To put it simply, even with the merge, some campaigns are less popular than others. Naturally, as with before the merge, deficiencies in player count are made up for in bots.
The european axis is the most populated faction so far, regardless of low tier or high tier queues, whereas the soviet campaign is uh… Floundering, and the western allied factions are barely holding on.
Show us the number of people queuing as x faction at y BRs, and provide an exp incentive for factions that are notably disadvantaged in terms of numbers. The less populated the faction, the higher the exp boost. High enough to encourage players to stay and fight rather than desert due to the paltry exp gain. The incentive to queue at specific times for specific factions would be updated every 5 minutes, or any other regular interval that would promote a healthy distribution of players.
Naturally, the “join any team” checkbox would automatically place you into a faction in need of players.
I’m sure this was suggested… Too many times. Especially before the merge. But considering that the intention of the merge was to consolidate the players across campaigns, some factions are notably worse-off than others in popularity.