TLDR, skip to the end.
Exactly, I resonate with this issue so much. Except I'm gonna be the first one to admit that I am the less skilled player here. Recently I played with my real-life friends after not playing for a few seasons, and gosh! It was such an awful experience. FYI, I played from the beginning, up to the end of season 4 or somewhere early season 5. At first, I didn't mind it at all because we chatted lightly during the early games. Joking, catching up, and stuffs. One of them was decent, and the other is very very good, although yeah it comes for granted because he's the only level 500 guy with tons of crazy skins among us. That guy who can casually carry the team. Anyway, then I got some insights about this SMBB system in Apex, and thought "oh that is why...". Prior to that, eventually, I can't help but feel bad for my friends, thinking that I was just there to ruin their gameplay. This makes me keep second-guessing my skill and become less confident. I mean, they are good people. They didn't say anything bad and collectively tried to be supportive. But of course, I can tell despite not being absolutely useless. Well, the skill gap is just that obvious. Also, mind you, I certainly did some self-retrospect moments for my own sanity. Like, am I really this bad? Or am I unnecessarily punishing myself who just got back into the game for a couple of days after having a 2 years break from the game? Am I about to blame the system? But no. I am not patting myself on the back here, I enjoy this game by playing well in "my pool of players", and certainly improving like everybody else-- albeit at a painfully slow rate. I never take this game seriously anyway. Time spent playing correlated to my skill I think is just reasonable. So as for now, I have come to these conclusions: 1. True, I am probably below average, not ashamed nor proud, 2. But, SMBB (top players based) is terrible nonetheless, 3. I realized I can still have fun with randoms (kills, dmg, champion, etc.), 4. Therefore still thinking of some lame excuses for my friends as to why I am not gonna join their squad anymore.
TLDR: I don't have a real solution, yet still stands to the point that I dislike the current SMBB. Because the most important aspect here, fun factor becoming not optimal. Silly me, finally got excited about teaming up with people that I know, too bad! They indirectly said I can't. Forces me to keep playing with random instead. Which isn't the worst, but there's no reason to keep it this way if there are some new ideas that can be implemented. Excuse me if meself coming off as some sort of a whiner. But think about it, like you guys who might disagree, I can only react based on what I experienced on my own. This is my honest opinion, I do appreciate the game overall.
