The important thing is not who wins / loses but did the player have fun. That is more related generally on whether they felt their play was good or whether they were out classed.
Additional elements that affect fun are team co-operation and focus, chat and chatter, annoying opponents, ping response, knowing the map and weapons, etc.
Calculating FP (fun points) is not as simple as XP, but some things can be tried. For instance the survival time may correlate to FP (repeated low survival time => low FP generally). Are they being pwded by one opposing player vs many opposing players? How did they die ( Sniped? fun for the sniper but less so the victim, blasted to bits? Might be a drag if done from a distance with no defense). Killed by bots? (bots should be difficult but not dominating). Team co-operation is of course impossible to really measure but a game can provide bonuses to team mates who run together, maybe even detect saves (one player killing an opponent attacking a low health team mate). One of the most valuable rewards is a team player chatting a thanks (and some can be counted for estimating FP). Indeed awards of commendation with no other benefit during and after a game may hold some through the whole match. E.G. Open special awards just for good players on the losing team.
What you really want is an “is everybody having fun?” survey button before they disconnect but alas that won’t work.
The best way for mid-game re-balancing is when a good or very good player on the winning team chooses to go help the losing team. Not all players have the maturity to do this and not all players will see the stats when the need arises. But volunteering is a self reward to those that do. A game could add to that reward by offering special unique powers to those that switch (camper detection, or highest opposing XP map-tracking, or even those old Quake 3 silly super powers if the game isn’t to be taken too seriously). These rewards need not be permanent, and should be open to those whose XP is above the bottom half in the losing team. Getting single players to switch is not possible in all matches so additional bonuses to those already on the losing side should also be available (respawn and recharge being the most obvious, but armor and ammo at the spawn is good too).
And if the losing team does lose players then yes some automatic bot players to fill the spots is a good idea if the bots are well capable, with good Human play characteristics that don’t annoy. Filling in immediately may slow XP inflation in the winning team, though the good players on the losing team also lose the benefit that comes from having relatively more opponents to kill. The bot player names should be handled in the right way so that spectators know they can take over a bots place.
Team balance testing of waypoints for an W:ET bot (FritzBot) is a simple mass test of matches, but before I get there I try out each team and position myself until my FP says the waypoints are ready.
