Poll reveals how CoD players want SBMM changed in Black Ops Cold War

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Skill-based matchmaking, otherwise known as SBMM, has been a huge talking point in the Call of Duty community over the past year, and a recent Dexerto poll might show how CoD fans want it to be tweaked.

Skill-based matchmaking is a feature that’s been on most Call of Duty players’ minds, as of late. In basic terms, SBMM matches players in online lobbies with others of a similar skill level, taking into account factors like K/D ratio, score per minute, etc.

This feature has been the subject of a lot of controversy over the past year. While every Call of Duty since Black Ops 2 has had SBMM in some way, shape, or form, Modern Warfare was well-documented as having some of the strongest in recent memory, and in just the regular modes, no less.

The topic flared up again during the recent Black Ops Cold War Alpha weekend, as higher-level players quickly realized that the matchmaking system was pitting them against similarly skilled opponents, turning what should have been fun, casual matches into ‘sweat-fests.’

In light of this, Dexerto conducted a public poll to which over 83,000 replied. The poll, which asked “does SBMM belong in Call of Duty matches?” offered four choices:

• Yes, it’s necessary
• Yes, but turn it down
• Ranked playlist only
• No SBMM at all

A whopping 51.2 percent of voters went with the third person, suggesting that Activision limit that sort of matchmaking strictly to ranked playlists only, such as League Play, which already features strong SBMM

Activision

While Modern Warfare was criticized for its implementation of SBMM, Black Ops Cold War is set to have a similar system.

24.6% want it completely gone, 18.4% don’t mind it across all game modes as long as it’s effects are turned down a bit, and the smallest group (5.9%) are fine with just the way it is.

• Read more: Scump explains why Black Ops Cold War’s SBMM needs changed

While we don’t know for sure, but it’s likely that the 5.9% was from the lower end of the skill spectrum – players who don’t want to suffer from facing top players without any SBMM to protect them. After all, that’s really why Activision’s keeping in such a system anyway.

Unfortunately, whether players like it or not, SBMM will likely never be removed from Call of Duty or even addressed in any official capacity by Activision and the developers.

• Read more: Black Ops Cold War needs serious work

To this day, despite numerous experiments and personal experiences practically proving that the system exists, the publishers have not even acknowledged it.

Of course, you can never say never, and the CoD community has proven in the past that with enough feedback and backlash, they can make a positive changes in Call of Duty.