Ninja and SypherPK explain how Fortnite\u2019s SBMM can be greatly improved Ninja \/ Epic GamesWith skill-based matchmaking under fire in Fortnite, Tyler \u2018Ninja\u2019 Blevins and SypherPK examined how softening it could be a simple improvement. Skill-based matchmaking has been one of the hottest topics in battle royale titles recently. Most recently, Call of Duty: Warzone fans have joined Apex Legends players in mass dissatisfaction with the feature\u2019s implementation. And, after months of criticism from Fortnite\u2019s playerbase, Epic Games reacted by removing SBMM from its Squads mode this past week. While streamers like Turner \u2018Tfue\u2019 Tenney were hype about the removal, Ninja and SypherPK took some time to examine why it is not the perfect solution. After stomping a squad with a player rocking a default skin, Ninja couldn\u2019t help but remark on the removal of SBMM: \u201cDo you think this is a good trade-off? If a lot of really good people start playing squads again, it\u2019s going to be really, really hard for bad players to get wins.\u201d And Sypher vehemently agreed, noting that he thinks the change \u201cstill has a lot of issues because \u201cit can get out of hand really, really fast\u201d\u2014with the examples of streamers already jumping solo into squads and \u201cdropping 40-bombs and stuff.\u201d Both eventually came to the same conclusion, that SBMM is important to maintaining reasonable competition but that it should be softened and made more dynamic so that queue times are kept short while lobbies don\u2019t get fully sweaty and full of campers playing like it\u2019s a monied tournament. As Sypher expanded, \u201cyou can still have skill-based, but it needs to be a lot softer than what it once was \u2026 there needs to be certain ranges.\u201d And, as for the possibility that lightened SBMM still makes life hard for new players, both agree that there \u201cneeds to be a mode where completely new players are in their own matchmaking system until they reach a certain level.\u201d With Ninja specifying that this should be an \u201copen, easy lobby and training area for trash and, not even trash, for brand-new players.\u201d At the moment, SBMM has been removed entirely or extremely relaxed in squads, and while that has given players some diversity in options, it\u2019s not ideal. The Fortnite pro commented that, since the game\u2019s playerbase is mostly amateur, removing SBMM is \u201cruining more people\u2019s fun.\u201d Game developers are notoriously secretive about their matchmaking algorithms, with Overwatch and League of Legends being prime examples of games that visibly rank their players to ideally even out playing fields. Using wins, kills and other metrics, developers are able to gauge how skilled a player is and put them against those that are at similar levels. But those effects are less debilitating at higher levels in MOBA-esque games, since top players will simply stick more closely to the meta. In a battle royale, however, players are forced into lobbies where many are cautiously camping areas to maximize their placement. Since that risk-averse playstyle is less fun, there needs to be a way to compromise between the enjoyment of high- and low-skill players. Perhaps simply softening SBMM provides that compromise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ninja and SypherPK explain how Fortnite\u2019s SBMM can be greatly improved Ninja \/ Epic GamesWith skill-based matchmaking under fire in Fortnite, Tyler \u2018Ninja\u2019 Blevins and SypherPK examined how softening it could be a simple improvement. Skill-based matchmaking has been one of the hottest topics in battle royale titles recently. Most recently, Call of Duty: Warzone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}