Matchmaking

I'm not saying that every single player left in the game is exactly a diamond one with no variation at all. What I'm saying is that if you shear the game of all its casual players and leave only the platinum-and-up players, then you will still have huge performance gaps in any given match, especially when the matchmaker makes zero effort to differentiate the remaining players. Which is why you can still commonly get matches where 3/4 of the lobby are wiped before the first close. And on top of all that, the ranking system is forced to completely re-scale itself to the new performance inflation. Which is why people who hit master in season four might hit the wall at low diamond now. Or platinum. And people who topped out in platinum five years ago? They've left or become cheaters. I know how cynical that sounds, but I'm having a hard time coming up with any other plausible explanation for what I see in this game every single day now.

People love their eomm conspiracy theories. And I guess I shouldn't even call them that because no one can disprove that it's a factor. But there is a simpler explanation for what we're all experiencing. This is a seven year old game. It never had great matchmaking to begin with and after all this time that mechanism (and others) have driven away the casual player. The people who have stuck with it are the ones who were already good to begin with and seven years of practice hasn't made them any worse. It's just basic skill inflation. We could talk about the cheating and the smurfing, both of which are very, very real, but the lack of casual players, whatever the reason for their absence, is why this game feels objectively brutal now. How is sbmm supposed to put a normal player in a lobby of his peers when those peers left long ago for other games?

At this point it honestly feels like the devs are using a kind of rage-bait tactic. The matchmaking isn’t just about skill, it’s designed to keep you engaged, even if that means putting you in lobbies where you get stomped. You’ll have a few decent games, then suddenly you’re thrown into sweat lobbies where you can barely react. That frustration keeps you chasing that “one good match” again . So instead of a consistent, fair experience, it becomes this cycle of highs and lows that hooks you—but burns you out at the same time...

Since Season 18, the SBMM is designed to favor one team and let them steamroll all the other players

And to be honest, I used to buy the season passes, event skins, all that but I’m done. I’m tired of it. It’s gotten way too hard for me, and I’m not enjoying it anymore. I’m getting mad just playing, and that’s not the point. I’m older now, I work hard, and when I get home I just want to have fun. I’m not even a lifelong gamer, I bought my first console right before the pandemic, and Apex was the first game I really played. Around Season 2, if I’m not mistaken. Back then it felt fun, gunfights lasted longer, it took more to knock someone, and it felt more fair. Now it just feels like a meat grinder. Half the time it feels like I’m only in the lobby so sweats can get an easy kill off me.

I get you bro, but I don’t think it’s just an EU server issue. It’s probably not pure skill-based matchmaking, Apex leans more toward engagement-based matchmaking. So instead of fair lobbies every game, it mixes skill levels to control how matches feel. That’s why sometimes it’s chill, and other times it feels like everyone’s a pro. Switching to US probably just changed the player pool, not the actual problem.

This sounds like every Wildcard lobby I've had on the EU server.

Is this the server you're talking about, or am I mistaken?

I escaped to the US servers and am learning to play with high ping. After four years, I realized that playing on the EU server was a nightmare and that the server was too infected for fair and enjoyable play.