I tried PvP and although my matchmaking level was 22, I was placed against some builds which had a higher level (at least 25). However, I never got the first strike. Is this somehow related to my overall level (31)?
The only bracket I know is level 20, which is your minimum level.

The matchmaking system will increase the range it spans to find you a match sooner. The maximum is a range of +/-4 I believe though. If someone level 25 is searching their range could be at 22-28 so they could actually be paired with you even if your range is only stating 22. Hope this helps even though I don't think I explained it very well. If you need it cleared up a bit more just pm me or respond here. Lastly, welcome to the forums.

Yes, welcome to the forums! I think that may be a bug. I have been level 22/23 and fought second against level 33+ before.

Thanks for the reply. When I looked at the equipment of the opponent, I only identified the drone. After I watched the replay, I found out his level was 29 (show on top, also verified it through his weapons - Quad MG).

What I still don't understand:
Why was the searching mechanism showing that it was searching for level 22 and immediately placing me against such a higher level? There was no indication and no chance to abort the search.
Why did my opponent get the first shot? Isn't the First-Mover-Advantage given to the lower level?

€dit:
Sorry for forgetting the details, but I was pretty mad when this matchmaking bug happend.

Ive had this happen once where I faced someone 5 levels higher than me.

Sorry for the many posts, but I just realised when I looked at the replays that my matchmaking level was set on 30 - but it was definately 22 during the battle and is also what is shown to me in the workshop.
I just retired it and once again, the search said 22, my level was shown as 22 but in the replay it was shown as 30. My opponent was once again a 29.

€dit: In PvE-Battles, the level adjustment is correct. So this seems to be different from the Level20-Cap (which would raise your level also in PvE).

One thing some people forget to change when hopping between levels is kits so maybe that happened here?

I checked this twice, this was not the case. When I unloaded my kit, the level changed from 30 to 22 and when I reloaded it, the level went up again. The search was also displaying my level correctly.

Should I open a thread in the bug forum for this?

Replace the faulty kit

Sometimes the game lags when changing levels. Once I switched from a level 33 to a level 53 and it took a few seconds on the search bar to adjust from recognizing I was a level 33 to recognizing I was a level 53.