December 2019
INTRODUCTION
Hey there, let me start with that I know that most of the users here are players of Apex, but this also seems like this is my best chance at getting some communication from the Apex Developer team on their thoughts and actions regarding SBMM (Skill-Based Matchmaking) as it currently is. Although I don't have high hopes given the track record of the team's communication to players about certain issues given how busy they are, let's do our best to offer them our insights regarding this topic in a respectful way. I have yet to find a better outlet where I could talk about ideas with the developers, so this is my shot in the dark, at worst if that doesn't work I hope this thread might offer them insights into the current SBMM design. I encourage other players to talk about their experiences in unranked / casual / quickplay matchmaking below in a reply.
TOPIC
To start, I am a predator level player who has achieved a competitive predator ranking. I have around 900 hours in the game at the moment and I offer my thoughts from the mindset of a higher level of player than the average. I play for more than two hours per gaming session. I have played Apex since the launch before it even finished downloading, and I feel like I am being punished for playing unranked games.
When I enter unranked lobbies, at least half of the teams I fight are pre-made, as in they are a full squad who queued up together. On top of this, they tend to be around the same skill as players I have fought in Platinum competitive matches. I understand based on my previous experience with competitive games why SBMM is added, its primary goal is to encourage a space for newer players to not feel intimidated by players with a better understanding of the game. Despite understanding why someone would want to add this to an unranked mode, I cannot help but come to the conclusion that the current model is not sustainable. As you perform well, you are placed against other people that perform just as well. You are punished for performing well by being pitted against players of an equal or higher skill level. Your options are to perform better than you did in the previous match, or just die. As someone who now plays mostly with a group now to feel like I can reasonably compete with other squads, I can no longer play alone or with some lower level friends in unranked matches unless I severely outplay the enemy teams. Over 500 of my hours were playing solos, to meet people and have fun, largely before the SBMM change. Ranking systems like how the current SBMM is designed are best fit for competitive play, not what should be unranked.
Developer Questions
Recommendations
I enjoy this game and want to keep playing, but my time played the last month or so has been steadily declining as a result of this experience. I cannot see myself playing as much alone or with a team as things stand. I would like for there to be a better line of communication with the developer team. If I were to make a recommendation, it would be to scrap the higher end of SBMM. Limit SBMM to apply to those on the lower end of rankings. Imagine if we were all ranked by numbers ranging from 1-100, players rank 30 or below would be matched to players of a similar skill level, but once you reach any ranking above 30, you would match with anyone within the range of ranks 31-100. A battle royale game should be a game with a disparity in skill, only one team can win. I understand that encouraging a healthy environment for new players is important, so this is my recommendation with that in mind. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from everyone.
December 2019
I agree with everything you said, i have almost 1400 hours on this game and the current state of the skilled based match making is gotten so bad that i cant play the game without having to try hard every second of the game. From personal experience Diamond rank is easier then my regular games lately i cant stand playing this game anymore because of it, i love the game and were it as been going but this Skilled based matchmaking has driven me to play less by 4-6 hours some days. Im to the point of debating should i just uninstall the game or just have it there and not play it anymore because i generally do not have fun on this game anymore. I really want to enjoy the game and have fun like i used to, but as of the past month or so it hasn't been fun for me at all. Most of my friends i used to play with on this game cant play with me anymore because my lobbies are allot harder then what they get into and they cant do much in my games. i just hope you guys as developers would take into consider what allot of the better players such as myself are saying about the current Skilled based matchmaking and hopefully remove it or do something to make it more enjoyable for all players.
December 2019
So you're a predator player that enjoys playing casual games and dominating lesser skilled players to relax. SBMM is in most FPS games even the casual aspect of them just look at Overwatch, their ranked and quick play matchmaking is determined on how you perform.
Why should any new player or casual players experience be ruined by some guy that spends 900 hours on the game? these complaint posts are not gonna do anything, because I doubt respawn care as much for the opinion of a 900 hour predator player compared to the casual players they want to attract to the game.
It's completely fair that a predator player be put against players of equal skill rating. Ranked matchmaking's SBMM on the other hand needs to be fixed.
December 2019
I still even havent figured out how this new SBMM works. I have 2.7 k/d, 10k kills, alot of 3 k dmg banners but not the 4k or 20 kills, and In the beginning all my matches were totally stacked with at least 60-70% of the drop trails being last season Predators or Diamonds. But now, it seems like I get quite easy matches when I queue solo; I usually get 2-6 kills and 1-2k dmg every game. But as soon as I queue with friends with significantly worse stats than me, our opponents are quite stacked again....
December 2019 - last edited December 2019
@JiboTVSorry But I have to agree with @Boa767 on this one i don’t know how many hours Ive played but Lets just say I started the game about halfway through season 1
I understand your point of view your used to dominating players like myself and below/above my skill level and have entertainment in doing so but players like myself don’t enjoy that very much unless we get lucky enough to kill one of you I think the place Im at in SBMM is just right for me and would like it to stay that way I still get my a** wooped alot but certain matches I just pop off and get kills Ive won a game as kill leader with 2 legends that I was never able to do so in the past against players like yourself
Im really not sure what the solution to this problem is and im sure the developers don’t either it goes 2 ways
Predator And other high rank players with premade teams want to dominate in casual and bully lower skilled or average players like myself to gain better stats easier or streamers want to look good for views and is hard against similar skilled opponents
On the other End players like myself are enjoying the game alittle more decides having 1-2 bafoons who don’t understand the game usually I understand the game very well and know what to do from watching yt videos, watching streamers, and experience but my aim isn’t very reliable at all lmao (controller on pc) and movement in battle can sometimes be alitte iffy depending on the situation/location/opponent i tell my team to do something and they just ignore or run in on a kamikaze attempt in the final rounds all the time other than that Ive been enjoying the game for the most part decides an occasional papa smurf around the village
December 2019
I like to consider myself an above average player, and I can say, if given decent enough teammates who can carry their own in solo queues, I can have a good game with 2k+ damage. I see a few diamond trails in my usual lobbies and they can put up a bit of a challenge, but it's no big deal. I have fun. However, if I don't solo queue and just even play with people of my skill level, the lobbies get even sweatier.
Now here's the real kicker, most of my friends who I enjoy, or rather I say, enjoyed playing this game with are far above my skill level (pred level, I should say), and that's fine. I wouldn't, and they even wouldn't say they "carried" me. I used to be able to hold my own, catch up to their pace, and sometimes on occasion even pull off some clutch game savers. I am no longer able to do that. It's hard enough to even carry my own anymore, now that SBMM has been introduced. I find myself incapable of playing with my higher level friends because I can't even last more than five minutes in a game without getting absolutely pub stomped by a full premade squad of preds. It genuinely sucks, because my friends and I loved squaring up. Now I'm leaving them to 1v3 because I'm incapable of holding my own now.
Lobbies without SBMM weren't just EZ claps always either, which some if you are failing to realize. We would run into the occasional god squad or get into a bad third party and it would put up a challenge, but at least we all had a chance.
Please, just fix the match making system so it's fair for everyone and not a constant sweat fest in public matches.
December 2019
@Boa767 wrote:So you're a predator player that enjoys playing casual games and dominating lesser skilled players to relax. SBMM is in most FPS games even the casual aspect of them just look at Overwatch, their ranked and quick play matchmaking is determined on how you perform.
Why should any new player or casual players experience be ruined by some guy that spends 900 hours on the game? these complaint posts are not gonna do anything, because I doubt respawn care as much for the opinion of a 900 hour predator player compared to the casual players they want to attract to the game.
It's completely fair that a predator player be put against players of equal skill rating. Ranked matchmaking's SBMM on the other hand needs to be fixed.
Bud, I think you kind of missed the point and are assuming my intent a lot. Let's keep disagreement civil and try to actually respond to what I wrote. My recommendation addressed the issue of ensuring a healthy matchmaking system for the newest players while addressing my thoughts on SBMM's current state. We both agree SBMM needs a change, so I'm not sure what your point is. This is, to me, the opposite of a complaint post. It is a post giving my feedback about the current SBMM, looking for developer and player responses, and overall encouraging civil discussion on the current SBMM system. Your understanding is naive if you think that the developers have to prioritize the experience of the newest player versus someone with a lot of playtime, the developers want people to enjoy the game on all ends of the spectrum and there are ways to achieve that. All players meaning old players, new players, players with more skill, and players with less.
It seems you contradicted yourself at the end too. Thank you for your response though.
December 2019
@Babbediboopi wrote:I still even havent figured out how this new SBMM works. I have 2.7 k/d, 10k kills, alot of 3 k dmg banners but not the 4k or 20 kills, and In the beginning all my matches were totally stacked with at least 60-70% of the drop trails being last season Predators or Diamonds. But now, it seems like I get quite easy matches when I queue solo; I usually get 2-6 kills and 1-2k dmg every game. But as soon as I queue with friends with significantly worse stats than me, our opponents are quite stacked again....
Thank you for your insight! Providing clarity on how one's matchmaking ranking is acquired could definitely help us players understand how to express ourselves better. How lobbies prioritize is also of interest - Will I get queued against full teams if I have one? Does SBMM primarily go by the highest person in a party or is it averaged? These are very good questions we can get out of your insight.
December 2019
Yes I agree, I will link my post to add to the discussion.
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/SBMM-Unranked-Tail-Wags-the-Dog/m-p/8511707#M34322
It comes down to this: I used to play as much as possible. Now if my premade isn't on I'm not even touching the game. This is a direct result because we have two essentially ranked queues, one with and one without points.
Roll back to pre-season 2 sbmm change please, or lose my interest in playing as much.
Which, by the way, increases the likelihood I won't be on to buy mtx or that I'll find a new muse to play and completely forget about Apex.
December 2019 - last edited December 2019
@JiboTVI just added the streamer part because I’ve watched streamers saying they want to give us a great viewing experience but its hard against players of similar skill level
I see your point about no longer being able to play with your friends, alot of people are saying that
I also see the view where this wasn’t really much a problem in the past either I mean occasionally you would just get wrecked by a premade squad of predators but it didnt happen every single match
I’m not really a new player I’ve played since Season 1 but I never botherred with rank decides alittle when it first came out also I can also only play about half the week and use a controller with no aim assist like on console so not much of a match against higher rank players with mouse/keyboard I think this is why I enjoy SBMM alittle more it maybe the lower end to average end of the SBMM spectrum but the matches are in no means ‘’easy’’ either the opponents are sometimes below my skill level but other times far above it as well I still see players with 7-8k kills as champions
Im a pretty pessimistic person so I just see things in black/white naturally I just feel like its pretty hard to find a sweet spot in SBMM in its current state to make everyone happy