Apex Legends Smurfing and Matchmaking

You keep saying "competent" which is pretty condescending.  Let's not confuse competency with SKILL -- and the factors that come into said skill, such as free time to play as often as one can, coordinating and party communication with your pre-made squads, the rampant use of strike packs/Cronus add-ons/scuff/paddles with remapping/etc. Saying that only high skill players are "competent" is absolutely silly...but then again you brought up sOcIaLiSm and pArTiCiPaTiOn tRoPhIeS so now I can identify why you think you're so much more "competent" yet deserve to win more than others.

Also, no one is "punishing" you poor, picked upon high-skill players.  Would it be fair for the Lakers to play against some random  junior high basketball team?  No.  If you're one of the most "competent" players, you should be playing in your respective weight class.  Anything else is you just wanting an easy win -- getting upset that you're not winning more than the person in bronze lobbies is so crybaby.  If you can only win and have fun playing against people under your skill level...maybe you're not as "competent" as you think.  

If you wanna brag about being the top dog, you should be ready to run amongst the other top dogs. Otherwise, you're just Kim Kardashian telling us peasants to just get up and work hard.

There definitely is not a perfect solution for everyone. And the current system probably isn't even a decent solution for most people.

You might have a better experience, playing with your friends but most other people would have a worse experience in general.

On the one hand you are complaining that better skilled players have a right to more wins and on the other you are complaining that better skilled players are stomping you.

It sucks that the current match making system puts your team in lobbies where your friends get rolled, that hurts your team. But in the lobbies where they don't get rolled you will roll the rest of the lobby.

The only reason why you want matchmaking to be removed is because you're in the top 20% and it's hurting you. You don"t seem to care about the rest of the player base, For that matter, if your friends are that much below your skill level, you don't seem to care about their experience without you.

This is not work, if you are having fun stacking boxes fast and they are having fun stacking boxes slowly, then yeah you both get paid because this is not a job.

Now if you only have fun when you win or you're not having fun at all, then you need to evaluate whether this game is for you.

Win rate means nothing, the only thing you have earned is a higher rank.

Nah, SBMM is supposed to protect lower-skilled players from being ran over by higher-skilled players.  Weird how top players love to brag about being SOOOOO good (yet never discuss the crutches that help them be that good) but have such a victim complex about SBMM "punishing" them by making them face similarly skilled players. Play sweaty, face sweaty.  

@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.

If the Lakers put on middle school jerseys they still shouldn't be allowed to play against middle schoolers. 

Respawn needs to put a stop to this.

For ranked, I think they should up the min level requirement to discourage smurfs.  Seems pretty simple and I don't understand why they haven't done it yet, at least incrementally.

Gor pubs, they need to do something dramatic, starting with publishing their definition of "skill".  It is like tax law in that the rules should be meant to encourage certain behaviors.  It will never make everyone happy but at least people will know how they ended up in lobbies that either get them obliterated over and over again (new to mediocre players now) or that they steamroll without breaking a sweat. (smurfs now)  . . which is what happens now.