Identify new matches from FlexMatch in standalone mode

Question

Hi, I am trying to figure out how to make use of the match info returned by FlexMatch in standalone mode via the AWS SDK for each connected player.
```
MatchmakingTicket {
    ticket_id: Some(
        "00000000-0000-0000-00000000",
    ),
    configuration_name: Some(
        "default",
    ),
    configuration_arn: Some(
        "arn:aws:gamelift:eu-central-1:1234567890:matchmakingconfiguration/default",
    ),
    status: Some(
        Completed,
    ),
    status_reason: None,
    status_message: None,
    start_time: Some(
        DateTime {
            seconds: 1712061703,
            subsecond_nanos: 645999908,
        },
    ),
    end_time: Some(
        DateTime {
            seconds: 1712061704,
            subsecond_nanos: 49000024,
        },
    ),
    players: Some(
        [
            Player {
                player_id: "*** Sensitive Data Redacted ***",
                player_attributes: Some(
                    {},
                ),
                team: Some(
                    "default",
                ),
                latency_in_ms: None,
            },
        ],
    ),
    game_session_connection_info: None,
    estimated_wait_time: None,
}
```
How can I tell which match this refers to? E.g. I would expect a "match_id" to be returned to understand which players have been matched together and direct them to the same server.

Or, is this only possible processing events published to SNS instead of relying on the GameLift SDK?

Answer

#### How can I tell which match this refers to? 
E.g. I would expect a "match_id" to be returned to understand which players have been matched together and direct them to the same server.

In Amazon GameLift's FlexMatch matchmaking system, the `MatchmakingTicket` you've shown does not directly contain a `match_id` as you might expect. Instead, when a match is successfully made, the ticket's status will change to `COMPLETED`, and you should find the connection information for the game session in the [`game_session_connection_info`](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-ruby/v2/api/Aws/GameLift/Types/GameSessionConnectionInfo.html) field. This field will contain the details necessary for players to connect to the game session, including the IP address and port, as well as a collection of player session IDs that are used to uniquely identify each player in the game session.

---

#### Or, is this only possible processing events published to SNS instead of relying on the GameLift SDK?
You can indeed use Amazon SNS to receive notifications about matchmaking events, including the completion of matchmaking tickets. This can be a convenient way to handle matchmaking events asynchronously. However, you can also use the GameLift SDK to poll for the status of matchmaking tickets and retrieve the game session connection information once the match is made.

---

> You can use the **`game_session_arn`** and the **`player_session_id`** values to identify the match and the players in it.

Answer

Thanks for confirming.

I believe then the answer for FlexMatch in standalone mode is to use match events posted to SNS (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/gamelift/latest/flexmatchguide/match-events.html) as the *describe_matchmaking* API is unsuitable for identifying a match.

Identify new matches from FlexMatch in standalone mode

How can I tell which match this refers to?

Or, is this only possible processing events published to SNS instead of relying on the GameLift SDK?

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