Skill-based matchmaking continues to wreak havoc in Apex Legends, and one player has shared a rather funny theory for why Respawn Entertainment haven’t shut it off.
Skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) has arguably been the most controversial addition to Apex Legends, with a large majority of the vocal player-base calling for Respawn to take it out.
No one knows exactly when SBMM was enabled, but there’s been more than enough evidence that it exists, with several developers themselves essentially confirming it and even going as far as to justify it.
The reason why so many players don’t like it is that it turns the casual playlist into a ‘sweaty’ game mode, essentially implementing a ranked-style format despite the fact that there’s already a separate ranked mode.
Despite all of the complaints, there’s no indication that SBMM will be going away anytime soon, and one player thinks there might be a comical reason for what that’s the case.
Reddit user shares funny SBMM theory
According to Reddit user DEA_PL’s amusing theory, the reason for why Respawn haven’t turned off SBMM might be because the players themselves are contributing to its seeming success.
“Players hate SBMM so they smurf. Respawn sees large uptick in players since SBMM. Respawn has data that shows SBMM works. People made SBMM not go away.”
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Smurfing, as the user alluded to in the post, is the act of making a fresh new account to avoid matching up with higher-skilled players because the main account is already ranked too high.
While the user did label the post as ‘Humor,’ it did get a lot of attention on Reddit, and many took to the comments section to discuss the possibility that there might be some validity to this theory.
It wouldn’t be totally out of the question; Respawn themselves have said their SBMM “might need some tuning potentially,” admitting that the system may be flawed in its current state.
Regardless, considering how young the game still is, and the SBMM even newer, it’ll take both time and work until the system gets closer to perfection. Until then, players can at least inject some comic relief with funny theories like the one above.