SBMM, short for skill-based matchmaking, may not sound like the most exciting topic in the world. But it’s become the focus of a fierce debate in the Call of Duty community, following complaints about the way matchmaking worked in the recent Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Alpha.
Over the weekend, a quick peek at the Cold War subreddit would tell you all was not well in alpha land: within 10 hours of the Alpha’s release, players started complaining their lobbies were “like COD League Finals”, and that players were struggling to keep up with the pace of play.
“The SBMM in this game is way too harsh,” said user FrostyTheSunbro. “I have a 1.4 KD in Modern Warfare and I’ve been usually going about 2.0 in this alpha. Had a really good match where I went 22 and 6 and the next five matches were me going negative, going about 6-8 kills and 15-20 deaths.
