What I'm looking for is some insight into how lobbies are made, and how XP is factored in. For context, I've been playing BR's (Fortnite and Warzone mainly) for 5 years, and jumped into Apex about 3 seasons ago. I've applied myself, put time into the firing range (studying recoil patterns, etc). My experience with lobbies started as expected. It was a meat grinder at first, but it made sense since I didn't know what I was doing. After applying myself, got the hang of the game and had around a 1 KD for a good while. Honestly the game gets fun for me at .8 or so (if that's consistent). After about 6 months of that, a switch was flipped. Now, a season and a half of being put in lobbies where I have zero chance to maintain the fun (or a decent KD) no matter how much I grind. I've been at .25 KD for ages now, with no signs of improvement. It seems to me that a game with such a massive player base could keep everyone *averaging* in the fun spot. Is the way the lobbies are affected by XP the reason? 180 XP for every *minute* you exist in the game (including in the drop ship), but only 50 XP for a kill? The game is unplayable for me now, but I'd love some insight into how someone who applies themselves are punished in this way. Is Ranked a better option/the solution? Thanks for any insight! 🙂

@reconzero Nail in the coffin my brother! Case studies done by UCLA with assistance from EA kinda supports what you say above."Every heard of EOMM? It stands for engagement optimized matchmaking, which is different than skill based matchmaking.This study by UCLA, with the assistance of data provided by four employees of Electronic Arts, the publisher for Respawn Entertainment and Apex Legends, took data from over 36.9 million matches from 1.68 million unique players.It discusses the EOMM model using variable inputs such as churn rate to optimize player retention, and discusses similarities to SBMM.In my own conclusion after reading through this, it appears that we actually live in a state of EOMM more than SBMM, but one that employs known SBMM logic and systems, which would explain why you have three excellent games in a row, which appear to be SBMM-related, only to get steamrolled on your fourth, and so on.Before you comment and rail Respawn, Electronic Arts, or anyone in particular, I suggest you read the length of the paper (8 pages including citations, not a long read at all). I'm posting this here for discussion purposes, not to ignite a fire in the community.If presented as EOMM versus SBMM, after reading this paper, would you feel better or worse playing under the parameters of this matchmaking algorithm?"Here is the paper -http://web.cs.ucla.edu/~yzsun/papers/WWW17Chen_EOMMYou be the judge.

@ChasingGeekdom I definitely don't have an answer for you, Lol! Best I can do, is point you over to this thread with a discussion about the recent matchmaking blog post that EA posted. Hopefully something in there can offer a little insighthttps://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/The-official-Matchmaking-blog-post/m-p/12220717#M229634

@ChasingGeekdomFrom my experience top 5s matter.

@damsonwhufndthis"if only the Champions got RP, there would be only Bronze 5 players and Predator and nothing inbetween in ranked"Not true at all. Number of wins divided by number of matches played. Take the data and bell curve it. You would have a player distribution exactly like we do now. My guess is that 1 percenters would be bronze, 2-3 would be silver 4-5 gold, 6-10 plat, 11-15 diamond, 16-25 master, 25+ predator. Or something like that. It isn't impervious to boosting, or to sandbagging, or to smurfing, but neither is what we have now, and it would have the benefit of encouraging players to think about the bigger picture. BR is not TDM. And now that we actually have TDM I've noticed that BR players continue to behave exactly as if they're in TDM. It's depressing and I would like to see the game do whatever it can to punitively discourage that kind of thinking.

@ChasingGeekdomJust speculating, and others have suggested this before: the game looks at a couple of different skill metrics, but it also looks very carefully at how many matches you play per day/week/season, how many matches you average in a row, and if there's a correlation between a really horrendous match and a log off. I suspect the game then assigns you an mmr, but also a "willingness-mmr." In other words, how much garbage you are likely to put up with before you sign out for the night. I know this sounds cynical, but EA is a numbers-driven company, and honestly, if I was at the helm, it's what I would be doing.Not 100% sure this is true, or where any of the affecting thresholds might be, but there's a consistent anecdote that when players set the game aside for fairly long periods (usually weeks or even months) then they return to a short spate of easy matches.

The KD Ratio Head Scratcher | EA Forums

26 Replies

dSKyNafinchin
Hero
3 years ago
@ChasingGeekdom I definitely don't have an answer for you, Lol! Best I can do, is point you over to this thread with a discussion about the recent matchmaking blog post that EA posted. Hopefully something in there can offer a little insight

https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/The-official-Matchmaking-blog-post/m-p/12220717#M229634
ChasingGeekdom
3 years ago
I'll take a look, thanks!
HappyHourSumwur
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
@ChasingGeekdom Apex calculates a skill rating for players and for premade parties and uses that to put you in lobbies and match randoms up with you. How they do it is a secret and Respawn has said they will never share the details because then players would exploit it.

Last matchmaking blog post (linked above) has details.
reconzero
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
@ChasingGeekdom

Just speculating, and others have suggested this before: the game looks at a couple of different skill metrics, but it also looks very carefully at how many matches you play per day/week/season, how many matches you average in a row, and if there's a correlation between a really horrendous match and a log off. I suspect the game then assigns you an mmr, but also a "willingness-mmr." In other words, how much garbage you are likely to put up with before you sign out for the night. I know this sounds cynical, but EA is a numbers-driven company, and honestly, if I was at the helm, it's what I would be doing.

Not 100% sure this is true, or where any of the affecting thresholds might be, but there's a consistent anecdote that when players set the game aside for fairly long periods (usually weeks or even months) then they return to a short spate of easy matches.
ChasingGeekdom
3 years ago
Gotcha, thanks!
ChasingGeekdom
3 years ago
@reconzero "Willingness" is very interesting! That's gone down quite a bit for me. Last break was for most of the last season. Came back and got torched, but (to be fair) my skills were not sharp at all.
damsonwhufndthi
3 years ago
@ChasingGeekdomlearning recoil pattern? have you tried using the "technique" on mouse where you simply remove recoil during certain actions?
ChasingGeekdom
3 years ago
@damsonwhufndthis Please don't judge me..........I'm on controller. {insert Homer disappearing into a bush gif here}
damsonwhufndthi
3 years ago
@ChasingGeekdomit's fine, controller has few tricks too, despite everyone claiming MnK is supperior in every way... untrue, mouse can't replicate constant movement without change of acceleration, analog stick can
hayhor
Hero
3 years ago
@ChasingGeekdom I know your kd is low but how is your placement? Do you top 5 a lot without fighting?