Adding the option to report smurfing is a step in the right direction but it’s not enough, and half the time it doesn’t let you anyway! I’m not sure if this is because people just set themselves to offline but it makes a mockery of the report option. Smurfs are everywhere, but most amusingly they are like a plague in ranked. Bronze is riddled with them and it only takes one Master/pred player to ruin a good match for regular players and steal what may of been a hard earned win and a load of ranked points. It’s sucking the enjoyment out the game and making ranked a complete joke. As for SBMM...well, how does it figure that my friends and I playing together as a squad of regular joes who are at best above average, have 6 awful matches followed by a hard earned win with a combined 14 kills and 4,000 damage are instantly rewarded with lobbies filled with Preds and Masters for the next 5-10 matches. After we’ve been destroyed by these sweatymcsweat pants a shed load of time we get a regular match that we do well in/win and the whole nasty cycle begins again! It’s really close to the point of us all walking away which is a shame because at its heart Apex is superb and we’ve invested time and money into the franchise and love to keep playing...but not like this, it’s just to stressful. Gaming has changed to a point where everyone wants to make a YouTube career out of it and it’s pushed the skill level out there through the roof but surely there’s still a way to balance things for regular people, after all we do make up the numbers and pay the bills.

@MandatoryIDtag Isn’t that a sad truth. The stories of how the SBMM and its similar systems work to make you spend are truly horrifying. I believe this plays a large part in why people feel generally unhappy with the SBMM all around,not just in Apex.

I don't even really think it's about playing or not playing preds at all actually. If you look at what is actually happening you'll notice that you get easy lobbies and hard lobbies.Lose enough times and the game throws you a bone or matches you with teammates good enough to carry a win. Neither scenario feels rewarding though. But I guess it's better than losing 10-20 matches in a row. The git gud thing goes right out the window in this game as getting better results in an even sweatier experience. I've been meaning to to a post about this issue but there's no use in doing so since this thread is being commented on. What I don't get is that more people aren't talking about this. You go to Reddit and see pretty much everyone saying they need to play 10-20 futile games to get 1 good game. Win that game and it starts all over. Same on YouTube's comments section. Literally 100's if not 1000's of replies stating the same thing over and over again in many different threads. My question is where does one go from here? I love investing in something I enjoy. But knowing what will happen here means I can't really do that. People have abandoned their main accounts and turned to smurfing because those accounts have reached the point of becoming unplayable. So, from that perspective is it even worth it to continue? I don't think EA realizes just how big of an issue this really is. And tbh I don't even know myself how to go about fixing this issue either.

@IdleHandsNo1I'm of the opinion that adding a higher level requirement for ranked would help reduce the issue with smurfing.the higher the better, but it is up to the devs to find the correct number.

@Axs5626Sxa5001 wrote:@Vdstrk Thank you and I wish you well. Obviously we disagree but the fact remains that we both want people enjoying the game. I was just thinking of posting a comment to say thank you to you guys for maintaining such a respectful conversation on a potentially contentious subject.

@IdleHandsNo1 I fully support this , preds and masters should not be in pubs with avg players .As you said it takes one pred/master stacked squad to ruin everything specially with the way they play this game which is hiding and waiting to third party only ,they go face to face only if they don't have a chance to camp somewhere.Premade stacked squad should go in pred lobbies only , not allowed to to get matched with avgs and to make it worse if it's as our friend here said that it's matching to our skill level and we get matched in a lobby with more than 50% of preds then atleast get us a capable teammates not matching us with 300 and 400 lvl players .No offense but if the game decide that am matching peed level then these 300 and 400 should not be matched with me ,the whole lobby will not be fair for them.And still I don't understand how a player like me sitting at 1.6 KDR is considered a match to pred or a master playersAs far as I know ,Apex SBMM is customized by Respawn but there is something wrong with it and the amount of people complaining about this system is enough indication that it need a change.Personally am really sick and tired of this, every single time I get them in my lobby90 % if my matches I get two lower teammates and a pred/master in my match

Smurfing and SBMM are beyond a joke

55 Replies

Vdstrk
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@IdleHandsNo1

I'm of the opinion that adding a higher level requirement for ranked would help reduce the issue with smurfing.

the higher the better, but it is up to the devs to find the correct number.
Axs5626Sxa5001
5 years ago
@IdleHandsNo1

Here’s the thing: the majority of your pub lobbies are comprised of players at your skill level. Sometimes you see a masters or pred team. But the majority of these players are not in your lobby— I know this because the majority (over 50%) of my pub lobbies are actually Master and Preds.

So for the most part, you are still indeed being protected from the majority of these players. You have no idea how insane lobbies feel when everyone is a Master or Preds. You make one mistake and you die; it’s not how pubs should play.
maximas1986
5 years ago
@IdleHandsNo1 I fully support this , preds and masters should not be in pubs with avg players .
As you said it takes one pred/master stacked squad to ruin everything specially with the way they play this game which is hiding and waiting to third party only ,they go face to face only if they don't have a chance to camp somewhere.
Premade stacked squad should go in pred lobbies only , not allowed to to get matched with avgs and to make it worse if it's as our friend here said that it's matching to our skill level and we get matched in a lobby with more than 50% of preds then atleast get us a capable teammates not matching us with 300 and 400 lvl players .
No offense but if the game decide that am matching peed level then these 300 and 400 should not be matched with me ,the whole lobby will not be fair for them.
And still I don't understand how a player like me sitting at 1.6 KDR is considered a match to pred or a master players
As far as I know ,Apex SBMM is customized by Respawn but there is something wrong with it and the amount of people complaining about this system is enough indication that it need a change.
Personally am really sick and tired of this, every single time I get them in my lobby
90 % if my matches I get two lower teammates and a pred/master in my match
IdleHandsNo1
5 years ago
@Axs5626Sxa5001 Wouldn’t that be a beautiful thing, but just to clarify...smurfing isn’t just a ranked problem. I’m sure it’s true that my matches aren’t full of preds but I’ve been playing a long time and just watching a handful of pred/master trails out the jump ship is enough to know it’s already over.
IdleHandsNo1
5 years ago
Lvl 30 wraith, 4K badge, 20 bomb badge, 100’s of kills.....she’s in my lobby along with plenty of others just like her, every match and let’s play the guessing game as to what her real account looks like? I’m pretty sure I know!
Vdstrk
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@Axs5626Sxa5001

There is another issue to matchmaking. Team composition, meaning individual player's skill level.
Basically, if you get assigned the "stronger player role" by the algorithm you will have 2 inexperienced players to carry through the match in a high skill lobby.
@maximas1986
Yep, it is not fun to have to carry, and it isn't fun to be carried either.
DarthValtrex
Hero (Retired)
5 years ago
@Vdstrk Very few make up into Master/Pred and lots of people don’t play ranked because they are not interested in the rewards.

What would a rank above Predator be? The top 100? They already offer that, your pred badge will display your rank number.

I don’t think a new rank would do much. If you’re suggesting a new rank for pubs, it will send even more of the top 2% running. Some of my Stats put me in the top .3% but overall I’m probably top 5% or so. I bounce in and out of try hard lobbies. Are they hard? Yes, but they are not impossible.
maximas1986
5 years ago
@IdleHandsNo1Just an example from today without picking ,am posting what I was able to record
@Vdstrk
@DarthValtrex
https://youtu.be/n2uy3bxFHwM
https://youtu.be/C01jMrPYE5o
https://youtu.be/drGrYUDC7sI
https://youtu.be/Y71xVUo0xvA
https://youtu.be/RiZoYQpJRII
And this used to happen in season 7 , a was in gold and plat rank but getting matched with predators , not previous season preds but. Current preds
https://youtu.be/R8lhEpMwquU
https://youtu.be/fIgpPdI1v2s
https://youtu.be/w8Kr4eryoN4
https://youtu.be/JljJPWjIpYw
Vdstrk
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@DarthValtrex

Oh. I think I may have given you the wrong idea.
What I mean, in order to start playing ranked, instead of being level 10, let's make it to be lvl 100 (or more depending on what devs think to be better?).
DarthValtrex
Hero (Retired)
5 years ago
@Vdstrk Sure I get what you’re saying, but I know some really good low level players who are not smurfs.

Most top rank players I know Diamond-pred have to grind most of the season to reach and maintain their rank.