Earlier this week, Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment finally announced what fans have begged for since the game’s debut: a new matchmaking system and a breakdown of the “retiring” system. However, Ranked players are now sharing their unbalanced matchmaking experiences, differing greatly from what was promised about the current system. Due to the uproar, it appears one region should see improvements to its lobbies before the revamped matchmaking comes later this year.
The battle royale’s community recently made a striking discovery when user SurvivingWow first claimed on the Apex Legends Subreddit that their Ranked matches featured players of wildly different skill levels. They discovered that they were being matched with lower-ranked teammates who were dealing no damage and that they were primarily up against Diamond-Tier players as a Silver-Tier player themselves.
The post has since been met with more than 250 comments, most being made up of others sharing similar troubles. Most damning, Redditor Aneternalgolden stated they previously found themselves in a squad of two “low Golds and a low Silver,” while the Champion Squad the team faced was allegedly built of three Predator players — the mode’s highest possible rank. After these shocking stories make waves on Reddit, a Respawn technical designer with the username Rspn_exgeniar quickly reached out to the post’s creator, questioning if it may be due to their servers.
Just a day after the post had gone live, the developer has now confirmed this to be the case. In a Twitter post, Respawn noted those on European servers may have noticed “usual pairings,” and the studio plans on running tests through Monday to “focus on smurf detection and matchmaking by true skill.” It is unclear if this means the region will soon see the new matchmaking system come into play, nor if SurvivingWow’s post may have triggered the response.
However, the matchmaking issues do contradict how the current system functions. In its recent blog post, the developer showcased how squads are currently placed into one of four “buckets,” ultimately to sort out players of different skill levels before matches. Although it does state that high-ranked opponents can end up in kinder matches if they are “having a bad day,” it does not provide much evidence for situations similar to the European servers’ current struggles.
Thankfully, these unfair lobbies may be few and far in-between in the near future. Deeper into the post, the upcoming system is declared to be “more granular and has many more buckets,” making it less likely a squad of Bronze players encounter some of the world’s best players. In mid-January, Respawn even displayed how test servers enabled less-experienced Legends to obtain more eliminations.
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Along with changes to matchmaking, fans could see several other features in Apex Legends be changed dramatically down the road. For one, an insider alleged the battle royale will soon rearrange its character classes, providing additional benefits for some Legends. Meanwhile, the title may even be taking a page from Titanfall’s book, as rumors have pointed to a wall-running mechanic being in the works.
