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SHIZNICKMASTA's avatar
4 years ago

SBMM In Ranked Open to Litigation

I often wonder if their version of SBMM is even legal. Especially because it is not really skill based, it is calculated to drive engagement which creates an addictive response. Anyone that has played enough understands that the game is manipulating their ability to win or lose based on recent performances. It is obviously unethical but could it be considered illegal? I think the fact that the same algorithm is working in ranked games takes this to another level. It creates an uneven and unfair experience where players that are worse at the game have an easier path to gain higher ranks than a player that is better at the game. If you don't believe this is the case I can assure you that it is. I recently switched to PC this season, my skill level quickly leveled up to the point where I am playing in lobbies littered with predators and 3 stacks of badged up players. At that point I decided to play ranked starting at bronze 4, most of the games I play even at that level have players with 4k 20 kill badges and though the experience is a bit easier than pubs it is still asinine to think there would be that many players with those badges hanging out in bronze lobbies, but the sbmm is pitting all the best players in those ranks against each other. I was watching my gf play in silver ranks last night and she could literally walk right up behind people and shoot them without them ever reacting and players just shooting out in the middle of nowhere while landing nothing. Players that have no comprehension on how to play the game at a high level. It is actually crazy to me to see that many bad players in the same game. So the SBMM is pitting all the poor players against each other even in ranked allowing them to achieve levels they should never be able to attain. In a ranked mode your rank is supposed to determine your skill level. Why is there a need to have an additional level of SBMM in a ranked with levels mode unless they just artificially want to drive engagement by allowing poorer players to achieve higher ranks. You say well everyone would smurf, but a great player smurfing will just level out of those lobbies very quickly and actually spend less time in the lower tiers then they will with this extra level of matchmaking. Again it is very unethical imo, but is it legal to market ranked as your skill level when one person's experience at a particular rank is vastly different than another players experience at that same rank. 

26 Replies

  • hayhor's avatar
    hayhor
    Hero
    4 years ago
    @CCbathwater From my experience it isnt hard to make my win rate fluctuate between 7 and 10%. Past seasons I was always 10% or greater. I prioritized taking on fights that made sense and leaving them if we were clearly overmatched, playing more for the win. This season I am at 7% due to playing more aggressively in lobbies that seem harder to begin with.
  • CCbathwater's avatar
    CCbathwater
    Seasoned Ace
    4 years ago
    @hayhor "prioritized taking on fights that made sense and leaving them if we were clearly overmatched, playing more for the win" <------- Could you tell my randoms this?
  • hayhor's avatar
    hayhor
    Hero
    4 years ago
    @CCbathwater Sorry but they dont care which is more along the lines of where I'm at. At this point I think I'm at 500 wins on caustic and 850 or so overall and really slow games kill me. I can handle them occasionally but not a lot now.


  • "What you complain about is the harsh SBMM that is currently in place. I'm not denying that the game became much harder, but expected this to happen the moment they announced Arenas. If your k/d is 1, SBMM seems to work pretty well for you, you're actually in the right lobbies it seems. But you're also unhappy, which is not good at all for engagement, so you are an example of EOMM not being present. You would feel better with your k/d at 2-3, right? well, for that you would actually require some form of engagement optimization and SBMM turned off, so that you would get into lower skill lobbies and decimate entire squads. No need for any numbers, it's just simple logic."

    This is fundamentally not true. I am an above average player so if there was no matchmaking at all I am sure my K/D would easily be over a 2 probably around a 3. But currently I sit at a 1.5. That matchmaking is keeping me much closer to one than if there was no matchmaking true, and it does cause me frustration which is also true. However if I have invested the time to become a player capable of having a K/D of near 3 than obviously I have put thousands of hours into the game because I am a diehard apex player and am unlikely to quit playing because they make my Lobbies harder. On the other hand for every 3 kills I get other players have to die 3 times. Those players being far more casual and less experienced players are more likely to give up getting waxed by tryhards. Therefore the system is built so that tryhards are not allowed to stomp everyone every game they are in but still allowing them to win enough to keep them engaged when they begin to get frustrated. On the other hand which is more important is keeping the casual crowd and letting less skilled players experience wins and feel good about the game so they will come back. To me it seems to be working exactly as intended. I always like to use my gf as an example because she is a completely average player. She is not a tryhard and refuses to practice in shooting range or try a pro controller but she has played the game the vast majority of the days since it released. When the game is too hard for her she wants to quit forever but the game keeps her engaged by constantly putting he in low skilled lobbies when she is struggling. The same thing happens to me but because my skill level is so much higher the fluctuation in lobbies are not as drastic. There has ben tons of people that have proved sbmm alters your experience based on recent performance. There are countless youtube videos of people killing themselves on purpose for multiple games until the game puts them into easier lobbies so they can try for badges. 

  • CruzZx's avatar
    CruzZx
    3 years ago

    Imagine saying with 2,5k Hours + that Eomm doesent exist in Apex and is to hard to implement... lmao ahahahahah u dumb???. Gatekeeping fanboy

    Nvm its 2022 now and its proven in Cod, Fifa and Apex that Eomm is changing midgame your health, your hitbox (better aim = smaller bullets = need to be more precise), spawns, ping, audio and overwatches all your ingame activity + purchases to adjust to this changes.

  • EA_Atic's avatar
    EA_Atic
    Icon for DICE Team rankDICE Team
    3 years ago
    This is on the older side of time, I'm closing this thread to stop it from being necroed.

    If you have any issues with APEX, please make a new topic about your problems and what kind of steps you have tried to solve them.

    /Atic

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