No, they did not remove the "brackets".

What happened is due to the most recent personal rating changes (patch 2.4.2 i believe) a large number of high rated teams were forced to abandon their teams and create new ones. The consequence of this is that in several battlegroups there is a high concentration of S3 geared teams in the lower brackets. Many of them are "stuck" there because they are fighting equally geared/experience opponents and most likely not gaining ground very quickly.

For anyone who is just starting out, right now is a baaad time. The opposite is also true. My 5v5 team at ~2100 rating went three weeks and roughly 50 games without facing a single team that was actually in our own bracket. After roughly 5-10 minutes in queue one of three things would occur:

- we would face a ~1700 team and crush them gaining us anywhere from 1-5 points

- we would face a ~2400 team and have a rough time but lose only 1-5 points (tho we got a few wins for 25+ points)

- we would face a ~1700 team that had ditched their 2000+ team due to fubared personal ratings. even if we came out on top after a set of games we'd still be in the hole rating wise

This has made for a very unpleasant arena experience as of late. Even tho we've maintained a positive win/loss ratio we've dropped more than 100 rating!!