In the age of Battle Royales, Skill Based Matchmaking is a major talking point. Not many features are as polarizing as that one and for good reason. Since Season 2, Respawn Entertainment has incorporated SBMM in Apex Legends as well. However, not many haven’t taken kindly to it. Claiming they haven’t had fun for the past few seasons, these users have started to demonstrate their discontent, in-game. While a healthy protest is always good, what when the protest itself becomes a bigger menace than the actual issue?
SBMM in Apex Legends sparks a debate
In theory, SBMM is meant to help players improve with every game. Those lacking certain skills are matched with players of the same ilk and can lean and improve with each game. High-skilled players are matched with similarly skilled so they can hone their skills further.
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However, many believe SBMM has no place in games like Apex Legends since it takes away from the casual fun they’re hoping to get from it. If you’re matched with similarly skilled players, chances are you’re going to have to slog for a win.
As you can imagine, the highly skilled players are the ones who are more averse to SBMM than the others. These are players with a high K/D ratio. With SBMM in place, they have a harder time maintaining that high ratio since they’ll come across players who can just as easily beat them.
A poor form of protest
Players who oppose SBMM have run out o patience with the devs. In order to force the devs to change this feature, many have resorted to an unsportsmanlike tactic.
They’re no longer interested in reviving downed ‘random’ teammates.
A Twitter user named ‘The Bot Lobby Connoisseur’ or Apex_Latest has urged fellow players to protest against SBMM by refusing to revive knocked teammates.
😂
Viva la revolución! pic.twitter.com/zldkfywJGh
— The Bot Lobby Connoisseur (@Apex_Latest) May 9, 2020
— The Bot Lobby Connoisseur (@Apex_Latest) May 9, 2020
He is definitely going all out to protest against the feature.
Because it brings more attention towards SBMM if this starts to happen in every public match, and then maybe the devs will actually do something about it after 6 months of ignoring and sarcastically mocking us
— The Bot Lobby Connoisseur (@Apex_Latest) May 10, 2020
If they see all the spam they might look at it and realize what the community wants, not saying you should stop the protest but maybe find another way of doing it?
— nyelise.exe (@NaptainCyelise) May 10, 2020
We’ve tried getting our point across through communication, not only on Reddit where 99% of posts on r/ApexLegends at one stage were about SBMM but also directly to the devs on Twitter.
They won’t listen so – 6 months later – this sort of in-game protest is probably worth trying
— The Bot Lobby Connoisseur (@Apex_Latest) May 10, 2020
That’s how the matchmaking used to work before SBMM 😅 I think that’s the way forward as well.
Give new players a safe space to learn, and match everybody else against each other randomly. There are enough casuals to drown out the sweats so *everybody* can have a good experience
— The Bot Lobby Connoisseur (@Apex_Latest) May 10, 2020
Until Season 3 we had separate lobbies for new players but it was random for everybody else and there were no complaints whatsoever
— The Bot Lobby Connoisseur (@Apex_Latest) May 10, 2020
My lifetime k/d is 5.7 and I have 4k and 20 bombs on 5 different legends. You say that you’re matched “with predators” – well I AM a Series 1 and Series 2 top 500 Predator.
I bet your k/d isn’t anything above a 1.5 otherwise there’s no way you would be in favour of SBMM in pubs. pic.twitter.com/Lp9NUd1r7O
— The Bot Lobby Connoisseur (@Apex_Latest) February 22, 2020
To his credit, the explanation rings true and the developers haven’ exactly been very forthcoming or responsive. However, the method of the protests still seems unfair towards those who are simply trying to enjoy the game. Taking away other players’ joy because you are feeling a lack of it is hardly the way forward.
Many from the Apex community have spoken out against this “toxic” protest too.
The fact that there are dudes "protesting SBMM" by not reviving teammates is incredibly stupid
Who is wasting their time thinking that's gonna accomplish anything?
"oh this guy and his 10 retweets on alternate accounts really showed us, time to "remove sbmm" I guess"
— David (@frozenfroh) May 9, 2020
it's a "protest" made to make other players suffer so respawn "has" to act
it will achieve nothing, it's just a dumbass account spreading the idea and giving it retweets with fake alternate accounts
— David (@frozenfroh) May 9, 2020
Not reviving random teammates who usually are lower-tier players anyway (lower-tier meaning less skilled/less experienced) makes for a less enjoyable experience for them overall. Somewhat defeating the purpose of SBM as a whole.
Hope that makes sense. Hope I'm not missing
— afflixtions (@afflixtions) May 10, 2020
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I’m gonna assume y’all have seen this guy around encouraging players to not revive downed teammates in a protest against SBMM. People are actually falling for this shit. If you’re one of these people, please, don’t do this. You’re just ruining the game for everyone,you won’t get rid of SBMM this way from apexlegends
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While it’s easy to understand why players are miffed with SBMM, this is not the solution. That is simply turning the same into one big mess.
So, here’s hoping we can come up with a better form of protest. And hopefully, the devs are more responsive too.
