> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.summerengine.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Match players into games > Put players in a queue and start a match when there are enough of them. Covers quick play, ranked, fixed teams and an accept-the-match prompt. Matchmaking is how a player presses **Play** and ends up in a match with other people, without anyone sharing an address or invite code. You describe your game modes as **queues**. Summer groups the players who are searching and starts a server for each match. Then it sends every player in that match to it. ## Games like this Ranked 5v5. Everyone must accept the match before it starts. Competitive 5v5, matched by skill. 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 queues side by side. Friends queue together. 1v1, matched by rating. If your game has a **Play** or **Find match** button, this is the page for you. If your players join one shared world that keeps running, such as a Minecraft server, matchmaking can still place them, but that world needs to be a persistent World rather than a match. ## What your players get Three steps: a player searches, Summer groups four players into a match, and all four join the same World on one server. Three steps: a player searches, Summer groups four players into a match, and all four join the same World on one server. The player picks a mode and presses Play. Your game shows the search progress, and the player can cancel at any time. Summer has grouped enough players. If the queue requires accepting, the match starts once every player has accepted. Your game can show an **Accept / Decline** prompt, or accept automatically the moment a match is found. Summer starts a server for the match, and every player joins that same World. On a team queue, your server already knows who is on which team. Your game decides what each step looks like: the search screen, the prompt and any countdown. Summer handles grouping players, reserving the server and getting everyone into it. ## Pick your setup Each setup below is one queue. A game can declare several, for example a casual queue and a ranked queue. Copy a prompt into your coding agent; it reads your project and makes the change for you. ### Quick play: first come, first served Players are matched in the order they started searching, with no skill check. Good for casual modes, party games, and any game that's starting out with few players. The first four players to start searching are grouped into a match; later players keep searching. The first four players to start searching are grouped into a match; later players keep searching. In my Summer project, add a quick-play matchmaking queue. Use the Summer `summer-matchmaking` skill; if you don't have it installed, find it in the Summer library. * Matches hold between \[MIN] and \[MAX] players, first come, first served. * Give the player a Play button, a status line while searching, and a Cancel button. * When the join fails, show the player why and let them search again. Read my project first and fit this into my existing menus and scenes rather than adding new ones. Then test it with Local Play and tell me what you saw. ### Ranked: match players of similar skill Summer keeps a rating for every player in the queue and matches players with similar ratings first. If a player waits a while, the range of ratings they can be matched with widens. You can use Summer's Elo rating for two-sided matches, or let your server decide how much each player's rating moves. See [Ratings and leaderboards](/build/leaderboards). On a rating line, a player at 1400 is first matched with players close to 1400; after waiting, the range widens to include players further away. On a rating line, a player at 1400 is first matched with players close to 1400; after waiting, the range widens to include players further away. In my Summer project, add a ranked matchmaking queue next to any queue I already have. Use the Summer `summer-matchmaking` skill, and the `summer-match-results` skill for ending a match; if you don't have them installed, find them in the Summer library. * Match players by rating. \[1v1 / two teams of N] * When a match ends, the server reports who won so ratings update. * Show the player their rating before and after a match. Read my project first and explain where the rating appears in my UI before you change anything. Then test it with Local Play and tell me what you saw, and what only works once the game is hosted. ### Fixed teams: 2v2, 3v3, 5v5 Every match holds exactly the number of players needed to fill every team. Summer splits them into teams, and friends who queued together as a party always land on the same team. In a ranked queue, Summer picks the most even split of ratings it can find. Your server reads each player's team when they join. A party of two and four solo players are split into two teams of three; the party lands on the same team. A party of two and four solo players are split into two teams of three; the party lands on the same team. In my Summer project, add a matchmaking queue with \[COUNT] teams of \[SIZE] players. Use the Summer `summer-matchmaking` skill; if you don't have it installed, find it in the Summer library. * The server reads each player's team when they join and uses it for spawn points and scoring. * Each player sees which team they're on, and who their teammates are. * \[Match by rating / first come, first served]. Read my project first and tell me what in my game needs to know about teams before you change anything. Then test it with Local Play and tell me what you saw. ### Accept prompt: confirm before the match starts Before Summer starts the server, every player has to accept. Use this when a match is a commitment, such as a 30-minute ranked game, and you don't want one AFK player to ruin it for nine others. Add it to any of the queues above. A player who declines leaves the queue, and everyone else goes back to searching without losing their place in line. If the timer runs out, the match doesn't start. Your game can also skip the prompt and accept for the player as soon as a match is found. If all four players accept, the match starts. If one declines, that player leaves the queue and the other three go back to searching in the same place in line. If all four players accept, the match starts. If one declines, that player leaves the queue and the other three go back to searching in the same place in line. In my Summer project, make my matchmaking queue \[QUEUE] ask every player to accept a found match within \[SECONDS] seconds. Use the Summer `summer-matchmaking` skill; if you don't have it installed, find it in the Summer library. * Show Accept and Decline buttons and a countdown when a match is found. * If the player declines, or anyone doesn't accept in time, go back to the menu and let them search again. Local Play never shows this prompt, so make sure the rest of the flow still works there, and tell me what I can only check once the game is hosted. ## Not sure which fits? Read my Summer project and help me plan its matchmaking. Use the Summer `summer-matchmaking` skill; if you don't have it installed, find it in the Summer library. Don't change any files yet. Tell me: 1. which queues my game should have (quick play, ranked, teams, accept prompt) and how many players each holds; 2. what the player sees from the main menu to the first second of a match; 3. anything my design needs that matchmaking doesn't cover yet, and how we can build around it. ## Testing it on your machine Local Play runs your server and several game windows on one computer, so you can test a queue without hosting anything. Local Play differs from hosted matchmaking in three ways: * Players are placed straight away, with no real search. * The Accept / Decline prompt never appears. * Players aren't grouped by rating. Teams are handed out in turn: first player, team 0; second player, team 1; and so on. Searching, matching by skill, and the accept prompt all need a hosted game. *** Does this not help you? [Reach out on Discord!](https://discord.gg/summerengine) This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.