My main is a rank 61 Sorcerer on Syth Wyrm. I have played well over a thousand warzones in getting to that rank, and can count the number of times a game has started with fewer than 8 players for the Empire in the single digits. Since the progression of battlemaster gear is completely gated by the 2 daily quests, I started up a republic alt. I've reached valor rank 30 on it, and have noticed a really disturbing difference. Of the last 100 games i played for republic, 93 started with 7 or fewer players and remained that way for at least 90 seconds. NINETY THREE PERCENT OF REPUBLIC GAMES ARE STARTING SHORTHANDED. This has a tremendous snowballing effect in how the game plays out as individuals start to give up or out right quit before the teams are even equalized. I'm well aware of the bugs that cause players not to show up in raid frames, and can spot those players. That isn't what's happening. The matchmaking is outright cheating for the empire. It even lets in new republic to fill the 7th spot when that person quits yet fails to add an eighth for minutes yet. I've seen it from both sides countless times, and it needs to be fixed. This is particularly gamebreaking for voidstar when it starts the defenders with 5 players allowing the enemy to steamroll 2 doors, then fills in to 7 just as the assault team breaches the 3rd door to abort shutdown for unequal teams. Good luck beating that time still down a man when it's your turn to assault.
