In any case, Call of Duty Warzone players will surely be discussing the announcement regarding matchmaking for a long time. Some players are already looking for a new game to play while others are seeing the switch to a more relaxed matchmaking system as a win. Whatever side you are on, open matchmaking is certainly a hot topic.
To conclude, unless you have been residing under a rock, the gaming community and quite probably the world are going to be happy about the new Call of Duty Warzone Open Matchmaking feature. From the skin of the new season coming on December 4th, the SBMM system will not be applying a whole lot. That is a fact; the skill will just “minimally considered” as stated in the official announcement. As a result, a large part of the player base that has been screaming for the SBMM to loosen up over the years can now breathe easy.
Activision’s new feature “Open Matchmaking” means that the game will still match you with similar-level players but not so strictly. That doesn’t necessarily mean you will never play with players of different skill levels but they are trying to recreate the good old days of CoD characters; a total noob, a somewhat experienced player, and a highly skilled streamer all in the same match. That is the kind of atmosphere they want to generate with this new matchmaking system, or at least that is what they are promising.
However, the gamers’ online reactions are, to say the least, mixed. The response is really all over the place. While some people’s reactions are of high excitement, for example, the user Yin_NGMI just stated, “Fuckin finally! Holy shit maybe they are waking up.” Might This is a pretty good summation of the mood among gamers who found every match just a super sweaty ranked game disguised as casual play.
Skeptics arrived, however, and there are plenty of them. User CJFFGaming441 branded everyone who thinks differently as “sheep” and said, “Seriously, you can’t make this shit up…” Another player, KAIS3R_TTV, was more direct, expressing doubts, “They’re lying as always.” He said SBMM was nice for a few days but then it got unbearable again with people just complaining on the in-game chat. He even declared, “I don’t see a future for BO7,” which is very dramatic, but that’s how passionate people get about this stuff.
The situation in the community is somehow funny and it represents a strong division. Some players think “just play the game and stop whining” while others are sure that the matchmaking has been working against them. One user, Armon, had an interesting opinion, asserting that what we experienced in the beta was not really no SBMM but rather them collecting data to tweak the SBMM, not to get rid of it. He referred to the whole “open matchmaking” thing as a “big time rug pull” which, to be honest, sounds like the reality of how many gamers feel about Activision’s promises.
And then there’s the whole… wait what was I saying? Oh yeah, the whole thing about streamers and VPNs. A user going by ‘darkoroty’ said that “Streamers are playing this mode with VPN since 5 years ago!” which is a statement that cannot be disputed. The top players have been using VPNs to access easier lobbies for quite some time, so this new matchmaking may well be a leveler for the rest of the players. Or it might make the VPN thing pointless? Who even knows at this stage.
The timing of this announcement is also quite interesting. The Christmas Season is just around the corner which means, as it has been the case in the past, that many inexperienced players, the so-called “Christmas noobs,” will bring along less skilled players. One of the players, chemo65, actually pointed this out, stating “xmas noobs was the best Time of the year.” With open matchmaking, these new players might be directly put with veterans in the same lobby, which could be either funny or totally brutal depending on one’s perspective.
There are already some players reporting strange things happening under the current matchmaking system. User itsbeyxnd said that his main problem is not with the tough opponents but rather with “the tendency to give me lousy teammates.” In his opinion, there is still “an algorithm forcing me to take losses” which ties into the theory about engagement-based matchmaking that has been going around for years.
On the flip side – there are actually players who like SBMM. Yes, such players do exist! Streamingdeluxe just said “I really dislike Open matchmaking… SBMM is the most enjoyable way to play the game.” Probably, for less skilled players, the protection that they do not have to face the pros’ stomp every match is PlayStation and Xbox gamers alike.
