Great news !! Time to re-think the whole PvP Arena dear developers team ! Time for real improvement for the
strategy game that Forge of Empires need to be and to stay like that in many aspects in the game ! I start playing FoE because of the strategy and the turn based combats in combination with building up an Empire, which my city have to become .
You can scrapp/delete the matchmaking system because you don't need it WHEN you create a brand new set of Arena fighters, so for every player the same and fair chance to get a very good rank and ... PLEASE ... come with a very special (unique) reward, something that I really like to GOOOOO for !!
I vote for this and I'm not happy if the same matchmaking system get back implemented ! Please don't do that ... (no Soccer Cup like system, please no !!)
So I'm only happy with a PvP Arena that is FAIR for all players, no matter which Age/Era they're in and let een PART of the possible REWARD be something that players can use to make their Arena fighters more skilled or whatever, but do not let de attack/defense bonus of attacking army or defending army count, because in that case you need AGAIN to create a matchmaking system ! (but maybe you find a way more better version of it?)
Give also the possibility to remove 1 or 2 opponents (in case that opponent is a friend or a guildmate) OR ... make the system "neighbors-only" ... OR ... make it so that you can not ever face a friend or guildmate (or with a checkbox, for those that like to fight with guildmates .... and others not)
Remember : ALL suggestions I've written in the last months are ALL JUST suggestions to BRING ON some ideas !
It's up to the developers team to be even more creative in mind than me (alone!) ... be smarter than my suggestions, because
.... I ONLY give them to HELP causing a STORM ! ... A BRAINSTORM that is !