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Skill-Based Matchmaking is one of the most controversial systems in Call of Duty games. Many players believe that good performance is always met with harder matches that take away from the fun of the experience, and with the launch of Black Ops 7, conspiracy theories have resurfaced, prompting one of the original engineers of the system to respond.
In a detailed 40-minute video, Charlie Olson, who worked on the SBMM and MMR algorithms during his 10 years at Raven Software, explained the factual underpinnings behind the system and the reason behind the community’s frequent outrage.
Olson explained that SBMM has not been eliminated in Open Matchmaking as some players thought following Treyarch’s announcement on October 9, but only has minimal skill considerations compared to traditional rosters.
Olson responds to the widespread notion that Open Matchmaking is a sham and no different than regular SBMM and explains the real reasons behind it:
The lack of casual players at launch means that the majority of those entering Open matches are naturally high-skill players, making the experience feel challenging despite the lack of true skill rankings.
The lack of feeling different from the beta is not the result of a secret algorithm but rather the lack of player base in some lists.
Longer wait times and poor connectivity are due to Treyarch’s decision to bring back persistent lobbies, a system that increases the chances of players staying together but forces compromises in quality when the number of participants drops
Accordingly, Olson emphasizes that the issue is not a studio trick, but a complex balance between the number of players and available game modes.
Olson suggests that those who want easier matches can find that in the Open TDM roster, which typically has the largest percentage of casual players compared to the rest of the modes.
At the end of the video, Olson predicts that Black Ops 7 will become more skill-demanding over time, especially as the number of players on certain rosters decreases, suggesting that the game may go through similar ups and downs as XDefiant did before its demise.
Despite the harsh criticism, Olson believes that SBMM is not a conspiracy to punish players, but rather a complex system used to adjust quality, speed and balance, but in the end it is not perfect and can lead to frustrating results at times.
