Has this happened to you?

I noticed something bad today on UMvC3. I’m an Amateur, and I wanted to get better, but I couldn’t on quick match because of all the 9th lords and such. So, I go to custom match, set Region to Same and Rank to Same, then I encounter a Rookie. I’m mad, I lose, then I do it again, this time, fighting a Fighter. I lose again, and this time, I set region to any.
Then I face a 9th Lord.[S] (Who, weirdly, I did better against than the Rookie and the Fighter) [/S]and still lose. This is on Custom match with Same Rank, and I’m an Amateur.

Is that supposed to happen, or is it a bug?

it’s supposed to happen. Ranks are tiered so that you can only face opponents up to a certain level higher and lower than yourself, but a beginner facing 9th lords is quite common.

They usually make you fight players within 4 rank brackets of yourself of you go to same. 2 below your rank, your rank, then 1 above. 9th lord isn’t that much higher than Amateur/Fighter.