Forum Discussion

Parthian_Nooble's avatar
3 years ago

20 days have passed, did they fix SBMM?

Hi, first week player here, but due to plethora of bugs, problems and broken SBMM I have missed cca. 80% of seasons of Apex.

Respawn announced SBMM overhaul 20 days ago so I wanted to ask if anything really changed?

To all the players who played on SBMM test servers, how was it? Is the SBMM better and fixed?

Are the matches fairer?

Thank you guys!

16 Replies

  • PeterN_UK's avatar
    PeterN_UK
    Seasoned Ace
    3 years ago

    SBMM is fake. EOMM can be manipulated.

    https://wccftech.com/ea-matchmaking-algorithm/?ref=hackernoon.com

    Stop playing for an hr or hot drop die few times and suddenly you're in an easy lobby.

    Notice how your first game of the day goes really well....

    However smurf accounts are held into easy lobbies until they reach a certain rank regardless of how well they perform. Eventually they will get mixed into harder lobbies as I think it is a match making mechanic to help new players ease in. But it's temporary.

    I lost access to my PC account ages back because I used a work email I never got round to changing email login after I left my job and forgot password. I didn't think about Apex at the time.

    I was always gaming on PS5 because cheating was more "minimal" compared to PC. PC cheats are more extreme compared to console based cheats. Got hit from infinite charge rifle without them reloading or they race car speed. No argument console has less cheating than PC.

    No cross progression yet. OK for now I create a new PC account and have access to only season 1 legends, fair enough. After 1 week playing on PC account, all the champions when starting lobby were never Master or Predator badges. All low < 20 level accounts. All bot players. Just in 1 week alone I come across so many team mates I have to tell them colours of armor they need to pick up.

    So therefore if a person is willing to sit through 15 min tutorial and restricted to top row legends only, they can technically stay in easy lobbies indefinitely.

    I'm sure this isn't the way to play the game. I spectated a level 8 player with default skin get 21 kills and 5K. His level 8 means he has been playing a week at most...So maybe  2-3 hrs a day for a week? 

  • @warslag Despite hating this games SBMM, it does work occasionally. As of the last week or so it’s been utterly bizarre, when I search solo in trio’s my teammates are genuinely terrible, the kind that wander off when your fighting or stand still looking into the sky for long periods of time. These players seem like they should be in the mythical protected bracket. It doesn’t seem to affect my super sweaty opponents though…. Go figure! Pretty much impossible for me to play like this, and as I can’t play stacked because the system says there’s 3 playing together, best put you with the masters and preds….. I’m honestly beginning to despair, I quit then return like a dog to its own puke, to take a little sniff and taste, then stop again. I’m clearly a fool to think it will improve.
  • HappyHourSumwur's avatar
    HappyHourSumwur
    Seasoned Ace
    3 years ago
    @aisthebestletter This was my exact experience. I felt like they switched something on, things were better for mid level players like me, and then they switched it back off again.

    The S16 stuff they just released is also quiet about matchmaking. Disappointing.
  • Redmattgame's avatar
    Redmattgame
    3 years ago

    @IdleHandsNo1A broken clock is right twice a day & so by definition it works occasionally.But as someone who plays on London servers the general MM now is as bad if not worse than I can ever remember.Being a solo queuer I just don't see despite the endless (& empty) promises by Respawn how any changes they eventually make (no timeline has been mentioned) will do anything other than mere tinkering around a few edges & certainly it won't be the magical Panacea that many are hoping for.It maybe relatively easier to match up a lobby of pre-made squad based on the averaging out of each squads ratings ie KR, damage,WR,ranking etc but how will it work out for us solos when you consider how many players are available & the limited timeframe for selection.The sceptical/cynical side of me believes whenever Respawn eventually reveals their implementation of their new MM system it will be more of a placebo effect than a panacea.

  • meece's avatar
    meece
    3 years ago

    Always keep in mind they're trying to maximise daily login % and hours/day spent playing of people who spent money in apex.

    Their matchmaking post explicitly had this as a goal.

  • PeterN_UK's avatar
    PeterN_UK
    Seasoned Ace
    3 years ago

    Below is simple outline of the patent. It does not mean they have implemented all or to what extent or even the values of the algorithm. But this was the general idea. We have no visibility of true extent.

    https://arxiv.org/pdf/1702.06820.pdf

    "Measure player's disengagement by their churn risk"
    - Means how likely they are to stop playing based upon certain time period. They indicate example of a week, but reality is that if you stop playing for an hour, you are put into an easy lobby to create engagement for further games. Churn risk = State of engagement. There is a numerical value assigned to a player dynamically.

    "Where each player is a node, and an edge between two players is their sum churn risk if paired"
    - Means put low engagement players without each other in lobbies. This can be manipulated by smurf accounts as new accounts are locked into easy lobbies until certain rank is reached, just means stuck with season 1 Legends and 15 min tutorial. I lost my PC account and my new PC account after over a week have not seen one player over rank 20.

    Example of churn risk

    Win, Lose and Draw
    Last 3 outcomes as example
    WWW = 4.6 to 4.7% - Means they won 3 times and low risk of disengagement
    LLL = 5.1% - Means they lost 3 times and at higher risk of disengagement

    "The optimization objective can be tuned for various interests e.g. in game time or even spending"
    - Spending? Psychological wise does this imply a player who enjoys the lobbies will spend more on the store than someone who plays the game less?

    "For example a low skill player beating a high skill player yields a large update in adjusting their skill"
    - Elo system that increases your rating of skill depending on the skill gap with your opponent. This could mean anything from rank difference, KD, kills, death etc. No indication of "How" in the paper of what stats.

    "This may suggest that when the player pool reaches certain size, the choices of opponents are enough to rescue those players
    on the edge of churn."
    - Lets say a Master/Apex Predator throws away 3-5 games in a row. Does that mean they will put into easy lobbies as well as losing 5 times in a row is considered high churn risk regardless of their badge.

    "Moreover, we can even change the objective function to other core game metrics of interest, such as play time, retention, or spending. EOMM allows one to easily plug in different types of predictive models to achieve the optimization."
    - Again mention spending? A relationship between EOMM and store spending.

    All the useless mathematics in the paper says you can simulate engagement of players based on recent success.


    Sounds very intelligent. But here is reality.

    You can manipulate match making

    - Wait until dropship counts 0 to leave or suicide. Play a game, start a no fill suicide game, Play normal. Alternate or there is a certain number of times you contiuously do that to lower your churn risk. Use no fill out of courtesy to other players when doing suicide.

    - Stop playing for an hour or even switch to another account and back and forth to give impression of lower engagement.

    - Premade and random squads are put into same queue. Choose a server where local time is non social hours like 3am. There is less chance of premades and sweaty players at the cost of higher latency and longer match making time.

    - You are rewarded by doing hot drops, 1v3 pro wannabe, down quit etc. Several losses like that puts your churn risk higher by dying and not one kill.

    Success of a game is not based on it's own merit alone. It is because sometimes we play certain games not because we enjoy it but there is no alternative. Lesser evil so to speak. If there was a BR game a person enjoys more they would move over regardless of how good the previous game was. Success in this case also based on comparison.

    This paper is nothing new in what we already know. But wonder about whether if or maybe spending is associated into EOMM match making.

    Just remember it takes a creative designer 1-2 days to create a skin. Lets say a skin costs $10. Some AAA RPGs takes a whole studio and 3 years but charge $50.

    Gambling - A way to take more money than normal trading. Open 500 Apex loot boxes etc. They know simply letting people buy what they want directly won't yield as much. Once you hit 500, you'll obviously think well I've invested this much so what is a litte bit more. Or it is only $10, whats a little more so it continues without a ceiling limit as a complete total over X number of months.

    Since creating a skin is so lucrative in money, why bother trying to creating anything else of value. Developers are not destroying gaming, it is players themselves who buy into it. Yea OK "Show them support", might as well support a landlord. Better to support indie developers or other studios.

    Just play the game as it was intended. Free to play. 

About Apex Legends General Discussion

Discuss the latest news and game information around Apex Legends in the community forums.31,230 PostsLatest Activity: 2 hours ago