Who else thinks this is the beginning of the end?

Rather than comment on the matchmaking aspect of this thread (which I always tend to gravitate towards), I’ll instead comment on the allusion that mixtape and BR feel different— or rather, that the mechanics feel slightly different.

I have zero data to back it up but I have ONE HUNDRED percent felt the difference, specifically with my aim. I have fairly good aim overall but I often feel like I miss way more shots in Mixtape— as if my aim assist value (I play on PSN) is different. I also certainly feel a decreased performance in audio in mixtape— which probably is attributed to more fighting happening in a smaller area and that straining the audio engine.

I wonder if something is happening in the code in some Mixtape games.

@HappyHourSumwur  honestly kind of true, instead of easier games it's usually just similarly difficult ones but this time you have a former Master on your team that you put all faith into

Just when I think the general matchmaking can't get any worse with every passing season in trios along comes S21 & so far it literally blows other seasons out of the water just absolutely awful & it just epitimizes the massive gulf in pitting pre-made squads against solo queuing.Solo mode is okay but it isn't going to save the season for me & I still honestly believe it is only there as a means to retain some sort of player base of players like myself who are so cheesed off with the awful matchmaking & Respawn's complete inability to put any meaningful fixes to matchmaking that actually works instead of the old guff about players & buckets etc.Same bugs & issues in the game like input lag,hit reg issues,audio & visual clutter,rampant cheating etc & no new maps in any of the mixtape modes although in a way I'm pleased Lockdown is now in mixtape but as things stand there's no point me getting the Battlepass as I can't honestly see myself playing much of this season & it will just mean putting more time into playing Helldivers,Armored Core 6,Ghostrunner 2,Spidereman 2 etc.

We cant keep on blaming Respawn for all MM issues without acknowledging the amount of exploiting & smurfing thats being done. 

There are hundreds of videos/guides on how to get into lower skill lobbies to farm for content. So is the MM really broken or is it just AGAIN the people who are just worst?

I can easily see a just above average gamers getting frustrated by games for being so hard (dopamine hook) and resorting into exploits in the chase of that single match dopamine high. 

And when you have so many simultaneous players even a handful of exploiters can ruin all the lobbies for lower skilled players for their entire playing session using exploits. I guess it works like a cycle. 

Offtopic:
I entered Apex from Quake live when I got myself a better PC. Its a small game but has dedicated community following which has managed to keep the game alive for 10 years. 

IMO What keeps people playing is the open stats & skill elo stats https://qlstats.net/ . Its totally different PvP game since its an arena shooter but playing it doesnt get me frustrated because the stats are there. I dont get false confidence. I know my level against my opponents all the time. I think big factor with Apex is that you dont know. Could be cheater. Could be smurf. Could just Big Roberto etc (HisWattson) under new alias. Could just be pure lucky shot.

Another noteworthy thing is that QL is performing much better in comparison to its successor Quake Champions possibly thanks to pure shooter mechanics. No abilities, ultimates etc. 

I really need to get Helldivers (now that there is no PSN stuff anymore). 

I like this discussion. Really good inputs with not that much venting 🙂

in my opinion they should think less about building camo and put a lot more effort into how to counteract all these tricks used, cheats on third-party devices, aim assists and so on, now if you don't cheat you can't play anymore

Same feeling here, season 20 was the worst for me too. But that's just the peak, the degradation started at least 2 - 3 seasons ago.

Almost 90% of my games, on Xbox, were full of no-recoil/* aim and crouch spamming in this season. It always existed yeah but now it has reached a stupidly high amount of this *. 
I struggled finishing it, only a few days before it ends and almost exclusively in mixtape farming painfully "play X times/do X damages with ..."

Haven't played a single game in season 21 and don't even planning to. Even thinking about finally uninstalling it. Season 20, 5 years, those are good numbers to finally end it all.

Anyway to answer the question, I think it started to die a few seasons back and that's why we only have all the cheaters/try harders left.
And that their communication seems less impactful and more discreet than a few seasons ago, that the solo finally returns only at this moment, like they no longer knew what to do to stimulate their game.

Of course, I mean dying in number of players, and healthy players. I think that economically on the other hand, with the whales, it can still live for a good while yet 😉

@ZigoSid "Same feeling here, season 20 was the worst for me too. But that's just the peak, the degradation started at least 2 - 3 seasons ago."

S14 Hunted (Vantage's introduction) was absolutely horrible and looking back that was the start of the slide. Became really noticeable S18 and then just drove off the cliff S20, for me anyways.