Lets Talk About 'Skill-Based Matchmaking'?
INTRODUCTION He...
Forum Discussion
Since I have responded on most other threads on this topic might as well here too.
If you have played since introduction of game(Prior to season 1), there was always the random factor of good/great enemies or potato enemies. There was also as a solo player a chance for the same in your teammates.
I have played pre-mades and solo since day one, maybe day 2 I don't remember if I played on launch day or not. Anyways early on the experience was good game wise in regards to random teammates, sometimes you gelled sometimes you just couldn't play as a team whether it was skill gap communication what have you. It happens.
Fast forward to the end of season 2 I noticed and commented here in the boards about an uptick in lower level players becoming the norm for my fill teammates, yet I was still facing higher skilled opponents on the regular. Fast forward to when the SBMM controversy hit and here we are. It wasn't just my imagination about what I was seeing. I am getting games with decent damage but certainly less kills and my KDR has dropped. Not a big deal, but it is a mitigating factor when you are talking about a dynamic shift in how you are matched to your teammates and who you are facing.
I have said my peace about this topic plenty of other places.
Here I go again, I do not want to pub stomp, noob drop or whatever you want to call it. I miss the balance this game had in Season 1 an part of 2. Sometimes you got trash teammates, sometimes you got Gods and sometimes you got players like myself as teammates and also as opponents. By players like myself I mean decent but not destroyers of worlds.
For those that are going to decry you just want to noob stomp, really? Were you here early game running into guys with 10,,000 kills in the third week of release? Did it suck? Yeah sort of, it made me up my game and get better to be able to deal with the varied(see that<<<<<<varied) players I would meet and have on my team.
Guess what, look at the posts regarding this and the theme you will see is if you are squadded with randoms the lobby is going to be based on the highest ranked member in that squad, isn't that what the f rank is for? I f I am unlucky enough which has been the case almost every game since solo play about 2-3 weeks ago to be teamed up with sub level 100's they get to come play with me in a lobby full of higher skilled players regardless of what you think of SBMM.
So in the end what has changed is the randomness of once in awhile getting decent players for your teammates let alone the opponents you will face. Yes I am facing similarily skilled opponents, but with out the benefit of the same in my teammates.
Anyone who wants to keep on with the argument of you just want to kill noobs, keep it up. Because the lobbies will eventually be full of noobs and those of us that were enjoying the variety of the game will move on. And you can say good riddance, but I speak for myself alone on this I am one of the whales between my and my sons accounts that is funding the ability for this game to keep up. This isn't a case for me to say oh I payed and give me what I want, this is just a fact I invested in this game and took a gamble that it would move in what I perceived to be a good direction. I was wrong and will not be spending any more money and a lot less time on this game because of this.
To summarize in all honesty if you want balance play ranked if you want to chill out playing casual use to be the way to go.Not anymore, play ranked to warm up for the casual games.
There is an awesome video on reddit right now that summarizes it quite well. * and his minions discussing SBMM. If you want a laugh go check it out.
@mastiffslinger Avoiding quoting here due to size, but yes. My initial experience to the game was with a primary focus on solo queuing. Sometimes things worked out, sometimes not. That was the nature of BR. I believe that clarity and explanations from the developers as to how the SBMM works may be insightful to players who are experiencing 'something' but cannot quite put their finger on what. Not understanding why games feel bad versus the last time you played or when you play with your friends can lead to you just up and leaving the game as a result of the poor experience and lack of understanding. Something past a "We're working on it.", or in this case a complete silence would provide clarity for so many players I believe, and I hope the developers have an interest in providing that clarity.
Personally for me, I wasn't always the predator level player I am now. I worked to get to this point, I looked at streamers and other good players (That killed me.) and was like "Man, I really wanna try to beat them! Even once!", because of how good and aware they were. Some people find it harder to relate to this experience and I can understand that, so I am trying to help people to understand that you may not think "I want to beat these other people." for whatever reason, but you do get better the more you play, practice, and watch others. Regardless of how you think, the fact is that as you get better, you get in tougher lobbies and cannot play with friends who do not play as good or as much (Depending.). You also will find solo queues to be tougher to an unplayable degree at times as a result, it's has surprisingly little difference than solo queuing into a ranked match.
I agree the variance was something people could appreciate. The reality was that people of a diamond or predator (And even platinum.) level make up such a smaller amount of the overall population but played more. So seeing them every three to five games happened but didn't feel unbearable. I think people of all levels of play need to appreciate what someone who enjoys playing this game has to say about changes that discourages them from enjoying it. This isn't me whining or complaining about a lack of noob crushing or anything of that nature and I think people are misguided when they feel that is the impression my post gives. Thank you for your insight! I'll take a look at the Reddit post.
