Is Skill Based Matchmaking (SBMM) Ruining Games?

By Mac Nelson

It's almost November! You know what that means? It's time for Call of Duty. The most prestigious and reputable arcade shooter franchise is coming back with their newest installment, Cold War. Fans are hyped to finally have zombies back after going 2 years without it. However, tragedy has struck the multiplayer fanbase when Treyarch confirmed that SBMM will be in effect in online matchmaking.

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For anyone who isn't aware, SBMM is essentially a grouping system that puts players of similar skill level in matches with each other. This means that human bots that have "no thumbs" can't get put up against Major League Gamers that snort G Fuel at 3 AM to hit a quickscope. This has left most of the community enraged because players don't want to have to try their hardest in every single lobby to just be able to perform decently.

Although this does help out the casual players who can only play a match a day or a couple of hours on the weekend, this leaves the above average players in a spot where they feel like they're competing in a Game 7 of the NBA finals every single lobby. This drains the fun out of casually playing Call of Duty and leaves a bad taste in avid players' hearts. Many people believe there should just be a ranked playlist for everyone who wants to try hard and leave normal public matches without SBMM enabled. Either way, i'm sure Call of Duty is going to soar over the rankings with Warzone going for a second stint and zombies coming back. So if I were you, I would get ready to drop some money on Activision Blizzard stock, because it's gonna skyrocket.

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