seems very plausible. I feel as if it's a similar buff that you get when playing under max level called "stat boost." I believe they afford that to the "bad" team and/or the opposite, say, "stat drain," to the "good" or more skilled team. wouldn't put it past em.

My only problem with this is that when I play control, which supposedly has matchmaking more focused on connection than skill, I either get put on teams that mercy rule or get mercy ruled, way, way more often than other game types. I think many players assume that if it was pure cbmm then they would consistently win or lose, but to me that doesn't make sense because if you are matching with random skill levels consistently, it is more likely that blowout matches take place and that games are lopsided (higher variance means lower odds of even matches). Regardless, I still prefer connection based because I hate playing matches where everyone is teleporting around constantly and dying out of nowhere because of lag. I just think the reasoning that cbmm will make games more consistent is flawed.

Thats an actual thing not a conspiracy. If you do well the game deems you higher skill so you match against higher skilled players. If you do poorly you match against lower skill players, so in total you have a 60/40 win loss. Jon Weisnewski (dunno if i spelt that right) said that on Crucible Radio one time.

I've been subscribing to your theory. I don't think it's crazy I think you're on to something.