Faced with SBMM more polarizing than ever, many Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 players have found a radical solution: quit difficult games.
Skill-based matchmaking (SBMM), sometimes called engagement-optimized matchmaking (EOMM), is a system used in many competitive online games including Call of Duty to place players in matches appropriate to their level of play. .
This system, which seems obvious to some and scandalous to others, has always existed to a certain degree, but it has been considerably strengthened from Modern Warfare (2019). Five years after this change, many players say they are tired of matchmaking and no longer hesitate to leave games they consider too difficult, until they find more affordable lobbies.
A very popular post from the /blackops6 subreddit, published on December 30, goes so far as to invite all players to systematically leave difficult games in order not to “play the Activision game”. With more than 1400 upvotes in two days, it seems that a considerable portion approves of this radical message: “If the EOMM decides it’s your turn to suffer, leave each lobby until you find a good one”.
Hundreds of Internet users also upvoted the most popular answer in the thread: “My experience improved significantly once I started leaving games as soon as I detected that it was “one of those famous games”.
As always, the subject of SBMM divides. It is therefore not surprising that some people are outraged by such practices: “Pathetic Attitude, and Shitty Behavior for Your Teammates”or again: “No, I prefer to play and face whatever challenge comes my way”showing that anti-SBMM opinions are not universal, even though they make up the majority of posts in this particular thread.
Activision won’t remove SBMM anytime soon
Whether you want SBMM removed, softened, or like it as is, know that a drastic change to the system doesn’t seem to be on Activision’s agenda. The parent company of Call of Duty published a detailed analysis of matchmaking in July 2024 after a series of tests on Modern Warfare 3 where the SBMM had been completely disabled.
In this report, Activision concludes that “80 to 90% of players experience better placements at the end of the game, stay in the game longer and leave games less frequently” when skills are considered in matchmaking. In other words, SBMM increases retention rates and improves average player performance.
However, these findings do not reflect the concerns of the community, which is becoming more vocal every day. It is difficult to predict whether Activision will act in the future in response to this disgruntled portion of its playerbase.
In addition, SBMM is certainly not the priority subject for developers, while Black Ops 6 and Warzone encounter a pressing problem with cheaters, the number of which seems to explode in recent weeks.
