Matchmaking something's wrong

@Palette24carats They said they "fixed" matchmaking, but they really didn't. Then again, they also said they made changes that "made it better", but they also didn't, and instead added a "hidden MMR", which honestly felt like it was their way of allowing preds in any match, along with allowing players to play with anyone of any rank. Now the hidden MMR is "gone", (but it doesn't feel like it), and you can still play with any rank.

Think about it, a lot of pro players had complained about matches being too hard, much like the general playerbase. Pro players are often streamers, bringing in viewers and such to the game. No one wants to see a "pro" get curb stomped 24/7, so it would make sense to have them in lower lobbies. They'll get their videos out, those get views, the game stays relevant, but honestly it shouldn't be like that. It should be fair to ALL players.

If someone can't climb out of gold, plat, diamond, etc. that's suppose to be due to a skill issue, not due to awful teammates and a bad matchmaking algorithm.

I'm a plat player, which is the highest ranked I've achieved in solo Q. (Barely anyone sticks around long enough to form an actual team these days). I know I've hit Masters in S17 but the rank was so broken, that just by playing the game, (and a lot of players just ratted, which I refused to do), either way, it doesn't count.

AKA, I know that I'm as good as an average plat player, if not, a mid-high ranking gold player, yet instead of being stopped due to reaching my "skill ceiling", I'm being stopped by getting teammates who are rookie-gold rankings, running around like actual bots, (or they're just a duo team ruining the match for the 3rd player). Smurfs and cheaters are also a huge issue, and makes things worse. I really have no clue why Respawn decided to lower the rank level requirement from level 50 to level 20. I would of raised it to level 100, if not 150, or 200, then again the anti-cheat is so bad, that there are a bunch of level 500+ with full on cheats.

In short: At the start of S20, the matchmaking seemed to have been better, and I had enjoyed it. Yet, once I hit silver, I was instantly thrown into matches with players who were diamond and higher. Players who are pros, some who are smurfing, some who are cheating, etc., all while my randoms act like they never played the game, or are selfish and do not work as a team.

@Palette24carats you also have this right, the part about solo Q'ing being better than with friends. Whenever I played with friends, especially those who I know never played before, or they're below level 500, they all had complained that "my lobbies were a lot tougher". Sure, the matchmaking is matching off of the highest rank/level'ed player, which was me, but it shouldn't be tossing us into the TTV mega sweat pred lobbies.

Using ranks to explain this further, (with "rank" correlating to skill):

My lobbies (Solo Q):
Average Team: Bronze (Gold), Silver
Average Enemy Team: Gold, Gold, Plat

Their lobbies (Solo Q):
Average Team: Silver, (Silver), Silver
Average Enemy Team: Silver, Silver, Gold

Their lobbies (Duos):
Average Team: (Silver), (Silver), Rookie
Average Enemy Team: Silver, Gold, Gold

Our lobbies (Trios):
Average Team: (Silver), (Silver), (Gold)
Average Enemy Team: Plat, Plat, Diamond, (with masters or pred badges)

In short: You get punished by working as a team and by being in a pre-made squad, than if you were to play solo, even in rank. No wonder why most of my randoms give little to no care about teammates.

I've even had noticed that when I was solo Q'ing, the game seem to be "rigging" matches by giving you teammates that can't aim and/or have no game awareness most of the time, and then after a long losing streak, I would suddenly get good teammates, where everyone I come across are the ones who can't aim, and/or aren't aware. After placing top 5 or winning, I'm thrown right back into tough lobbies.

This is why I keep thinking the game uses Engagement Optimized Matchmaking, (EOMM), because it will get you into quick games that are far out of your skill range, and when it thinks you're going to quit, you get a good game. From what I can tell, its designed to keep players playing with no concern for the player's mental health or any kind of fairness.

I don't know about most players, but I play Apex for fun, and I tend to play rank because teammates can't just disconnect on knock without consequences. I also play rank to see how high I can climb, and to challenge myself. Its already difficult to do so when there's a lot of cheaters and smurfs, it certainly doesn't get any easier when the game decides to give me two rookie level teammates in terms of skill, and pit us against a full diamond, master, and/or pred skill level squad.