Just before and just after a new season starts are typically pretty brutal. All the kids/cheaters/smurfs jump back in based on the hype and to check out the new stuff. The matchmaking doesn't know what to do with it all and puts you with people you have no business playing with or against. Voila! Difficulty turned up to max.
Thought I'd have a break for a bit. Played a couple of hours this afternoon, didn't even get a knock down let alone a kill đđ¤Łđđ¤Ł
I've been playing since season 2. Its been tough at the start of some seasons but nothing like this! It's gone completely crazy??
Iâm hearing and feeling something completely different though.
Matchmaking is actually pretty tight right now. My wait time for a pubs game is significantly longer than it usually is and everyoneâ I mean this, EVERYONE in the lobby is a 4k 20 bomb player. Even my random teammates.
So the absolute overwhelming majority of âsweatsâ are indeed all playing each other.
I checked in with my other friends who are in the average skilled range and theyâre all reporting that matches have less super-high skilled players in them.
Last night I ran a small test and intentionally performed poorly for 50 consecutive matches. I was not dropped down into easier lobbies.
So my hunch is that Respawn adjusted something with the matchmaking.
@Axs5626Sxa5001 wrote:Iâm hearing and feeling something completely different though.
Matchmaking is actually pretty tight right now. My wait time for a pubs game is significantly longer than it usually is and everyoneâ I mean this, EVERYONE in the lobby is a 4k 20 bomb player. Even my random teammates.
So the absolute overwhelming majority of âsweatsâ are indeed all playing each other.
I checked in with my other friends who are in the average skilled range and theyâre all reporting that matches have less super-high skilled players in them.
Last night I ran a small test and intentionally performed poorly for 50 consecutive matches. I was not dropped down into easier lobbies.
So my hunch is that Respawn adjusted something with the matchmaking.
You played 50 matches in one night? That's pretty unbelievable.
And I would like to add thatâ not having easier matches after FIFTY LOSSES, is just ridiculous.
Youâre locking above average players into outcomes that will end up being worse than below average players.
And no offense to anyone reading this, but people should not have outcomes (wins, placements, etc) at similar rates if their skills are vastly different. Weâre not getting paid to play this game. Playing in ranked is akin to playing in a league, but public matches? These should play like a tournament despite nothing being on the line?
Above average players who have lives (working 50+ hours a week, family, etc) but who still put effort into improving should have outcomes different than those who donât improve.
Comparing competitive activities to economics is NOT a perfect comparison by any means. But the fact remains that you support skilled people having better outcomes (better pay, better positions) than less skilled people. Againâ itâs not a seamless analogy, but the underpinnings are: proficiency should = better outcomes.
@LaughingSharkoI intentionally died early. So yes, I absolutely played 50 matches. The idea that you think I would lie, despite being heavily invested in the matchmaking conversation here on the forums, is a bit disrespectful. It took hours, like many of the other matchmaking experiments I have conducted (and shared here).
@Axs5626Sxa5001 wrote:@LaughingSharkoI intentionally died early. So yes, I absolutely played 50 matches. The idea that you think I would lie, despite being heavily invested in the matchmaking conversation here on the forums, is a bit disrespectful. It took hours, like many of the other matchmaking experiments I have conducted (and shared here).
I never said you lied. I used the word unbelievable in the sense of incredible. I am surprised anyone would go to so much trouble personally. Even if you died within a minute and got into a match in another few minutes, you still probably spent three + hours on this.
I'm sorry if I gave you a different impression.
@HappyHourSumwur
Well said.
But hear me outâ if the algorithm is indeed doing that for EVERYONE who had a good match, then that would means that many average players would CONSTANTLY be in higher MMR buckets. But if thatâs true, then those high buckets would consistently be compromised of average players (who just did well their last match).
But this isnât the caseâ because you literally donât see a multitude of these players in high MMR lobbies.
High MMR pubs are quite literally all 4k, 20 bomb High Diamond-to-Pred. Average players arenât roaming around in these lobbies. THIS is why I am vocal to people who scream âmAtChMakIng dOeSnT eXisTâ, because they arenât even aware of what actually is happening at the high MMR level.
@Axs5626Sxa5001I'm not in those Pred lobbies (top 1 of 4, I think) you mention, but my guess is that I'm in 2nd tier lobbies when I really belong in 3rd tier
The blog post mentioned increasing the number of lobby tiers along with a whole bunch of other changes that I thought might actually work. That was all false hope though and I should have known. Shame on me for falling for it.
That's the morphine drip of Apex matchmaking though. This game is SO good when it all clicks and you have success that it keeps you coming back for more despite getting punched in the face over and over again.
@HappyHourSumwurYeah man, I hear you.
And I DEFINITELY donât want to come across as âscrew everyone who isnât top tierâ.
I 100000% agree with you that this game sucks you in with its superior gameplay only to consistently punch you in the teeth, lol.
Also, as it pertains to those buckets, I think they finally expanded it from the 4 buckets that it was before, to a multitude of buckets. I think this change rolled out last Tuesday (before S18)
> Last night I ran a small test and intentionally performed poorly for 50 consecutive matches. I was not dropped down into easier lobbies.
I have experienced this on last week of season 17... constantly dying and nothing changed in the MM.
My very first game in pubs this season:
As we fly further there were even more master trails...
I normally have a kid of 1.3 and it took me 7 matches to get a knock and 8 matches to get one kill. My KD after about 50 rounds is .53
@Axs5626Sxa5001Based on my experience at the start of S18, it looks like MM kicks in at 10 matches. Statistically significant would be 6 but 3 points are a trend. The common sense test for me is about 3. If you immediately die in your first fight 3 times in a row, you are in the wrong lobby.
Placement shouldn't be a factor either given how much ratting can affect that. It is really about the quality of and your performance in the first fight, regardless of when it happens. Losing a tighter fight (i.e.-relatively equal damage) should be considered a "better match" than being steamrolled (i.e.-one team does way more damage than the other). Lots of things like positioning & RNG loot factor into that, but once it happens about 3 times in a row, I feel it is time for MM to drop you down a lobby.
to get to master is also easier now as it was before season 17. At least with random players. cause I also reached it, playing only with randoms.
