Why can't I fight top 10 unshielded players in PvP?

So I’m playing PvP (Army of One) and I’m in about 25th place with 700 points. I check the leaderboards to see that very few of the top-10 are shielded. The rest of them have 1000+ points and are UNSHIELDED. Yet, when I’m skipping through my nodes looking for them, I can’t find any of them!! Even if I spend 200 ISO and skip 20 times, I still only get loser 35-38 point matches. Why can’t I fight the top 10 unshielded players? What’s the deal?

I only have three 3* champions. I have about 10 3* between level 114-153. I thought people were put in the same shard if they had similar strengths. Why would they put me in a shard with maxed out 5* characters?

to my knowledge there are only 2, possibly 3 levels of bracket tiers. the beginners and the vets, and there may be a middle tier something slightly higher than the complete noob roster (2* level?). once you hit 3* play (and likely before), you’re in with the big boys at the top of the game. that’s how mpq does it. good new is they can’t see you as an easy person to climb on, but those you can see aren’t likely very high in points either, so its a good/bad dynamic. the only thing that changes that is when a top guy puts in a lower-level team. anyone who puts a team out at or below your roster level/mmr, you can see them. that’s why bakers can basically be seen by everyone.

Do you have to be close enough to a baker in terms of current score in order to queue them? I never see cc’s until I get above 850-900.

not sure bs - I think passing 800 opens up mmr to seeing a wider range of people and I think that goes for bakers too.