Weird Matchmaking

Its not anything new that the current matchmaking system isn't the best and that there's a new one on its way, but this felt a little bit odd to me.

I started playing the date night duos mode and my first match was okay, I didn't do much and died in the beginning, (guess I had to warm up), second match I got a few kills but was still missing shots, but noticed that players were running back and forth, making bad decisions, etc. One player even thought they could revive their teammate where I could still shoot at them and kept reviving despite being shot at. Still died to a team early on from what looked like aimbot, (bullets were going around corners and walls), and now my third match, this match was super fishy. Every team was playing like bots. Players were barely aiming, everyone's level badges (if it was shown), was low leveled, (keep in mind I'm level 500+, so a lobby with only below level 100 players with no skills is what I consider to be a bot lobby), I've gotten the kill leader tittle with 5 kills (which rarely happens with my level of skill, not going to lie about that).

So in summary:

1) Yeah, this seems like a normal match
2) What are these players doing?
3) Is this a bot lobby?

In match 3, there was a solo Wraith who did seem like they were aimbotting, (they snapped to me the second I peaked, I was on a bridge and they were down below), however the only other alive team just Valkyrie ulted and killed the Wraith. The only time it was down to just one of us, was when the Valkyrie knocked my Pathfinder teammate, but I knocked them and won the game.

From a player perspective, yeah... the matchmaking has been hard, and sometimes good matches are much needed, but it also doesn't feel right when its a flat out bot lobby. I hope the future of matchmaking becomes better with time.

Images from the third match below with descriptions on what I saw these players doing. (There was more deathboxes, but those only showed starter badges, and didn't seem like newer players based on their equipped legend skins).

Enemy Ash - (Teammate of the Revenant also shown below): When we crossed paths, they shot at me out in the open in front of a door. I shot back and cracked their level 3 evo shield using the bow. At this time Revenant was coming out of the building and opened the door. Ash managed to get stuck on the door and missed the doorway entirely. (They were on the other side of the door outside). I watched the Ash run and jump around 3 different times before they were finally able to get back inside the building. I was going to knock Ash, but decided to focus on the Revenant who was now outside standing still and was shooting at me. Revenant's level 4 armor also became cracked at this point, (and was only a few seconds after I had cracked the Ash's shield). Revenant then ran inside the building, (but not getting stuck like Ash did), and I pushed the building with my Pathfinder random. I threw a snar at the door they ran into, because they left it open, and snared Ash. I ran into the building from a door that was around the corner of the first one, and Ash stood inside aiming at the first door and had zero reactions to me not only opening the door behind them, but also shooting them in the back. Revenant was halfway down the building's stairs (that's inside), and all I could see was their face. I ran down the stairs when they were using a shield cell, and they just stood there as I took them out. This really felt like I was fighting bots.

After killing the last team, I watched my Pathfinder run into a building two other teams were fighting in, and they took down this Gibraltar, who was just standing there doing nothing.

The champion squad:

Teammate and match summary from the third match below:

gameplay discussion

15 Replies

Qbikk87
3 years ago
Its becouse Matchmaking sucks in this game, thats all.
EA think that if u had last few games with few or no kills/dmg than u are a bot and they put you into bot lobby. Then u can easy win and they think that u are now pro so they put you in pred lobby.
ONLY one thing can determine your skill lvl.
KD rate but not that one that are displayed in Apex stats, but KD rate after few minutes after u land and find some weapon.
Situations where you land and die instantly because you found a bad weapon or you didn't find one at all should not be considered in this KD.
Midnight9746
Hero+
3 years ago
@Qbikk87 A few matches after my 3rd one, I died to a duo pred team. One had all 3 slots set to a pred badge, while the other one only had two set to a pred badge, with the middle one showing the 4k damage badge. All the pred badges were animated as well, which means both players hit pred in both rank splits for those seasons.

I expect to see these kinds of players in pubs from time to time, the only problem I had with this match was that they both were aimbotting, and they weren't even trying to hide it. Both of them were snapping to other player's heads and running all over the map taking out squads, including ones who were hiding. Both pred players were a Loba and a Lifeline, which definitely means they were wall hacking. It's a shame that the top player slots are taken by the unworthy.
PsyhiX69
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
I am almost 100% sure that some lobbies now contain bots.
They also announced that there will be bots so I bet they have been testing this for quite some time now.
One thing with bots it that they "act" stupid but can "beam" you instantly. I know this from playing Splitgate.
Midnight9746
Hero+
3 years ago
@PsyhiX69 Yeah the Wraith player acted really bad and even though they snapped to me, I cracked their armor and they just phased away in a straight line and out of sight. If the audio was to be believed, they just stopped running below the bridge and didn't heal.

Other players, (like the one who just kept reviving out in the open), kept running back and forth, stopping for a moment before turning around. I've watched that player in question shoot from the window with their teammate, while both were standing still. When I knocked one, the other one literally ran outside, fired a few shots, and then kept running back and forth, inside and then outside, and then ran back inside to revive.

If they are testing the AI for bots, and trying to fine tune the firing range ones, they're getting somewhere, but not quite there yet.
r1ggedgame
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
@Midnight9746the theory that AI players are ingame isnt new, i dont have the link anymore but there was a vid out on YT some months ago with some really weird acting players, silly movement you normally would not be able to replicate with MnK nor Controller, but im not sure if those are by Respawn, my bets on some AI guys testing their code with Apex. Respawn would not let bots into the wild that are clearly identifyable as such. But hey, if they are good with it, gimme some of those AI mates ... they should learn quite quickly how i like to play and act as a real help to me 😉
XeroCreator
3 years ago
First off, it's apparently known that matchmaking is garbage, for all types and skilled players... but this is based off of me leaving and coming back to try the game out... I'm level 7 and have hardly played (obviously).
So i have had a few games that seemed unbalanced and simply didn't make sense... but i kept playing thinking maybe it would matchmake me with players who were bad if i kept dying to high levels with high stats... or so i thought 200-300 kills was high.
I was then matched with a friendly team who seemed to have a decent amount of playtime, but they died even faster than me, didn't speak English, and were honestly sounding very rude towards me or the game (not sure because they were not English speaking).
But thats not the worst part... the worst part was that when it showed who the enemy team was, one of them had 3000 KILLS, one had 1500 shield recharges and one had over 400 wins.
I am level 7, two of these people had a dagger in place of their level, i think the other was level 40 or 50... but they wiped the floor with my 'team'.
I downed one but that was all i did the entire match, i didn't even get out of the spawn half the time before i got shot at and killed.
And the worst part is... this was just a public match i thought I would go in to practice... but thats not happening when you're put against people who have played at least 1000 hours of the game.
Idk about anyone else but it was the absolute worst experience I've ever had in matchmaking... and Ive played cod for years with what i thought was bad on their end....
PirataLeoparda
3 years ago
@XeroCreator this is exaclty how i play - but i have 2000 kills and i pleyd alot of hours - but im poor player - not good at game - but i like the game. so - every time since update in december - i play versus players that have alot more kills and K/D than me - my Kill Death ratio is very poor - like 0.5 and every time i face player that better than me form any point of view. Match maker do not work properly.....
PirataLeoparda
3 years ago
@Midnight9746 yeah since december - i cant play the game - every team that i face is better than me statisticly - inly 1 thing that i have more than they do - mb its "hours spend" number in the game - i have alot - but still im bad player - very ppor at the game. and my kill death ratio is about 0.5 - how can i have super hardcore enemies vs me - im poor player.
NerfMyAimPlz
3 years ago
What do you mean weird matchmaking. Getting stomped by a master+pred squad in silver is perfectly normal in ranked haha (this happened yesterday).
Midnight9746
Hero+
3 years ago
@NerfMyAimPlz Other players are having different kinds of matches that are absolutely broken or shouldn't be a thing, (like you having a masters and preds while still being in silver), I'm just reporting what I'm dealing with as well, so its easier for EA/Respawn to know what's going on and to address all of it even though they do have statistics that they look at.

From the looks of things though, you should report both the pred Wraith and masters Pathfinder. They most likely used a glitch to get into lower lobbies. For whatever reason every season or so there's a bug for low ranks to end up in pred lobbies (like, actual pred lobbies), and for the higher ranks to end up in our lobbies. Either way its done, its not allowed.