Completely agree. Honestly, I really appreciate how well you put this. You're absolutely right that the decline we’re seeing was probably inevitable to some extent, but the matchmaking system certainly accelerated it. And yes, the rise of smurfing and cheating absolutely feeds back into that same broken loop.
I also give Respawn credit where it’s due: showing the pre-match lobby skill makeup and letting players skip out early is a small but meaningful change. I’ve been doing the same, bailing on 60/40 lobbies where I know it’s just going to be a one-sided grind. You’re right: it’s not ideal, and it shouldn’t be on us to fix the system manually… but at least there’s "some" agency now.
But even that comes with a hidden penalty. When you dodge too many bad lobbies, the system seems to “punish” you by placing you in a match with a missing squadmate. So you load in as a duo while facing full trios. That’s not a bug, it’s matchmaking flexing its control, trying to coerce you back into accepting unbalanced games.
Also, in my case, I'd say 80% of my lobbies show my team in the bottom third of the skill distribution. And it’s baffling, I’m a top gold / low plat player, which is supposed to be where "most" of the population sits. It shouldn’t be that hard to place me with people of similar skill and throw in an occasional challenge. Instead, I’m in constant uphill battles.
And honestly, I believe !!this unfair matchmaking is one of the biggest root causes of toxicity in games!! When players are constantly thrown into impossible fights, frustration builds. That frustration turns into toxicity, blame, and eventually players either quit or lash out. EA keeps promoting *Positive Play*, but if the system itself is what creates negativity… then what’s the point?
Thiss!!!! Especially the positive play, how do they expect us to be positive when you’re literally trying ur best to win the game and you’ve been given the worst teammates you’ve ever **bleep**ing had. While high ranked while pubs ur bar is maxed to the right going against pred 3 stacks. This game is competitive it’s a shooting game they banned my day 1 acc for calling people out they didn’t look at the ban just boom ban and yes I cussed but wtf are we doing I hear worse **bleep** over the headset daily than anything I said in chat everrrrrrr and it’s frustrating getting teammates that don’t know what they’re doing when you know you have hours and hours and hours of gameplay for what? Bad teammates, catering to children playing a shooting/killing game while it’s competitive while you’re already at a disadvantage bc the MM, yet they’re like “ I don’t see any problems”😭
Matchmaking has been the worst in history since the patches in s23 or s24 (I don't remember which). That's all there is to it.
This matchmaking is only good for three-stacks with very high skill – they have easy kills in the lobby.
For everyone else – it's best to stop playing.
I can lose every game for hours in a row, the minute I land, and you know what my lobby looks like after 5 hours of constant dying? Like this:
I'm very sorry, but for casuals Apex Legend died 2-3 seasons ago. Goodbye, legendary game.
