“SBMM” – aka skill-based matchmaking was a trending phrase on Twitter this week as the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War beta went live and players resorted to killing themselves over and over again in a bid to improve their experience with the game.
SBMM relates to the way matchmaking works in video games, and it has become a hot topic within the Call of Duty community in recent years. The idea is by deliberately gaining a negative kill / death ratio in matches, Black Ops Cold War’s SBMM will essentially demote you down its skill ranking, and then matchmake you with players more your level (or you’ll do better against).
The issue flared up with the release of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War alpha, which saw players complain its SBMM was too harsh and lobbies were “like COD League Finals”.
Watch on YouTube
But the issue was exacerbated with the release of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War beta on PlayStation 4 this week.
SBMM is trending on Twitter right now. 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/WFyehWTUdW
— BravoSix (@bravosixreport) October 8, 2020
To see this content please enable targeting cookies.
What’s interesting is it looks like Treyarch has tweaked the game to prevent players from killing themselves as soon as they respawn. As noted by Dexerto, Treyarch has made players invulnerable to all damage for a few seconds when they spawn in. Treyarch has yet to comment on this change (it wasn’t in the beta notes the developer published), but it is being taken as a bid to protect the game’s SBMM.