Players are Already Frustrated with SBMM in Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War Beta

Activision launched the early access beta version of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War for PS4 yesterday morning. It has only been a few hours since the launch and players are already complaining about the most annoying feature of the game. A lot of players have also claimed that the alpha version was much better than the beta, and there is only one major reason behind this judgement.

https://twitter.com/_TomHenderson_/status/1314277712752713731

The problem that is ruining all the players’ experience is none other than SBMM. Otherwise known as ‘Skill Based Match Making’ it is a system that decides the matchmaking. The system matches players on an equal skill level so keep the game ‘interesting’.

However, there are many ways in which Black Ops Cold War has got the SBMM wrong. The way Treyarch has implemented SBMM in the CW beta, it makes the system worse than the alpha version. Players were furious about the alpha, but the beta has them enraged.

Even casual lobbies in Black Ops Cold War have SBMM in the beta version

The most annoying things that players found in the few hours that they played the beta was the inclusion of SBMM in casual lobbies. Some players are willing to accept the provision of SBMM in rank, but it makes absolutely no sense in casual lobbies.

Players join casual lobbies to relax and have a casual gameplay. Moreover, they also try out new sensitivities, movements, and loadouts, among others. Having to try hard because the lobbies would be full of high-skilled players makes these extremely difficult.

The SBMM issue has take the internet, including Twitter, by storm. Professional and casual players have contrasting opinions on the issue. Everyone has their own opinion on the matter, with a few supporting it while other strongly against.

It appears that the opposition to SBMM mainly consists of popular streamers and competitive players. Therefore, it makes sense that this is the most visible, if not the most popular opinion right now.

The casual players, on the other hand, don’t really mind skill based match-making. For them it is a sign of relief because they won’t have to worry about ‘sweating’ if they are matched against players with much higher skills. Since the amount of casual players far exceed the streamers or the professionals, it is likely that Treyarch is going to be motivated to listen to them.

They announced that they will constantly update the games over the beta weekends, which means that some players can still have hopes about SBMM leaving the game. If the developers don’t remove the system completely, at least they can make it weaker than it currently is.