There was an article recently about someone (perhaps EA) who was looking to implement a scheme to reward players for purchasing upgrades. Right after purchasin

There was an article recently about someone (perhaps EA) who was looking to implement a scheme to reward players for purchasing upgrades. Right after purchasing a new gizmo, you (in PvP matches) would be matched against players who don't have that gizmo. So you get to enjoy yourself with the purchase for a while. After that, the matchmaking system would then send you against players who have some other more awesome gizmo which you don't have yet. So you get to lose more, and are they incentivized to but the new gizmo too.