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SBMM in Warzone Has Gotten a Bit Ridiculous: Stealth Update Might Be at Play

By Chaz Frazer

Skill-Based Matchmaking in Warzone has been a bit out of control lately. My experiences seem to add up with those of other top players of the game.
Skill-Based Matchmaking in Warzone has been a bit out of control lately. My experiences seem to add up with those of other top players of the game. / Photo courtesy of Infinity Ward

Skill-Based Matchmaking is nothing new in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Officially revealed to exist in both multiplayer modes and Warzone, the algorithm aims to pair up similarly-skilled players into the same lobby - with mixed results.

Recently, pro players, streamers and content creators have noticed that the difficulty of lobbies has been cranked up to almost smothering levels. Gunfights upon landing are super-sweaty hardcore firefight fests from the get go.

Meant to be a tool to help players improve as they get stronger - by matching them up with other gamers at their level, the implementation of SBMM has often had the opposite effect. Once you reach a certain level, no matter where you turn it often feels that you are matched up against players and squads who would not be out of place on a pro CDL team; hyper-aggressive frag monsters.

SBMM in Warzone Has Gotten a Bit Ridiculous: Stealth Update Might Be at Play

This sentiment has been echoed recently by pros and streamers such as The Xclusive Ace and Drift0r - and also reinforced by the extremely strong players they partner up with for Duos, Trios and Quads. The consensus has been that as of Monday, June 15 the level of difficulty in Warzone has been almost unbearable. A system such as SBMM which is made to help balance the playing field in terms of player skill should not be punishing players for getting good at the game, yet that is exactly what is happening.

Toning Down SBMM in Warzone

Player sentiment across the board has been that they are simply being paired up against other teams that are all super sweaty, and surviving one gunfight simply means that the inevitable third party raid is coming to hose you down with Damascus Graus and take all that hard-fought loot. Take opinions for what their worth, but a consensus of dozens of pros, streamers and strong players such as TimTheTatman and Nickmercs sharing the same sentiment points toward something being changed regarding SBMM behind the scenes.

Infinity Ward has been notorious for implementing stealth and hidden changes to Modern Warfare since the game’s release, so something like this isn’t outside the realm of possibilities. Perhaps we have all just gotten so good at Warzone that we are now all dumped into the same skill-bracket and have to battle it out with no recourse like the hackers and cheaters that plagued the game during the Spring - but one could only hope to have such wishful thinking.

As a potential solution, perhaps Infinity Ward might consider lowering the threshold for whatever how-many-levels of skill division there currently is running as an algorithm deep inside of the game’s code. Doing so could open up lobbies to a more diverse group of players, while also mitigating the time it takes to find a lobby in the first place if there are not many available players sitting in your skill level. Another is to add a ranked mode and give the option for gifted and strong players to battle it out together - albeit by choice - while keeping core Warzone modes essentially SBMM free.

In the meantime, be wary celebrating that 20-kill Warzone victory. You might be in for a bumpy ride for quite a time afterwards.