Apex Legends devs announce new skill-based matchmaking system for “fairer matches”
The Apex Legends matchmaking team have provided players with an insight into how SBMM works in the battle royale game and outline details for a new matchmaking system.
Despite new content in the Apex Legends Spellbound Collection Event update, many players in the community have been disappointed with the way the devs have been communicating to the player base.
One of the things players wish the devs were more transparent about is the matchmaking system, however, that seems to be changing.
On January 17, Respawn Entertainment released a blog providing a “matchmaking update,” revealing incredible detail about the way matchmaking currently works in Apex, as well as how they wish to improve it in the future.
One of the biggest problems players have with the current matchmaking system is that it’s inconsistent when playing with friends with either a higher or lower rank. Respawn revealed that currently, Apex matches players with the party’s highest skill-rated player, which of course poses issues when playing with friends who are not at the same skill level.
This causes players to use smurf accounts to nerf their experience when playing with friends, which obviously shouldn’t be the case.
To help this issue, Respawn have announced that they are “working toward creating fairer matches compared to today as you play with friends of different skill levels.”
New Apex Legends skill-based matchmaking system
To do this and more, Respawn is retiring the “old Skill Bases Matchmaking” system for a new one, which they say will more accurately group players based on skill.
While the former matchmaking system “categorized players into four discrete (including one for new player) skill buckets,” the new system is described as “more granular,” with “many more buckets.”
Respawn believe that this new system will allow the “matching algorithm to make better decisions when placing players into matches” for both public matches and ranked, but we’ll have to wait and see.
If you’d like more detailed information on the current matchmaking system and how it works, as well as the new one, make sure you check out EA’s blog.
When will this new Apex Legends matchmaking system go live?
Respawn haven’t provided an official date for when this new system will be released, as some of the changes have already “gone live in certain regions and modes for testing.”
The old matchmaking system will be slowly phased out but the new, “region by region,” assessing as they go along. Eventually, players will be experiencing a fully new matchmaking system that hopefully provides a better experience.
For more on Apex Legends, check out why Dr Disrespect thinks Apex is the “hardest shooter” he’s ever played and who the most popular Legends currently are in the game.
Image Credits: Respawn Entertainment
