SBMM + solo queuing = misery

@TheJumpingJawaIm still trying out season 4 aswell and checking the battlepass but if they don’t add permanent solos im done with this game, i agree sbmm works for you and your opponents being equally skilled and I like that but it rarely gives you good teammates and im not dealing with that nonsence anymore... add permanent solos or im done simple as that

i just watched the season 4 trailer and the map changes and battlepass skins look nice so I will atleast finish the battlepass but I don’t see me playing apex as much as i have in the past i will probally just log on for dailys and maybe weeklys but will find something else to do if there isnt a solo mode I love the game but Im sick of most of the other players I don’t hate all players and some matches I enjoy teamplay but most teammates don’t understand the game and how it works and are toxic in general I would rather avoid that nonsence and play something else

Same problem. I'm not an 80hr/week gamer so I prefer not to be constantly qued with ones.. A lot of my casual gamer friends can't play with me because I get placed in high skill lobbies where they stand no chance.. The problem isn't solved when I solo que because I get placed with lvl 20 teammates who barely know how to play and yet getting rolled by stacked pred teams. Only way i can get decent matches is if I have other really good friends online who are available to play. Even then, it just feels like ranked. It's one of the worst gaming experiences ever. Hope they fix. 

@ekool406I don’t get placed against predators except in rare cases like one morning my first game Diegosaurs was the champion lol but i usually get level 20 teammates against players with 1-2k+ kills and 150+ wins all the time... SBMM is an absolute joke

I also had this problem, it is really annoying. I have gotten literally a level 13 and 20 teammate when solo-queuing, and although I’m not at very high skill levels, I still consider myself to be a bit above average. (This is console.) That said, I’ll get matched with people who are high levels, high stats, and are kind of around my skill level. 

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@TheJumpingJawa wrote:

I'm not going to indulge in the typical hyperbole, just going to try to stick to facts.

I'm low diamond-tier; ~4k matches played, ~8k kills across all classes.

In Season 3, prior to SBMM fcuking everything up, I had a K/D of 2.4 in casual.

When playing with friends, we'd typically win 1 in 7 matches, and averaged around 800 damage per match. (wins would typically be 1500-2500 damage; losses obviously significantly less).

Now, in the SBMM era, when I play with (the same) friends, we win 1 in ~15 matches.

Our average damage is approaching 600 per match; wins are typically in the 1000-2000 damage range.

Wins are so infrequent, they feel more like luck than skill. Such wins usually comprise a few 3rd party fights, and then killing the final squad.

While this experience is clearly worse than it used to be, the 'friends factor' keeps it borderline tolerable,

HOWEVER, and here's the rub....

if I solo queue, every game is terrible.

I get matched against the exact same quality of opponents (10k+ kills, 4k damage/20 kill badges) as I would when playing with friends, yet my squad mates are routinely clueless & toxic players who;

- drop short and/or hot zones;

- ignore my warnings that they're landing on the same building as an entire enemy squad.

- split up

- engage solo

- disconnect when they get downed.

Obviously this is all expected behaviour from randoms; I've come to expect nothing less.

Prior to SBMM, while still equally obnoxious, this behaviour didn't automatically result in a fruitless game. I at least stood a chance against any lesser skilled squads I might encounter.

In SBMM lobbies this isn't the case; 1 vs 3 becomes a near impossibility when facing similarly skilled opponents.

So while my SBMM ranking might be correct when playing with friends, it makes solo queuing completely unbearable.

On the eve of Season 4 I'm left feeling that this game has (for me at least), no future.

Of course I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to try out Season 4, however unless matchmaking is removed or radically changed, I doubt I'll be committing significant time to it.

p.s.

Wingman & Wraith are still obnoxiously OP.

Peacekeeper, Scout & r99 are pretty OP too.

Sniper rifles suck, and so does World's Edge. (it's too big, too flat & too polarised between wide open spaces & enclosed areas)

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5 seasons later and SBMM is still broken like a 2$ hookers lady parts. 

Respawn: (pin drop)

I think there's no such thing, they just randomly give the biggest idiots to play with you 99% of the time... Go get friends or get *... Respawn's respawn to community problems... Get *...

Haha played from Plat1 to D4 totally solo, mainly because I was impatient to get to Diamond where the real grind begins =)..  But what a nightmare. In like half the games, you get matched with a Plat 4 + Gold 4 premade duo; i.e some fool who just reached Plat4 (probably by hiding through Gold which is a totally viable strategy since Golds RP entry cost is so low), who now think he is the new ImperialHall because he just reached Platinum for the first time and then goes on to tell his hardstuck Gold4 noob friend: "I will carry you to Plat, dont worry".

Just the fact that you, as a Plat1, can be teamed with a Plat4 is totally unacceptable, not from a skill gap wise point of view, but from the fact that you cant be demoted from the forth tier of each division. Respawn must get it into their thick heads that the incentives to play seriously and not troll and mess around is TOTALLY different between someone who is a win away from being promoted from Plat1 to D4, and someone who is hardstuck in Plat4  and therefore has nothing to lose.

And in the other matches, I got teamed with a decently skilled premade duo who usually cared nothing for you, neither communication wise (no pings etc) or game wise. So often you and one other of the premade duo got knocked and the remaining standing player in the team literally runs past you to reach his premade friend to revive him first. And this when I main Lifeline and most likely carried them dmg wise so far in the match. 

The only thing you can do is to mainly care about yourself. If your premade duo teammates recklessly engages another team without even pinging that they are planning to, and get themselves knocked within 5 seconds, then just run the other way, grab a charge rifle and farm kill points on cheezy third party sneak attacks =)