Matchmaking has always been a problem in Apex Legends, but the issue seems to have escalated in the past week with some players even calling it horrendous and waiting to quit. Apex Legends is arguably the most popular BR and has kept growing since its release in 2019. This is all due to Respawn Entertainment dedicating all its resources to generate new content and not let the game phase out. But, as with all online multiplayer games, especially Battle Royals, Apex Legends has a range of issues. Errors are one thing, but matchmaking lies at the core of the game.
To summarize the most common complaint with matchmaking is that players with high Rank get matched in a team with novice with as low-rank as 20 or even lower. The players who have played the game longer and attained Rank 500 or around that are far superior to new players in strategy and gameplay and the match does not work. The level of understanding of the game between players does not match and that affects the strategizing. In a game such as Apex Legends, team strategy is crucial to winning, and with a lack of coordination between the team, the players with the high rank are frustrated with content loss brought by the low-rank team members.
Quite a lot of players are demanding Apex Legends skill-based matchmaking. While the game does have SBMM (undeclared), it may be lacking in some areas which are causing the Apex Legends ranked arena matchmaking issues.
We think that the Apex Legends matchmaking or the SBMM depends on a number of factors such as the Account level, ranked tier, K/D ratio, if you already have a squad, similar skill level, and the player kills and placement in the last few games. Based on these factors, matchmaking is decided in the game, but the mechanics are obviously flawed as the user report suggests that some of these criteria are not fulfilled all the time, which is causing the SBMM issues.
At the moment, we do not have any acknowledgment from the developers about the issue. Over the past week, the reports of such problems have only escalated. We will keep an eye on the situation and update the post when we hear something.
What do you expect from developers with subhuman brain capacity?
While a battle royale gamer needs to have a collection of skills, the most important is ability to hit a target. Everything else is to enhance hitting, or not getting hit. I wonder why developers don’t base matchmaking on simple hit percentage? Divide hits by bullets fired. With all the other stats collected by the game, keeping track of bullets fired and hits should be easy. I’m level 261 in Apex Legends, but also 52 and my reflexes have diminished in the last 20 years of FPS games. My level just means I’ve been with the game a while–it doesn’t mean I particularly good at it. Put me in a lobby with players of my ability, and I’m happy. Put in in a lobby with someone who can still aim really well–I’m feeling like quitting.