SAND – How to Fix Teams in Solos Matchmaking Bug
If SAND keeps throwing you into “solo” matches against full 2–3 player crews, the most reliable workaround right now is to deselect every crew size in the matchmaking menu, press Accept, dismiss the “no rivals selected” warning with OK, then select the queue you actually want and queue up — in that exact order. This forces the matchmaker to rebuild your lobby profile instead of reusing the bugged solo assignment. It does not work for everyone, and the official day-two hotfix only partly addressed it. As of the latest update, tinyBuild has confirmed the issue is not yet fully fixed and is still being worked on.
Why solo queue keeps matching you with teams
SAND doesn’t put everyone in one big lobby. It splits matchmaking into three brackets based on your crew size, and each bracket has its own player cap:
| Bracket | Crew size | Max players per match |
|---|---|---|
| Solo | 1 | 15 |
| Small teams | 2–3 | 36 |
| Large teams | 4–6 | 45 |
When the bug hits, your solo profile leaks out of the 15-player solo pool and lands you in the 36-player small-team pool — which is why you keep seeing coordinated duos and trios stomping toward you while you’re alone in a single-seat trampler. The game launched into Steam Early Access on June 22, 2026, and this specific issue has been live and reported for well over 48 hours, through a launch-week hotfix that did not resolve it for most players.
There’s also a second, separate trigger people confuse with the bug: if you recently added or removed a crew member at the main menu, the lobby can keep your old size until the party leader fully backs out, so the game never recalculates which bracket you belong in. That one you can fix yourself — see Fix 3.
Fix 1 – The crew-size deselect workaround (most reliable)
This is the community workaround that actually targets the bug, and it lives almost entirely in the Steam discussion threads — not in the “server down” guides currently ranking. Do it in order and don’t skip a step:
- Unselect all crew sizes in the matchmaking screen, then press Accept.
- You’ll get a warning that no rivals are selected — press OK to dismiss it.
- Select the queue you actually want, then queue up.
The order is what matters: clearing every selection forces the matchmaker to recompute your profile from zero rather than reusing the cached solo assignment that’s bugging out. Expect this to work most of the time, not every time — like the official hotfix, it fails for a subset of players, so if it doesn’t take on the first try, re-queue and run the steps again before moving on.
Fix 2 – Toggle crossplay off and back on
A lighter reset that some players report helps when Fix 1 doesn’t:
- Open the in-game Settings menu.
- Go to the Gameplay / Network tab.
- Find Crossplay, toggle it off, then back on to refresh your matchmaking profile.
- Set your region manually (e.g. NA East, Europe, Asia) instead of leaving it on “Automatic” — a misrouted automatic region can dump you into whatever pool has players, brackets included.
This is community-level, not an official fix, so treat it as a second lever rather than a guaranteed solution.
Fix 3 – Re-leave the lobby to recompute crew size
If the “teams” you’re seeing showed up right after you grouped or ungrouped with someone, this is the menu-state issue, not the matchmaking bug:
- Have the party leader fully leave the lobby so the game re-reads your current crew size.
- Re-enter and start a new mission — you’ll now be routed to the bracket that matches your actual size.
- If matchmaking then hangs for more than 5 minutes, verify your install on Steam: Library → SAND → Properties → Installed Files → Verify integrity of game files. Corrupted network manifests get re-downloaded automatically.
If nothing works
The core bug is server-side and officially acknowledged, so some sessions you’ll still get dropped against a crew no matter what you do. Two things to do in the meantime:
- Report it through the official channels — the Steam discussions and tinyBuild’s support so your case is counted in the fix they’ve said they’re “actively working on.” The more reproduction reports, the faster the bracket leak gets prioritized.
- Build for survival, not for a fair fight. Until the patch lands, run a compact, low-profile trampler: a smaller walking base has less surface to repair, turns and disengages faster, and is far easier to extract solo when you do get matched against a coordinated crew. SAND already leans hard against solo players — a stealth-oriented build is your best counter to being outnumbered.
Frequently asked questions
Is the teams-in-solos bug fixed in SAND? No. As of the most recent update, tinyBuild confirmed that solo players can still be matched into larger crews and that a fix is still in progress. The launch-week hotfix improved it for some players but did not resolve it.
Why am I matched with teams in solo queue? Your solo matchmaking profile is leaking out of the 15-player solo bracket into the 36-player small-team bracket. It’s a server-side matchmaking bug, not something you did wrong — though a stale lobby after grouping/ungrouping can produce a similar result (see Fix 3).
Does the deselect-all workaround always work? No. It’s the most reliable option right now and works for many players, but a subset still get matched against teams even after running it. Re-queue and repeat the steps if the first attempt doesn’t take.
Last updated: June 30, 2026 · By bilgisadak, gamesron — tracking SAND’s Early Access matchmaking issues since the June 22 launch.