points that if breached will allow access to multiple enclosures at once and looking for the path of least resistance to the TH.
     Reminding everyone of these things on prep day when most of them will be scouting and making their battle plans will ensure the best chance that everyone remembers to check all these important things, especially the CC and how best to pull it.  Another way of keeping people from forgetting about the CC as a clan officer is to ask that everyone participating in the war presents their battle plan, including how they plan to pull the CC, to the rest of the clan for review during the prep day or at least 12 hours before they plan to attack.  This way, everyone will be forced to check the CC or risk being left out of wars for failure to follow the rules.  The upside is that most of the time everyone will comply and the war will go much smoother with less attacks flopping, but the downside is that it is very tedious to search the clan chat for every member's battle plan and then going to the intended target to check that the plans make sense. 
    As a regular clan member, you should make it your responsibility to remember to always check the CC radius and make a plan for pulling and dealing with the CC troops.  Try to get into the habit of doing the same set of things each time you scout.  If you always use the same process and do things in the same order when scouting bases, you will quickly begin to get into a rhythm and before long you won't even have to think about it, it will just come naturally.  Since pulling the CC will be the first thing you do in most of your attacks, just make it the first thing you check when you scout a base.  That will make you much less likely to forget about it while you're planning out the rest of your attack.


Check the Number of Troops in the Clan Castle

     It sounds crazy at first, but it happens far more often than you'd think.  Clan either forget to finish topping off someone's defensive CC or are just trying to get by as cheap as possible and are warring more for clan perk experience than to actually win.  Since you are already going to have to click their CC anyway when you scout to check the range of the CC, go ahead and take an extra second to see if it is full.  This can be done by looking at the top of the CC when you have it highlighted (when the radius is being shown).  It will show something like "25/25" if the CC is full.  If it is not full however, the top number will be smaller than the bottom number, such as "22/25" or "15/25". 
     Checking this really pays off when you notice that the CC is actually empty.  There have been multiple occasions in my clan where someone noticed that their target had an empty CC while scouting, which prompted others to re-check their targets' CC which led to us noticing that the entire clan had no CC troops.  This was a huge bit of information to know, since we were then able to ignore pulling or worrying about any of their CC troops, and we could focus simply on attacking. 
     Getting used to doing this will also result in you becoming adept at making educated guesses at the kinds of troops the enemy may have in their CC.  When there are numerous smaller troops in the CC, you will need to use a stronger troop to pull them so it can stay alive long enough to get the full CC pull.  When there is just one or two larger troops in the CC you only need a troop to get into the range of the CC for a moment to get the full pull.  By checking the number you will have a better idea of whether there are smaller troops in the CC or not.  For instance, if you see that the CC has 23 units, there is a good chance that some of those units are small units that take a single space (like archers or barbarians), and if a CC is filled to less than 20 you can immediately rule out a dragon, PEKKA, or any larger troops like that. 


Planning the CC Pull

 Depending on the TH level of your opponent, their base layout and the position of their CC, it can be fairly easy, or very difficult to actually draw out the CC troops.  The difficulty of the pull can also be affected by the number of troops in the CC.  5 giants are much easier to pull than 25 archers!  If all you have to pull out of the CC is a dragon, you can use a weaker troop like a wallbreaker to pull it instead of something tougher that takes more space like a hog, balloon, or giant.  But if there is even the possibility that there are several archers or other single-space troop in the CC, it is always best to take a couple hogs or a giant or two and be over prepared rather than only getting a half pull.

Let's go over the most commonly used troops for pulling CCs and their advantages and disadvantages.

Giants - Upside: great troops for pulling CCs.  High hit points, and move past buffer buildings and walk right up to the outer walls (this can usually get them within range to pull the CC).  1 giant can pull a good number of troops, but if there are possibly many small troops you should probably take 2 to ensure a full pull.
Downside: Very slow, and will not be able to get past the outer wall without help, so if the CC range is within the walls or even on the walls and you're not sure, it may be best to use hogs or loons to pull.

Hogs -   Upside: very fast, moderate hit points, will move past the buffer buildings and jump right over the walls until they reach a defense.  Hogs can usually penetrate the furthest into the base, and can pull even the most protected CCs if they can survive long enough to get the full pull.  Taking 2-3 is usually a good idea if you can spare the space.
Downside: because they penetrate into the base so far, they get targeted by many defenses and die out before the CC is fully pulled, a group of 2-3 hogs can get the job done though if you have the space.

Wallbreakers - Upside: they are fast-moving, and can quickly close in on the CC range radius.  They also go right past the buffer buildings and head directly to the outer walls.
Downside: they are very easily killed.  Extremely low hit points can cause them to be killed before they can reach the edge of the CC range.  Wallbreakers will only go as far as the first (nearest) layer of wall, so make sure that will be enough to pull the CC; if the CC range is at or behind the wall, hogs or balloons may be a better choice to pull the CC.

Balloons - Upside: they are an air troop, so they don't have to worry about being targeted by mortars, cannons, or ground-only X-bows.  Have moderate hit points and will fly directly to the nearest defense, bypassing buffers and walls. 
Downside: they are extremely slow!  Although they don't get targeted by some of the defenses, they are vulnerable to the air defenses, and will only last a few seconds once they are targeted by one.  Best to use these when they can pull the CC from outside the range of the air defenses. Can also help to take 2-3 if you know they will have to deal with an air defense.


Poison Spell

     With the advent of the poison spell, dealing with CC troops has changed dramatically. In many cases, you no longer have to worry about pulling the CC troops out to the edge of the map out of range of the defenses and drop troops around them to despose of them.  Now the main concern is usually whether you got a full CC pull and making sure the CC troops are gathered  together close enough that they will all be affected by a properly deployed poison spell.
     The question now becomes this; which troops can be killed outright by a poison spell and which troops will need to be finished off in the traditional way? Now that the poison spell has been revamped and does increasing DPS the longer a troop remains inside it's area of effect, the poison spell is much more effective against heavier, tougher troops.  It still won't, however, outright kill troops like dragons, PEKKAs, lava hounds, golems, and heroes.  The poison spell will take down weaker troops just as it did before, the only difference is that now it takes a few more seconds to build up enough DPS to kill them off.  Archers, barbs, and goblins will die off after about 5 seconds or less depending on their level and the level of the poison spell, and wizards will go down in 5 to 10 seconds. 
     For those troops that are too tough to be killed by the poison spell, it is still worth it to use poison on them.  If you simply pull them and then drop the spell before deploying any of your troops, you should wait until the spell has ran for its entire duration before dropping any troops because if you start deploying troops, the enemy CC troops will move out of the area affected by the poison spell and will likely miss the most critical part of the spell; when it has had time to reach its maximum DPS.  This basically wastes the spell, so make sure not to drop any troops until the orange poison spell circle that appears when you initially drop the poison spell disappears.
     Another option is to first pull the CC troops, then begin your attack and allow the enemy CC troops to approach yours.  Once you see where your troops will meet the enemy CC troops, drop the poison spell right in the middle of that spot.  You can also just wait until they actually meet and start fighting to drop the spell if you are afraid of dropping it in the wrong spot and wasting it.  The main idea behind this strategy is to take advantage of the spell's effect on the enemy troop's attack and movement speed, allowing your troops to quickly defeat them without suffering heavy losses.  The problem with dropping the spell after deploying troops is that the actual damage of the spell is wasted because your troops will kill off the enemy CC troops before the poison spell has a chance to build up its DPS, so you waste that part of the spell.  So this strategy can work just fine, but it is essential to drop the spell so that it hits all the CC troops. 
    

Traditional Clan Castle Pull

     Sometimes an attack strategy may require that you use the space normally reserved for your poison spell in order to make room for another spell (such as using earthquake spells to punch a hole in the walls for a GoWiPe style attack).  In this case, you will have to pull the CC the traditional way. 
     The first thing to know about a traditional pull is that you will have to take extra troops besides your main army.  These troops will be picked specifically to help kill whatever is in the enemy CC.  One really good strategy is to use a couple barbs or archers to lure the CC troops to the edge of the base, then drop a witch immediately followed by the Archer Queen, so that the witch raises skeletons as a distraction to keep the CC troops occupied, while the Queen takes care of the CC troops.  Another good strategy is to use a few archers or barbs to lure the CC troops to the edge of the base, then surround them with barbs or archers and sprinkle in a couple of wizards to finish them off quickly while the barbs and archers act as a distraction.
     To do a traditional pull, you will start out the same; using a troop like giants, hogs, wallbreakers, or balloons to lure the CC troops out of the CC.  After that, instead of dropping a poison spell, you will drop a single barb or archer out in the nearest corner of the base (or the corner you choose based on your strategy) to lure the CC troops out to that area so they are out of range of the defenses.  Once they reach your chosen spot, you will deploy the troops you brought to kill the CC (often referred to as "the kill squad".  Depending on your specific strategy, you will surround the CC troops a certain way and proceed to dispose of them.  Once the CC troops have been taken care of, you can begin your main attack.  If you get good at it, you can even save a few seconds by deploying your main army just before the CC troops are defeated, once you know for sure your kill squad has their attention indefinitely. 
    
* The best troops to use as your kill squad and the best approach to pulling CC troops will depend on your play style, your TH level, your enemy's TH level, the enemy's base layout, and of course, the kind of troops the enemy has in their CC.  I will be creating more posts on CC troops and the best defensive troops as well as the best troops to counter various CC troops in your attacks.  Good luck, and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!  Thanks for reading!