Apex Legends Smurfing and Matchmaking

@MissTawnieeee

Using the word “competence” was not intended to be condescending— I’m sorry if that’s how it’s received. Whether we are using the word “skill” or “competence”, the intended message remains the same— those who are more competent/skilled should indeed have different and more favorable outcomes than those who aren’t.

And there’s no need to devolve into “mEmE tAlK”— you can agree or disagree without intentionally belittling a person’s point. I never said it was outright socialism— did I? I said that if you examine the underpinnings there is a relationship there.

People often like to use sports as a comparison, so I can appreciate your feedback there. But there are two issues with that comparison:

1) The Lakers and every professional basketball player is compensated for their competence in basketball. They are getting paid because of their skill level. Players are not compensated to play public matches in a video game. If the expectation is that every match should play like a tournament, then the onus is on the game to provide rewards for such. THIS is where the potential (but not direct) relationship to socialism exists. If we are going to ask highly skilled players to exhaust themselves, their rewards should be greater than those who are not demonstrating the same skill and efforts. This is just fair.

2) For arguments sake lets stick with the professional sports frame of reference. I don’t really follow basketball anymore but there definitely was a time in which the Lakers were the best team by leaps and bounds. At the same time there was a clear cut worst team— let’s say the Knicks. Even though there are both professional teams, there was a CLEAR disparity in skill level. Despite this, the Lakers still played the Knicks in the regular season. Why? Because a natural hierarchy needed to be determined to structure the post season. Just because there isn’t a clear disparity in skill doesn’t mean that two teams shouldn’t meet. The players on the Knicks don’t get to say “hey this isn’t fair, the Lakers are way better than us! We shouldn’t be playing them! It’s pretty much guaranteed they are going to win!”

OBVIOUSLY the analogy isn’t direct and perfect— but there is enough there to promote conversation.