Players in competitive games regularly hit runs of matches that feel one-sided in both directions. The cause is a compromise the system is forced to make between two goals that pull apart.
Two objectives that cannot both be maximised
A matchmaker wants to pair players of equal skill, and it wants to do so quickly. Perfect pairing requires waiting for the right opponents to appear.
Every system therefore widens its search over time, accepting a worse match rather than leaving a player in a queue.
The longer the wait before a match starts, the further from balanced that match probably is, which is why quiet hours produce stranger games.
A rating is an estimate, not a measurement
Skill ratings are inferred from results, and any inference carries uncertainty. The system holds a best guess and a confidence level around it.
A new account or a returning player has a wide uncertainty band, so the system places them provisionally and adjusts fast.
Those provisional players are the ones most likely to be badly matched, and they distort the games they appear in for everyone else.
Teams are matched on averages
In team modes, the system usually balances the average rating of each side rather than each individual pairing.
Two teams with identical averages can be composed very differently, one evenly skilled and one containing a strong player carrying weaker teammates.
Those matches are balanced on paper and decisive in practice, because a concentrated advantage in one player is worth more than a spread one.
Connection quality is a second hidden filter
Matchmaking also considers latency, because a technically fair match played on a distant server is not fair to play.
Regional player populations vary enormously, and in thinner regions the system must trade skill accuracy for a usable connection.
Party size adds a further constraint, since a group queueing together has to be matched as a unit and cannot be split to improve balance.
Why streaks feel deliberate
Runs of wins and losses occur in any random process, and human pattern recognition reads them as intent.
Rating systems amplify the impression, because a rising rating moves a player into harder matches until they stop rising, which produces a loss streak by design.
That mechanism is doing exactly what it should, and it is indistinguishable, from inside a single evening, from a system that has decided you should lose.