While a lot of players have been complaining about the matchmaking in Apex Legends season 15 and how SBMM is worse than ever, a developer responded to a disgruntled tweet by Snip3down hinting at future changes.
Skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) has been the subject of debate among Apex Legends players for a long time. Now, Eric "Snip3down" Wrona's tweet on SBMM has attracted some attention. It looks like the developers have noticed the problem and are working on addressing it sooner rather than later. A developer responded to Snip3down promising at an upcoming change to the SBMM system.
Snip3down's tweet described how he was constantly getting matched up against cheaters and pred players while playing with his wife or other lesser skilled players in his squad. Samy Duc (@ricklesauseur) Technical Director for Apex Legends responded to his tweet with an explanation of the matchmaking system and potential plans to fix it.
SBMM is getting an update in December
Some good news for Apex Legends players is that they might not have to wait very long for the current SBMM system to receive an update. In his response to FaZe clan's Snip3down, he promised that SBMM will change and "mutate" to something else. These changes will happen anywhere between mid-December to New Year. He also promised more communication on the issue in the New Year.
SBMM isn't based on average skill in Apex Legends
Many players would assume SBMM is based on average skill in Apex Legends, but it isn't. The developer's explanation for this is that Average-based SBMM doesn't work well enough. The most skilled player in the squad has the maximum impact. However, he did admit that these issues exist and that the developers are working on them.
Solo Queue players are struggling with high-skill lobbies
Players are complaining about the matchmaking system being worse than ever in Season 15. Casual players usually get matched up against predator lobbies and smurfs in their early games. There are also several reports of cheaters running rampant and ruining games for players. Streamers and pro players are coming across them more often and complaining about it on Twitter.
It's good to see some communication and transparency from an Apex Legend developer about the Matchmaking issue. Season 15 didn't bring any changes to ranked matchmaking or legend balance. The concurrent player count is stagnating and Twitch viewership is dropping. Taking into consideration, the fact that newer games like Call of Duty: Warzone 2 and Overwatch 2 are attracting players, Respawn Entertainment will have to move fast with Apex Legends.