@DarthValtrex I think its noble to make sure that low skilled players have a place to play, but I don’t think it should come at the expense of the gaming experience of average and high skilled players. For average to good players, SBMM makes what should be a casual experience not so casual. I hate to say this because it sounds mean but I feel that the only option that low skilled players should be afforded is the opportunity to play people of all skill with the hope that they get better— so I am actually for random lobbies. I don’t think the implementation of SBMM (or at least whatever version we’re dealing with now) is worth the stress it’s causing the majority of the community (average players and good players). Of course, EA proclaims this is making them $$$ by keeping the low skilled players from dropping the game so the practice isn’t going anywhere.
OP’s issue regarding his inability of playing with friends is not limited to top 500 players. My real life friends want to play with me but choose not to because they can’t keep up with the opponents the SBMM algorithm selects based on my skill. They get destroyed because every opponent is specifically selected to be higher skilled than them. I think this is the most egregious flaw of current SBMM, because a game should literally NEVER deter people from playing with friends. You can’t say “we implement SBMM because we care about people’s experiences” and then make it so people have a miserable time playing with their buddies.
As for NEW players, I do think SBMM should exist and specifically lump players under a certain experience criteria into similar lobbies.
