I dunno what you got out of this, the video didnt really say anything that wouldnt be intuitive. Waste of 15 mins to say the least, couldve summed it all up in a sentence.
@@meltedjax3619 well, I just got recommended this video at that time and got me thinking about the state of the game, I have left CoD and now I think CoD is dead or at least the new one
I’m so happy to hear that I’m not crazy when the gaming experience differs from weekend vs weekdays...it’s a much better experience for me during weekdays and a bloodbath while playing on a Saturday evening. Thanks Ace!
It's the case with all online games. People don't work or are at the university on weekends or after 6 pm on weekdays. Outside of those times periodes you'll generally just find kids or people who don't have any pressure (in terms of time ) to play, so less tryhards.
It's literally always been like that wdym. Most people play on weekends and Fridays. I always avoid playing on the weekend and find something else to do until Monday.
As a solo player that is fairly skilled the amount of validation this man ace is giving me is life. I really like playing GW and invasion and I definitely get the worst players on my team with the game expecting me to carry. It's not fun after a while. Now I just hop on during the weekdays get a couple of AC130's then hop off for that week. it's funny cuz the matchmaking system is designed to "keep me playing" but it does the exact opposite now.
Because that's designed to keep the AVERAGE PLAYER hooked not specifically you. The average player doesn't even know a manipulative matchmaking system exists in the first place
It’s meant to keep the average player (95% of the game’s population) hooked, rather than the 5% of pubstompers and pros. It must work pretty well in that case if they’ve kept it that long. I remember one of my friends talking about Cold War when it was first out and how much fun he was having with it, and I asked him about SBMM and if it was ruining the game for him (for reference, he’s around a 0.7-0.8kd and I’m a 1.8-2kd) and he told me, “who gives a shit about that? You’re probably one of the tryhard guys that it protects against” so yeah lol, it’s probably great for 95% of people but not the 5% of sweats like us haha
I appreciate the transparency Ace! I've always suspected SBMM would punish you in solos, by teaming you up with lower skill players. I've found after a good run of 3-4 games, I find myself on a team where I'm top of the board and no other player on my team posted a positive KD.
That's my biggest issue, I don't mind a challenge with playing equal level players, but WHY DO I GET MATCH WITH DOG SHIT TEAMMATES. Like it's always my team that will drag me down in those lobbies, it's frustrating
@@BetaBreaking they do this because you're a high skilled outlier, and in order for them to give you everyone the same skill as you they would have to increase sbmm, which would exponentially increase wait times to where you wouldnt be able to find a match. If they team balance you with lower skill players then you can still find a quick match where every team has an even chance of winning (50-50), as every games matchmaking system tries to do that
this might be just a pipe dream but I honestly hope that when Ranked comes out they'll either remove SBMM or heavily tone it down. I'm sick of getting stuck in lobbies with like 100+ ms of ping constantly just cause I do well
I played a match late at night/early morning, i found it almost instantly was full of noobs, I got a nuke easy. Then after I couldn’t find another match ping would go up to 100+ trying to find sweats. Had to get off because I couldn’t find a match anymore
The EOMM is pretty much the only reason I’ve stepped away from MWII. After a while all the matches feel artificial and gamified which is far more draining than a more natural approach like ping based match making. I’ve always said that the whole EOMM thing felt like scrolling on TikTok/reels because it’s essentially the same algorithm. After a while you feel absolutely drained.
EOMM doesn't make sense even for bad players. Our squads avg. k/d is somewhere around 0.9 and still in warzone we have played against WSOW participants or with people on my team who play the game for the 2nd time ever but we are in the sweat lobby ( Caldera ). This is just WTF ! Game is punishing you for wanting to play it. I have found that playing less gets you better lobbies..How can a game when you have been doing bad decide you to put in a 1.26 k/d lobby @ peak time in WZ for example? It's just mind-blowing. Just the fact that someone who played the game for 2 years and got 26 WINS and in the same time was in the TOP22% of the WHOLE player base speaks volumes. I'm not surprised that player count has been dropping hard. There's literally nothing to play for.
You're being manipulated constantly. They bait and switch you by giving 1-2 easier game to start a night, to make you think it'll be fun and you'll do well, then they give you matches with all the no life loser sweats who bought skins and blueprints to make you think you need to buy them too in order to compete. And you will get those until you open up the wallet. F off, Activision
I don’t see them taking it out tho. Maybe they’ll tune it down but it won’t go away. They want the players with negative K/Ds to keep playing their game.
People who watch Xclusive Ace on a daily basis like us are exactly the kind of players the developers want to keep away from noobs, most of them don’t even know about SBMM
I think one of the biggest things we lost loosing ping based matchmaking is the social aspect to it. It wasn't uncommon to recognize some names in your lobbies and see them In game often. Maybe you would chat with them and because it's ping based they might end up being close by you. Not a bad way to make a friend or two. But ya good luck hearing about that happening again with engagement optimized matchmaking. It's great to have some community.
Yeah, there was a PSN friend I had that unfriended me cause we didn't play together anymore and literally the next day, we ended up in a team together back in MW3 and we subsequently became PSN friends again.
Totally agree. Back When I played IW and WW2, actually make friend a lot because I saw them like in every lobby when I play. Either they're on the enemy team. They still regconize me and later will team up with
The off-peak hours tip has mixed results for me. I definitely feel the lobbies are harder during weekends, but I also have an easier time when players are off of work and get on the game. This makes logical sense because it's just more likely for higher skilled players to be on during off-peak hours since they typically have more time played than the average player.
Yup, decided to play around 7am eastern and there was an enemy trio going 50+ kills in one of the normal lobbies(no small maps queue). Quickly decided MW2 was not the move for wakin' and bakin'
@@EgoCarry1 - Sometimes I'll play around 4-5am thinking the lobbies will be calm but then quickly realize that the squads that play all night are the only ones on the game 😂
I just want a true public walk on experience. Some people might be better, and some might be worse. I feel like in current state I’m playing against only good players. I struggle to have a positive K/D and it’s no fun when everyone is so freaking good.
Then in that case... all the people who say the SBMM is manipulating players to keep coming back like a slot machine are wrong. If it's supposed to be a cycle of hard games followed by easy games to lure you back, but all your matches are hard.. then the only thing I can think of is that they can't find anyone that's worse at the game than you are to keep you motivated. Which is doubtful because there's kids that play, so it's not likely to be the case. Or the SBMM *isn't* doing what people think it's doing. My experience is different from what people describe as well. All of my games are average. I'm never dominating, and I'm never getting dominated. All of my matches feel average and well balanced. I wouldn't change a thing and am loving the experience. However, that's not the "hard and then easy" experience some describe, nor is it the "always hard" experience you describe.... who knows what the heck is going on?... 🤔
@@DerekMoore82 well, as I understand it there's a "protected" bracket for those severely under the average, I would assume if you're in that you only meet people of comparable skill.
@@jongustavsson5874 Wouldn't it be funny if the majority of average players who are just playing normally are in average matches where everyone has around the same 1.0 k/d ratio and the experience is fair and good. But then there are these bot lobbies comprised of people who are playing bad on purpose to reverse boost, and then really hard lobbies where the cheating wall hackers and aimbot users are, and so only those people who were trying to game the system were being punished by the yoyo effect of the SBMM trying to make sense of the scores that don't add up?
@@DerekMoore82 no I don’t reverse boost nor game the system and I get ass blasted by yo-yo lobbies constantly. It’s like 3 games playing in the CWL for millions of dollars, then 3 games against people who don’t have working thumbs, then the cycle repeats
6:50 I think it also feeds into you first strategy of limiting the pool, when you have a full party it stop you from joining high level games that only need one more person for a full lobby.
I remember in mw3 you could look at the kd of each player in the lobby before the game started. It was usually a good mix of really good players and bad players. The games felt so much better back then and before.
I’ve resorted to playing just ground war not because I want to but I find there is more of a mixed player base. Quite sad as I love 6v6 but I don’t enjoy it in this game because half the time I feel like I’m playing in an esports final
Not really part of this argument, but the studios all collectively removing the map vote that we all grew accustomed to reads a bit odd? Like don’t get me wrong, having 24/7 playlists for certain maps on rotation is a good quality of life change, especially if you just wanna hop in and get out as fast as possible. But the map vote added engagement to the lobbies before the game even starts! I remember multiple times having the vote piled against me, being the first to vote for the other map, and that map winning. It was a super cool thing that added variety to the game, but now you have to play what your matchmaking determines. Also, the fact that sometimes you get placed into a match you CANNOT back out of is ridiculous, especially for a triple A studio. Thanks Ace, keep up the amazing work!
Lower populated game modes is for sure the way to go for an old school COD matchmaking environment. It felt like I was playing against a lot of below average players, the enemy team would have maybe 1 or two players who would match up pretty evenly against me. Bounty felt great for this
Man, I had so much fun with this game for the first month it was out. Skill level seemed even, I was averaging 1.3-1.5K/D on every gun I was leveling up(except the m16 and FTAC which I gave up on until DMZ came out). Nowadays if I’m not in peak physical and mental condition prior to sitting down to play, I just get clapped over and over. Like I have to warm up with an aim trainer for like 15 minutes minimum or my reflexes will just be too slow to do anything in 6v6. And when I am on point and twitchy AF, I’m still going like 1.1 K/D with my best load out. It’s basically ruined the gaming experience and I feel like I wasted 70$.
@@hacimdoowlla2730 Been playing BF2042 since it dropped on game pass. It’s annoying sometimes when your team is getting dominated by vehicles, but overall it’s been more fun. Even the TDM mode seems like big step in the casual/enjoyable direction. I still pop on MW2 every once in a while when I’m feeling scrappy, but usually I only last about 4-5 matches before it puts me into the next tier sweatshop and crushes my fighting spirit.
6v6 is just full of kids on Adderall sweating their balls off with untouchable reaction time. I'm getting older now so my reaction time is naturally getting worse and I while I still do pretty good in most lobbies there's games where some kids just outplay me based on reaction time alone. With fast ttk and fast reaction time it feels like you die before you can even realize you're seeing someone on screen. If I'm feeling sluggish I don't even get on anymore because I already know what's going to happen.
By far the best playlist to get around SBMM is the third person playlists, they seem to not have SBMM or just never have enough players to actually match you up.
It didn't occur to me that choosing only the less popular gamemodes (which I actually tend to prefer) would give me better lobbies. Looks like I'll double down on them
I went back to Modern Warfare 2019 while waiting for season 2. The game is significantly more fun and laid back because of what you said in this video. It's obviously still there, and it will match you with players who slide cancel every milisecond, but the SBMM isn't anywhere near as agressive as MWII is at the moment.
I had a moment of deep self-hatred and bought MWII last weekend. I put in a lot of time to get good at COD several years ago. On an older COD I can still go back and get anywhere from a 2 to a 5 KD in most lobbies. If I struggle there the worst it gets is a about a 1.2. In MWII every game is painful. How is this system meant to "keep me playing longer"? The result is exactly the opposite. I play about four matches and get fed up with bouncing between a .4 and a 1.4 KD and just shut it down and do something else. I hate what they've done to COD.
I can't help but stare and admire that AK skin so crisp and clean using a nice shade of white with a perfect amount of black to accentuate the whole thing making the white stand out even better without drowning it out mmm love it.
I’m a PS4 player. I got so fed up with just getting absolutely railed in every match that it occurred to me to turn off crossplay. Immediately I noticed a day and night difference. The matches were so much more fun and I felt like I could compete.
Disabling crossplay was the greatest tip you ever gave for this game. I started doing It when you mentioned it on another video at the start of the MW2 life-cycle. Thank you a lot for your hard work! Amazing content
I don't know if someone mentioned it, but you can also disable crossplay on Xbox but you have to do it account-wide since there is no option for it in MWII's settings. Just a quick search will give you the steps on how to do it and just restart MWII and you'll then be playing with only Xbox players.
One thing I hate is when I get in a bunch of sweaty lobbies where I keep losing then they put me in a bot lobby. It just makes me even more mad because it’s basically telling me I suck.
@@markhackett8387 No bunny hopping every corner, prefiring, a team pinging you and rushing you, spammed grenades, drop shooting, team of taqs or spr. If you have none of those you are in a normal lobby or bot.
For some reasons Ground War is always very fun with a lot of different playstyles, from spawn camping snipers to people who rush objectives or people who play vehicles. And it's the closest feeling I got to the "no SBMM" feeling. Probably because it's a very niche gamemode.
These are great tips, my dude will be looking into that router. One note you can also disable crossplay on Xbox by going through a set of menus under settings, you can find the video for that with a quick google. The only downside is this is for Multiplayer only you cant play, Spec-Ops, DMZ or Warzone with it enabled.
disable crossplay is a HUGE difference done it for 3 years now. Also Ace... Playing at peak times is actually FAR better then playing while people are at work/school. when you are playing while people are at work you are more likely to find simular people who grind 24/7 who don't work or have education etc
This would be true for below average players since their odds of running into higher skill players increase but for skilled players, it's extremely obvious that off-peak hours tend to yield a better mix of lobbies. It's literally a night and day difference.
The fact that a video has to be made like this proves that the system is a terrible thing… like you have a fan saying don’t play at nights or at weekend. Well done activision :(
One huge tip that was missed is to play the Big Team modes exclusively when you want to chill and ONLY ever play 6v6 when you are ready to sweat hard. That becomes a pleasant mix after a while.
I would say stay in the lobby and start camping. The game will shit on you for the first half, then will allow you to draw even by the end of the match. Either way, you're taking the L. May as well keep your K/D intact
Well said. They opened Pandora’s box as soon as they went away from latency based matchmaking. Intentions could have initially been good but anytime you’re trying to rig the games for any reason whether for competitiveness or engagement it ruins gameplay. Just roll the ball on the court set the rules and let us play. Things will naturally work out. Some players will be sweaty some average and some bots. The way it always was. The way the natural world works. I don’t want help when I’m bad and I don’t want to be nerfed if I get better at the game.
I was starting to wonder why it seemed like I ALWAYS get paired with less skilled players...I swear about 75% of the games I play I'm in the top one or 2 of my team. Now it makes more sense why. I kinda wish they would add a ranked mode with SBMM, and a casual mode without SBMM so that I could choose whether to have more chill games or to have more ranked/competitive play. Maybe the XP earned could be different between the two to balance it?
Great honest video!! Love the recommendations here Ace! It is sort of like your constructive feedback towards Activision… but just to help the player base around against this decease with a positive mindset ;-) As you perfectly mentioned; EOMM is nothing different than a slotmachine trying to get you hooked!
Personally for me the matchmaking isn't that bad the only problem is that every two or three games I get in lobbies where there's one or two people (usually enemy team) who drop 40-plus kills in tdm and everybody else in the lobby only has 10 or 15.
I just don’t know why there’s a new lobby every game. That’s one feature that made those games great. Going from talking trash to being put on the same team created more friendships than making me find a new lobby every time. SBMM would not be an issue for most people if that feature came back.
Xbox can also turn off crossplay. You just have to go into the console's setting itself to turn it off (under the 'communication and multi-player' settings). Not as elegant as an in-game specific toggle, but it's only a few seconds of menuing to turn it off or back on.
To answer the question near the end of the vid: I've only been limiting the player pool cuz I only enjoy TDM and KC anyways but it's nice to know that it helps with the matchmaking experience lol, great vid as always!
7:23 I've been saying this for years. This right here killed CoD MP for me. Everyone calls you crazy and says you just blame your team. Even though nearly every match you are outscoring them sometimes all combined. It was my team holding me back the whole time. I couldn't stand it anymore. The guy with 2 kils and 24 deaths will not drag me down ever again.
You know why SBMM is so extreme? We keep watching and sharing these youtubers obsessed with the best strats and weapons. It doesn't matter what game it is, it's the same thing.
The real way to stop SBMM and deal with tough players Switch to the "Smoke grenade ninja" class. Use a weapon with high mobility, then use Dead Silence as a field upgrade. Then equip 2 smoke grenades, and then also use the "Smoke airdrop" as your second field upgrade. As you die over and over from the sweats, just keep throwing those smokes. Eventually, you'll have 8-10 built up all at once, then you drop the airdrop. The sweats that are camping can't see anymore, and it forces them to move around
One thing I've found is that if you rage quit when you're getting stomped, and don't open the game for a few hours, you'll often get much better lobbies when you return. So if you're having some amazing games, SBMM ramps up and all of a sudden you're 5 and 15, I just rage quit. The SBMM is optimized for engagement, so any negative signaling (you showing you're not going to play because the difficulty is too high) tells the algorithm that it should lower the difficulty on you. This works quite well actually. Generally this means I only continue playing when I'm having good games - as soon as the game quality goes to shit and I start losing a lot, I quit. Sounds kind of annoying, but honestly, that is what the system is set up for. Some players thrive when they're struggling, and will actually play longer when they are losing often. I make sure the algorithm knows that making the game harder for me does not lead to increased engagement.
I only play mornings and early afternoon and let me tell you it's a huge help, I refuse to touch the game after 3pm and weekends are a big no go. I'm not the greatest player, I have a 1.2 K/D in MWII but if I play later in the day or not weekends I'm playing some absolute demons, when I play early on weekdays I typically get 3-4 easier games and then a couple tougher games. Another thing that helps is the camo grind, there's some guns that are just killers of your K/D and when you're grinding those guns you'll find that after a few games you'll start to get the easier lobbies, you just have to be willing to suffer through those tough games
Do you think not playing for a few days helps as well? Couple months back, I was only able to play once or twice a week and each time I played the lobbies were fine. It wasn’t until I started playing frequently again that my lobbies began to be sweaty back to back.
This is definitely a thing. It's in a lot of mobile games (Candy Crush! - stuck on a level for ages? Have a few days off, go back and the RNG will be your best friend).
You're totally right about the different gameplay depending on the daytime. At evenings and weekends there are also many squads playing and this can be very stressful and frustrating for a not squad player like me.
The problem I've been noticing is something weird happening half way through certain matches especially hard point. My team will be dominating the hard points for the first half of a match. Then all of a sudden it gets extremely hard to get kills or hold a hard point and the other team will almost make a complete comeback. I think the game is messing with hit detection during mid game to make matches feel more competitive and close so one team doesn't feel completely destroyed.
as a 1.0 kda player, I have had very little complaints with the matchmaking. It seems pretty good for your average gamer. I get some easy lobbies, some tough lobbies, and some average lobbies and i tend to be top 3 on my team in most games
Yes, the problem isn't that this isn't happening. The problem is that it's predictable. Oh, you just had 3 good games in a row with an average K/D of 2,5? Too bad! Time to face the elite CoD players. It's not organic. But then again, as Ace mentioned, SBMM benefits bad players, makes average players sometimes uncomfortable and completely sucks out the life essence of the above average player.
I am a 1.14 kda player which is basically the same and it's a completely different story for me. I really can't enjoy the game now because it has almost never given me fair lobbies. Most of my lobbies are rather sweaty and then I try my best (and I am not talking about getting top of the leaderboard, no) the game gives me even more sweaty lobbies. Sometimes game give me "easy" lobbies where I can make 30+ kills (with kd 2-2.5), but only for 1-2 games. And then again... Is it some kind of a joke? I am getting tired by the game and not enjoying it, and it is very sad, because I dont think it's bad( Dont get me wrong, I dont want only bot lobbies for myself, it's not fair, it's not balanced, it's not interesting at the end of the day. I just want some kind of consistency and fairness. Nobody likes this system. As the Ace said, it's just a manipulative system to make you feel that they want you feel about the game. I miss so much fair equal game without only sweats or rookies in the lobby. I almost never get it now(
@@openday93 I'm confused... isn't 1.14 kd a fair experience? You're not negative.. and you said yourself that the 2.5 was when they put you against "rookies" for a minute, and you didn't like that either... so what *do* you want? Precisely 1.8? 1.9? Sounds like even more controlled? Or do you want it so random that you go from 100 kills 0 deaths in one match to 0 kills 100 deaths the next? If you're averaging 1.14 with occasional 2.5 then it sounds like a great experience to me.
@@DerekMoore82 you didn’t understand me at all. What you wrote above is exactly that I do not want at all. This is the main problem. I almost do not have fair lobbies with my k/d at 1.1-1.2 which is almost equal kills/deaths. Most of the lobbies I got either sweats and negative kd for me or sometimes easy lobbies where I am at the top of the leaderboard with kd 2 or 3. Mostly because of this easy games I got my ~1.1kd. But I don’t want this. Play several games sucking hard and then 1-2 easy games just to improve my kd, and then again pro lobbies. That’s just not right and it’s not fair at all for everyone. I want something between, mixed lobbies with average players. That’s all. I understand even without sbmm I won’t be getting such lobbies every time, but at least they pop up several times a day)
Thanks for the video Ace and I appreciate the transparency! Hopefully this helps others try to take some of the manipulative factors of the game into their own hands. Between SBMM and the hardcore mode (not the realism tier 1 system) being non-existent.. I haven't had much desire to play this game which is a bummer because I have always enjoyed CoD.. Still patiently waiting for an actual, true to it's history, hardcore mode to be released..
I don’t even think SBMM removal would make this game enjoyable to me. Bring back advanced / exo movement tbh. That would at least make me mentally engaged with the game. I feel so tuned out whilst playing.
Is there any tangible evidence of a system that alters things during a match as well? Like something that causes you to do less damage in a match? I've seen a few people in the Steam discussions talk about this. And from my experience of MW2 (and other CoD's since MW19) im starting to think these rumours are correct... Having used certain top weapons in a match. Dominate with it and then suddenly it's as if the damage goes down and i can't get any kills.
I actually posted a comment very similar to yours before I read your comment. I notice this happening the most on hard point. My team will be absolutely dominating the other team for half of the game and then it feels like a flip of a switch and my team can no longer get kills or hold a hard points. The other team will almost make a complete comeback by the end of the match. I think they mess with the hit detection of the winning team so the game feels more competitive for both teams or something.
@@BretCahill That is part of the rumours on Steam as well. The other teams hit box apparently shrinks depending on how well you're doing or your team. I seem to have experienced this multiple times for AND against me. On people standing still (AFK) and moving. Using semi auto weapons i see it far more. Aim is directly on them, centre chest, but the shot goes right through without damage.
Wait im confused do you want more compepitive games or more steam roll games? When you say a "better" mix of games you mean more lower skilled players right?
I want more variety in public matches where you never know what you're going to get; some hard games, some easy ones, and everything in between. If I wanted constant competitive games, I'd play ranked play so I can at least see my skill rank and track improvement over time but that doesn't currently exist.
yeah, all this "I dont wanna be punished for playing good" is just a code for "I wanna stomp noobs for my videos". If you want to stomp, go play bots, dont ruin experience for new players.
@@justusnixx “don’t ruin experience for new players” what? 10 minute tdm games that go to the score limit because no one gets more then 15 kills? Bro, do you just have no memory of how cod used to be, everyone got stomped at one point no one complained. Why do people get so upset over stomping noobs these days. It was a regular thing pre mw19. Now everyone winges at the sight of someone killing a level 20
@@lRagingl I play this series since 2009. I don't care if you encounter noobs and stomp them naturally. But when you actively trying to avoid system that tries to find you opponents on par with you, you just acting like a spoiled lazy brat
@@lRagingl also, I dont see the hate for SBMM from the majority of players. But I do see A LOT of videos with negative feedback for SBMM from streamers, who doesnt really care for it, they just want easy lobbies for "impressive" montages. And its not just the COD series, you can see it in Destiny 2, etc, etc
I tried messing with my Netduma Router when Cold War came out and set it to regions with a low population which helped me get my first nukes back then with a ~ 2.7 kd and it worked just fine. Can confirm your tipps work! Thanks Ace!
Let me be more specific. The average skill level of a player in 2023 is probably at least double that of what it was in 2009. You’re just not gonna run into many people that don’t know how to play
@@bradenmchenry995 Definitely I should, but that’s the general sentiment around the sbmm. If you’re a pro or play competitively this doesn’t affect you. I, with a 1.2 k/d ratio, want to have fun after coming back from work not get frustrated.
Ace you, Nero, MrJalek, MDB, and other big TH-camrs should start a petition to have a complete playlist for casual players PING related domesticated dedicated lobbies
most of your issues with SBMM don't affect 90% of the playerbase, almost everyone is around a 1.0 k/d which means the lobbies don't tend to vary much anyways and we always have people to connect to so ping is never an issue for the majority, unless you live in an internet desert
The reason everyone's KD is the same is because of SBMM. When your KD should start going up, it will put you against players that are doing better and balance you back out, and for the better player that's when the game is helping their KD because lately they've been getting shit on by better players than them, and the cycle continues.
I remember going 43 to 12 on a TDM the other day. I said to myself, "Sbmm is going is gonna hit me so hard." Low and behold, the next 2-3 games, I'm getting my butt whooped by a team of my skill level, and horrible teammates of my own.
Halo 5 had a great ranked system. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Onyx, and Champion. And you could definitely feel the difference as you leveled up. I miss that game
The best way I’ve found to get easier lobbies is to play with your friends that are a lot lower skill than you. It’s still fine if you with you’re friends that are really good, but as long as you join lobbies with at least half you’re players being of low skill (for example 2 high skill 2 low skill) you’re lobbies will be infinitely more easy. If you really want to crank it up a notch then, the more you go above that ratio with lower skilled players (example 1 high skill, 3 low skill) the easier the lobbies will be.
Due to SBMM I can now predict when I need to log off for the day because the congealing and increasing sweat of my enemies between each lobby tells me I don't want to keep playing after a certain amount of matches
I'm so glad I'm not the only one that absolutely despises the matchmaking system in this game. I even get put in harder lobbies of I get a 1 k/d The last round. It's absolutely insane and if they keep this up I'm never buying a Call Of Duty game ever again.
This makes sense to me now. I've always felt like I've never had an issue with SBMM, I've been a COD player since COD4:MW and my skills have improved over the years, I find myself mostly breaking even most of the time and don't feel the sweat but over the last few years I only find myself playing during off peak hours, since my days off work are Tuesdays and Thursdays and that's when I get most of my games in, from morning to afternoon then in the evening I do other things and then usually play after midnight (EST) before going to bed.
I want everyone mixed together and it is what it is… like the old days (ranked can be another animal). With SBMM and dumping lobbies every match there's ZERO social aspect to playing this game and really no incentive to put in time. It was a sense of accomplishment and a point of pride to play CoD and get your butt KICKED until you learned the maps and the weapons. Then you were rewarded with getting to do the kicking on new players. Also, I made SO many friends playing CoD in the olden days but most of them no longer play or I'd be in a party EVERY MATCH to at least avoid MY team getting separated every match.. I returned Advanced Warfare after about 20hrs and haven't bought a CoD until MWII (I was coerced by an old CoD buddy who said it was good... LOL, right). Anyway, it's insane to me how many videos there are like this one, of players with Stockholm Syndrome, trying to show us how we can make the best of a really BAD situation that we are paying exorbitant sums of money to participate in. It's even more telling that I specifically searched TH-cam for this kind of "help".
Time of day really matters. 11am - 4:30pm is the softest lobbies. 4:30pm - 11:30pm are sweatfests both multiplayer and warzone. Sundays all day are the sweatiest lobbies and probably the worst day of the week to play
There's such a simple solution to this whole thing, and that's just to completely remove SBMM and let matches be totally random, as it used to be. It use to be exciting.
The whole player engagement thing is ridiculous. I used to play hour after hour of CoD in years gone by, but these days I feel burnt out after a few matches.
Time of day is huge for lobby quality. I have a “golden hour” that I’ll keep secret. But 1pm-4pm in whatever time zone you live in will be the best time. And if you want to avoid sweats don’t bother playing after 8pm.
i just play how infinity ward designed it. i camp hard asf and never move. almost never go negative and don't care about win loss. that's what IW wants. and i'm super aggressive in treyarch games. the worst part of all of this is that a video like this is even necessary.
For wanting people to play the game as mush as possible, sbmm seems to do the opposite. I’ll get online, and my first two games are really fun. Then sbmm kicks in and my matches just get harder and more frustrating as the night goes on. That doesn’t make me want to play. That makes me go “okay the game’s not letting me enjoy it anymore, so I’m getting offline”
I must confess the ping thing does my head in on MW2 - I consistently get stuffed into a server with a ping higher than 50 - and then get killed by people with a ping running less than 20 - sometimes less than 10. I have found ways of getting around it - but its painful and means leaving lobbies before they launch. Its the thing I love about battlefield - I get a fixed server list, and can chose where i play, which then allows my game to be consistent. (Usually around 25). I also have stopped playing with mouse players (sorry folks), I tend to not join servers if the majority are playing with a mouse set up. The odd one can be fine, but some are just negative experiences. I might try limiting my play to PS only, and see if that improves things. The game is so inconsistent - and I assumed it was just my ping - but thank you for explaining this, it now makes sense. I hate that the beta was decent, I had a KD ratio of around 1.3 (not brilliant), but in the game it has dropped off to around 0.94 now - and the games lack of consistency means there is no way I can ever recover it back to 1 even. Which annoys me, as it is down to the servers it puts you in.
I couldn’t agree more about the time of day has an effect, I know that’s definitely true. I had a week day off work last week, jumped on at about 10am and it was taking me 15-20 minutes to find a game where it couldn’t find my skill level to match to then eventually put me in lobby’s where I’ve never had so easy! I mean REAL easy.
For PC players, you can use Firewall to block high ping datacenters for COD. No need for expensive router, just few days of collecting IPs and blocking /24 range on firewall. No more 100ms+ servers after few games.
@TheXclusiveAce , one of your long time fans here. I just wanna say the thanks you've probably read a bazillion times, but thanks for being awesome! Keep up the fantastic work! I hope to see more of you and Drift0r collaborating in the future, as you guys are just both phenomenal human beings and beacons of hope in the CoD community! Also think I ran into you once in CoD WW2, was honored to have you fighting by my side!
It's not about limiting the pool of players you play with. It's about the time of day. Mornings have so many easy players. Midnights are full of sweats. I'm below average or average at best and I get in sweaty lobbies almost every time if I play late at night.
From my experience the best way to enjoy the game with such heavy sbmm as an above average player is if you’re not in a party is expect to lose and just focus on having fun otherwise the game will be very frustrating as an above average player you are going to be expected to carry your team hard every single time if you want to get a win and trust me it gets exhausting and the fun goes away very quickly when you’re trying to win all the time just use fun classes and don’t care about winning it’ll help enjoy the game a lot more this is coming from a 2+kd search player
I'm a Battlefield player and MWII was my first taste of MP in a modern Call of Duty. The EOMM made me actually quit MWII and buy 2042 instead. It was just too frustrating to deal with. You either alway stomp or get stomped. The good games in between where so few that I was done after 80 hours.
Not for me. I never stomp and never get stomped. Probably because I'm average and they can always find enough average players of my skill level. Probably you're just really good and so it struggles to find opponents who are the same as you or something?
We reached a point in CoD that we have to search videos like this to have fun
I dunno what you got out of this, the video didnt really say anything that wouldnt be intuitive. Waste of 15 mins to say the least, couldve summed it all up in a sentence.
@@meltedjax3619 well, I just got recommended this video at that time and got me thinking about the state of the game, I have left CoD and now I think CoD is dead or at least the new one
@Anderchu2008 now I know why yt streamers are king on warzone
I’m so happy to hear that I’m not crazy when the gaming experience differs from weekend vs weekdays...it’s a much better experience for me during weekdays and a bloodbath while playing on a Saturday evening. Thanks Ace!
Exactly!!!
Bruh, Wednesdays seem to hit completely different.
It's the case with all online games. People don't work or are at the university on weekends or after 6 pm on weekdays. Outside of those times periodes you'll generally just find kids or people who don't have any pressure (in terms of time ) to play, so less tryhards.
It's literally always been like that wdym. Most people play on weekends and Fridays. I always avoid playing on the weekend and find something else to do until Monday.
Thankfully I often work weekends so I have weekdays available to play when it's easier
As a solo player that is fairly skilled the amount of validation this man ace is giving me is life. I really like playing GW and invasion and I definitely get the worst players on my team with the game expecting me to carry. It's not fun after a while. Now I just hop on during the weekdays get a couple of AC130's then hop off for that week. it's funny cuz the matchmaking system is designed to "keep me playing" but it does the exact opposite now.
its doing its job. Its meant to weed out the players who arent dedicating infinite time to the game and constantly seeing things to buy from the shop
Same. If I get a couple of crappy lobbies I just turn it off. There's no incentive (or point) to put in time knowing that I'm being manipulated.
Because that's designed to keep the AVERAGE PLAYER hooked not specifically you. The average player doesn't even know a manipulative matchmaking system exists in the first place
Funny thing is SBMM wasn’t in GW in mw19 which is why I loved it. I basically only played gw and snd
It’s meant to keep the average player (95% of the game’s population) hooked, rather than the 5% of pubstompers and pros. It must work pretty well in that case if they’ve kept it that long. I remember one of my friends talking about Cold War when it was first out and how much fun he was having with it, and I asked him about SBMM and if it was ruining the game for him (for reference, he’s around a 0.7-0.8kd and I’m a 1.8-2kd) and he told me, “who gives a shit about that? You’re probably one of the tryhard guys that it protects against” so yeah lol, it’s probably great for 95% of people but not the 5% of sweats like us haha
I appreciate the transparency Ace! I've always suspected SBMM would punish you in solos, by teaming you up with lower skill players. I've found after a good run of 3-4 games, I find myself on a team where I'm top of the board and no other player on my team posted a positive KD.
Yeah it's uses decent players to carry losing teams. Happens to me too problem is even if I get a 10kd my team will lose.
That's my biggest issue, I don't mind a challenge with playing equal level players, but WHY DO I GET MATCH WITH DOG SHIT TEAMMATES. Like it's always my team that will drag me down in those lobbies, it's frustrating
@@BetaBreaking they do this because you're a high skilled outlier, and in order for them to give you everyone the same skill as you they would have to increase sbmm, which would exponentially increase wait times to where you wouldnt be able to find a match. If they team balance you with lower skill players then you can still find a quick match where every team has an even chance of winning (50-50), as every games matchmaking system tries to do that
@@BetaBreaking I feel your pain.
@@hydb801 man thanks for the explanation. Sucks that it ends up being a 1v6 most of the time 😭😔
this might be just a pipe dream but I honestly hope that when Ranked comes out they'll either remove SBMM or heavily tone it down. I'm sick of getting stuck in lobbies with like 100+ ms of ping constantly just cause I do well
I played a match late at night/early morning, i found it almost instantly was full of noobs, I got a nuke easy. Then after I couldn’t find another match ping would go up to 100+ trying to find sweats. Had to get off because I couldn’t find a match anymore
Ranked will not change anything and they will not remove SBMM, the same was with Cold War and Vanguard.
pipe dream indeed
@@calmarfps I'm just hoping they maybe could with how strong the negative reaction has been for 3+ years towards SBMM
Yup, it's a dream.
The EOMM is pretty much the only reason I’ve stepped away from MWII. After a while all the matches feel artificial and gamified which is far more draining than a more natural approach like ping based match making.
I’ve always said that the whole EOMM thing felt like scrolling on TikTok/reels because it’s essentially the same algorithm. After a while you feel absolutely drained.
never used Tik Tok but I'm definitely not going to now.
EOMM doesn't make sense even for bad players. Our squads avg. k/d is somewhere around 0.9 and still in warzone we have played against WSOW participants or with people on my team who play the game for the 2nd time ever but we are in the sweat lobby ( Caldera ). This is just WTF ! Game is punishing you for wanting to play it. I have found that playing less gets you better lobbies..How can a game when you have been doing bad decide you to put in a 1.26 k/d lobby @ peak time in WZ for example? It's just mind-blowing.
Just the fact that someone who played the game for 2 years and got 26 WINS and in the same time was in the TOP22% of the WHOLE player base speaks volumes. I'm not surprised that player count has been dropping hard.
There's literally nothing to play for.
You're being manipulated constantly. They bait and switch you by giving 1-2 easier game to start a night, to make you think it'll be fun and you'll do well, then they give you matches with all the no life loser sweats who bought skins and blueprints to make you think you need to buy them too in order to compete. And you will get those until you open up the wallet. F off, Activision
@@kingart23actually bad players, between 0,7 to 0.9 are used us fodder
Yea you know sbmm is getting bad when we have to find ways/loop holes around it, that should be a sign to the developers to not put it in the game
I don’t see them taking it out tho. Maybe they’ll tune it down but it won’t go away. They want the players with negative K/Ds to keep playing their game.
Yeah unfortunately nowadays in the gaming industry. The customer is just never right.
You know that the players suck when they have to beat SBMM in a game made for bots
People who watch Xclusive Ace on a daily basis like us are exactly the kind of players the developers want to keep away from noobs, most of them don’t even know about SBMM
@@Thunderlord_Tozn I stopped playing because of sbmm, and if the next cod will have sbmm I wont buy it.
I think one of the biggest things we lost loosing ping based matchmaking is the social aspect to it.
It wasn't uncommon to recognize some names in your lobbies and see them In game often. Maybe you would chat with them and because it's ping based they might end up being close by you. Not a bad way to make a friend or two.
But ya good luck hearing about that happening again with engagement optimized matchmaking. It's great to have some community.
Totally agree
Yeah, there was a PSN friend I had that unfriended me cause we didn't play together anymore and literally the next day, we ended up in a team together back in MW3 and we subsequently became PSN friends again.
Totally agree. Back When I played IW and WW2, actually make friend a lot because I saw them like in every lobby when I play. Either they're on the enemy team. They still regconize me and later will team up with
Dedicated servers were king for meeting up with the same peeps to game. It was 1000x more fun then what we have today.
The guy Ive been matchin up with for weeks is toxic af
How to beat SBMM:
Step 1: Don't play the game
Step 2: Enjoy!!
Average Balkaner W
Stopped buying cod when mw2019 came out. I had a feeling that they would all in on sbmm.
been doing this im just sad i even payed for this praying that it wont be as bad as it was in mw2019 but i guess thats what i get...
This is the real answer. COD simply doesn't deserve anyone's hard earned money
@@cxngo8124 same
The off-peak hours tip has mixed results for me. I definitely feel the lobbies are harder during weekends, but I also have an easier time when players are off of work and get on the game. This makes logical sense because it's just more likely for higher skilled players to be on during off-peak hours since they typically have more time played than the average player.
Yup, decided to play around 7am eastern and there was an enemy trio going 50+ kills in one of the normal lobbies(no small maps queue). Quickly decided MW2 was not the move for wakin' and bakin'
@@EgoCarry1 - Sometimes I'll play around 4-5am thinking the lobbies will be calm but then quickly realize that the squads that play all night are the only ones on the game 😂
@@EgoCarry1 I can only play this game while high.. shit stresses me out. Ranked mode is public matches. Just without any medals 🏅
I just want a true public walk on experience. Some people might be better, and some might be worse. I feel like in current state I’m playing against only good players. I struggle to have a positive K/D and it’s no fun when everyone is so freaking good.
Then in that case... all the people who say the SBMM is manipulating players to keep coming back like a slot machine are wrong.
If it's supposed to be a cycle of hard games followed by easy games to lure you back, but all your matches are hard.. then the only thing I can think of is that they can't find anyone that's worse at the game than you are to keep you motivated. Which is doubtful because there's kids that play, so it's not likely to be the case. Or the SBMM *isn't* doing what people think it's doing.
My experience is different from what people describe as well. All of my games are average. I'm never dominating, and I'm never getting dominated. All of my matches feel average and well balanced. I wouldn't change a thing and am loving the experience. However, that's not the "hard and then easy" experience some describe, nor is it the "always hard" experience you describe.... who knows what the heck is going on?... 🤔
@@DerekMoore82 well, as I understand it there's a "protected" bracket for those severely under the average, I would assume if you're in that you only meet people of comparable skill.
That just means you are good and you need to learn to continue to improve. The end.
@@jongustavsson5874 Wouldn't it be funny if the majority of average players who are just playing normally are in average matches where everyone has around the same 1.0 k/d ratio and the experience is fair and good.
But then there are these bot lobbies comprised of people who are playing bad on purpose to reverse boost, and then really hard lobbies where the cheating wall hackers and aimbot users are, and so only those people who were trying to game the system were being punished by the yoyo effect of the SBMM trying to make sense of the scores that don't add up?
@@DerekMoore82 no I don’t reverse boost nor game the system and I get ass blasted by yo-yo lobbies constantly. It’s like 3 games playing in the CWL for millions of dollars, then 3 games against people who don’t have working thumbs, then the cycle repeats
6:50 I think it also feeds into you first strategy of limiting the pool, when you have a full party it stop you from joining high level games that only need one more person for a full lobby.
its crazy how much of a difference disabling cross play made, great video !
I remember in mw3 you could look at the kd of each player in the lobby before the game started. It was usually a good mix of really good players and bad players. The games felt so much better back then and before.
BO2 you could see everyone’s KD in lobby before Match. Good times…..
10:50 That's nice to hear that even great players have tough matches or segments within a match
The fact that this has to be a video says everything
I’ve resorted to playing just ground war not because I want to but I find there is more of a mixed player base. Quite sad as I love 6v6 but I don’t enjoy it in this game because half the time I feel like I’m playing in an esports final
More than half the time. Try every single match.😂
Not really part of this argument, but the studios all collectively removing the map vote that we all grew accustomed to reads a bit odd? Like don’t get me wrong, having 24/7 playlists for certain maps on rotation is a good quality of life change, especially if you just wanna hop in and get out as fast as possible. But the map vote added engagement to the lobbies before the game even starts! I remember multiple times having the vote piled against me, being the first to vote for the other map, and that map winning. It was a super cool thing that added variety to the game, but now you have to play what your matchmaking determines. Also, the fact that sometimes you get placed into a match you CANNOT back out of is ridiculous, especially for a triple A studio. Thanks Ace, keep up the amazing work!
Lower populated game modes is for sure the way to go for an old school COD matchmaking environment. It felt like I was playing against a lot of below average players, the enemy team would have maybe 1 or two players who would match up pretty evenly against me. Bounty felt great for this
Man, I had so much fun with this game for the first month it was out. Skill level seemed even, I was averaging 1.3-1.5K/D on every gun I was leveling up(except the m16 and FTAC which I gave up on until DMZ came out). Nowadays if I’m not in peak physical and mental condition prior to sitting down to play, I just get clapped over and over. Like I have to warm up with an aim trainer for like 15 minutes minimum or my reflexes will just be too slow to do anything in 6v6. And when I am on point and twitchy AF, I’m still going like 1.1 K/D with my best load out. It’s basically ruined the gaming experience and I feel like I wasted 70$.
I agree with this so much
felt this...if ur really not about being a demon on a particular day, then its best not to hop on
@@hacimdoowlla2730 Been playing BF2042 since it dropped on game pass. It’s annoying sometimes when your team is getting dominated by vehicles, but overall it’s been more fun. Even the TDM mode seems like big step in the casual/enjoyable direction. I still pop on MW2 every once in a while when I’m feeling scrappy, but usually I only last about 4-5 matches before it puts me into the next tier sweatshop and crushes my fighting spirit.
6v6 is just full of kids on Adderall sweating their balls off with untouchable reaction time. I'm getting older now so my reaction time is naturally getting worse and I while I still do pretty good in most lobbies there's games where some kids just outplay me based on reaction time alone. With fast ttk and fast reaction time it feels like you die before you can even realize you're seeing someone on screen. If I'm feeling sluggish I don't even get on anymore because I already know what's going to happen.
How do you feel about the spawn system? I feel like I’ve never played a game where I’ve died from behind so goddamn much.
It's terrible but I've at least started to get a decent feel for them on most maps. I'd much rather have a more traditional spawn system
That’s every cod ever😂try using the paranoid perk that tells if an enemy is looking at you from behind
always from behind
😏
@@SleepyjoeOG No it isn't. If you think that then you don't understand how cod spawns work. These spawns are nothing like the spawns in any other cod.
By far the best playlist to get around SBMM is the third person playlists, they seem to not have SBMM or just never have enough players to actually match you up.
I completely forgot about third person playlist, great advice.
That's why that mode has been so fun, i was amazed at "how good i was" in this mode but it is just more fun.
It didn't occur to me that choosing only the less popular gamemodes (which I actually tend to prefer) would give me better lobbies. Looks like I'll double down on them
Shh that is the secret! I just found a decent unpopular mode i enjoy playing. Insanely good!
My friends and I play almost exclusively knock out, and it's been a great time 80% of the time
I mained HQ and Hardpoint in MW19 and mostly had good games. The spawns are so awful though, they're hardly fun to play even with decent enemies.
I went back to Modern Warfare 2019 while waiting for season 2. The game is significantly more fun and laid back because of what you said in this video. It's obviously still there, and it will match you with players who slide cancel every milisecond, but the SBMM isn't anywhere near as agressive as MWII is at the moment.
Just remembering when I played mw19, there was sbmm but it wasn't so bad as it is with mw2
EOMM is still there, just less players to pull from so EOMM effect is weaker.
Mw2019 multiplayer was horrible
@@snelly09yogaflame89 agreed lol
problem with mw19 is it sucks
I had a moment of deep self-hatred and bought MWII last weekend. I put in a lot of time to get good at COD several years ago. On an older COD I can still go back and get anywhere from a 2 to a 5 KD in most lobbies. If I struggle there the worst it gets is a about a 1.2. In MWII every game is painful. How is this system meant to "keep me playing longer"? The result is exactly the opposite. I play about four matches and get fed up with bouncing between a .4 and a 1.4 KD and just shut it down and do something else. I hate what they've done to COD.
I can't help but stare and admire that AK skin so crisp and clean using a nice shade of white with a perfect amount of black to accentuate the whole thing making the white stand out even better without drowning it out mmm love it.
Honestly the fact that we even have to try to come up with different ways to do this should be a sign to Activision. Fuckin hell
I’m a PS4 player. I got so fed up with just getting absolutely railed in every match that it occurred to me to turn off crossplay. Immediately I noticed a day and night difference. The matches were so much more fun and I felt like I could compete.
Disabling crossplay was the greatest tip you ever gave for this game. I started doing It when you mentioned it on another video at the start of the MW2 life-cycle. Thank you a lot for your hard work! Amazing content
yea fuck pc players
Xbox players can't lol
@@robotic-race Neither can PC players
@@robotic-race They only care about PlayStation
My ps5 wont let me turn it off? Any ideas?
I don't know if someone mentioned it, but you can also disable crossplay on Xbox but you have to do it account-wide since there is no option for it in MWII's settings. Just a quick search will give you the steps on how to do it and just restart MWII and you'll then be playing with only Xbox players.
I've been playing exclusively prisoner rescue. Not only is it a good game mode but just about every game feels about right skill wise.
It’s pretty sweaty imo but it is a great game mode. I actually like it a lot more than search, which used to be my go to
I noticed the time-of-day thing back in CoD WW2, especially on that game's shipment 24-7 playlist.
One thing I hate is when I get in a bunch of sweaty lobbies where I keep losing then they put me in a bot lobby. It just makes me even more mad because it’s basically telling me I suck.
How do you know when you’re in a bot lobby?🤔
When I’m getting all my high streaks early in the game 😂
@@pokemonchampionred5958 also when you have time to react after turning corners instead of getting completely melted
@@markhackett8387 No bunny hopping every corner, prefiring, a team pinging you and rushing you, spammed grenades, drop shooting, team of taqs or spr.
If you have none of those you are in a normal lobby or bot.
For some reasons Ground War is always very fun with a lot of different playstyles, from spawn camping snipers to people who rush objectives or people who play vehicles. And it's the closest feeling I got to the "no SBMM" feeling. Probably because it's a very niche gamemode.
These are great tips, my dude will be looking into that router. One note you can also disable crossplay on Xbox by going through a set of menus under settings, you can find the video for that with a quick google. The only downside is this is for Multiplayer only you cant play, Spec-Ops, DMZ or Warzone with it enabled.
disable crossplay is a HUGE difference done it for 3 years now. Also Ace... Playing at peak times is actually FAR better then playing while people are at work/school. when you are playing while people are at work you are more likely to find simular people who grind 24/7 who don't work or have education etc
This would be true for below average players since their odds of running into higher skill players increase but for skilled players, it's extremely obvious that off-peak hours tend to yield a better mix of lobbies. It's literally a night and day difference.
@@TheXclusiveAce yep, if I play during the day my lobbies are a sweat fest.
The fact that a video has to be made like this proves that the system is a terrible thing… like you have a fan saying don’t play at nights or at weekend. Well done activision :(
This video shouldn't even have to exist but, here we are. Thank you for the info, never even knew about those type of routers gonna check em out.
My tip is to back out as soon as you feel like you’re in a tough lobby.
Nah, you have to get piss poor stats in that match so they put you with less sweaty players.
Nah I swear they'll punish you harder for this
@@Nate0001 the beatings will continue until morale has improved
One huge tip that was missed is to play the Big Team modes exclusively when you want to chill and ONLY ever play 6v6 when you are ready to sweat hard. That becomes a pleasant mix after a while.
I would say stay in the lobby and start camping. The game will shit on you for the first half, then will allow you to draw even by the end of the match. Either way, you're taking the L. May as well keep your K/D intact
Well said. They opened Pandora’s box as soon as they went away from latency based matchmaking.
Intentions could have initially been good but anytime you’re trying to rig the games for any reason whether for competitiveness or engagement it ruins gameplay.
Just roll the ball on the court set the rules and let us play. Things will naturally work out. Some players will be sweaty some average and some bots. The way it always was. The way the natural world works.
I don’t want help when I’m bad and I don’t want to be nerfed if I get better at the game.
I was starting to wonder why it seemed like I ALWAYS get paired with less skilled players...I swear about 75% of the games I play I'm in the top one or 2 of my team. Now it makes more sense why.
I kinda wish they would add a ranked mode with SBMM, and a casual mode without SBMM so that I could choose whether to have more chill games or to have more ranked/competitive play. Maybe the XP earned could be different between the two to balance it?
This explains why I never had the lobby issues everyone else was having in MW2019. I was always playing realism
Great honest video!! Love the recommendations here Ace! It is sort of like your constructive feedback towards Activision… but just to help the player base around against this decease with a positive mindset ;-) As you perfectly mentioned; EOMM is nothing different than a slotmachine trying to get you hooked!
The fact that this video was even made is a testament to why I quit playing (again)
Personally for me the matchmaking isn't that bad the only problem is that every two or three games I get in lobbies where there's one or two people (usually enemy team) who drop 40-plus kills in tdm and everybody else in the lobby only has 10 or 15.
yeah it feels like it puts 1-2 good players on each team to balance the average players out
I just don’t know why there’s a new lobby every game. That’s one feature that made those games great. Going from talking trash to being put on the same team created more friendships than making me find a new lobby every time. SBMM would not be an issue for most people if that feature came back.
Xbox can also turn off crossplay. You just have to go into the console's setting itself to turn it off (under the 'communication and multi-player' settings).
Not as elegant as an in-game specific toggle, but it's only a few seconds of menuing to turn it off or back on.
Sssshhhh, don't increase the pool!
"MW is good! You just have to adapt!"
Ace: "And I took that personally"
Thanks for your hard work and tips, Ace! Also really appreciate your transparency.
To answer the question near the end of the vid: I've only been limiting the player pool cuz I only enjoy TDM and KC anyways but it's nice to know that it helps with the matchmaking experience lol, great vid as always!
7:23
I've been saying this for years. This right here killed CoD MP for me. Everyone calls you crazy and says you just blame your team. Even though nearly every match you are outscoring them sometimes all combined. It was my team holding me back the whole time. I couldn't stand it anymore. The guy with 2 kils and 24 deaths will not drag me down ever again.
You know why SBMM is so extreme? We keep watching and sharing these youtubers obsessed with the best strats and weapons. It doesn't matter what game it is, it's the same thing.
The real way to stop SBMM and deal with tough players
Switch to the "Smoke grenade ninja" class. Use a weapon with high mobility, then use Dead Silence as a field upgrade. Then equip 2 smoke grenades, and then also use the "Smoke airdrop" as your second field upgrade. As you die over and over from the sweats, just keep throwing those smokes. Eventually, you'll have 8-10 built up all at once, then you drop the airdrop. The sweats that are camping can't see anymore, and it forces them to move around
Basically you can only play this game at 4am with a full party or buy a router at £140/$150..... sounds great !
One thing I've found is that if you rage quit when you're getting stomped, and don't open the game for a few hours, you'll often get much better lobbies when you return. So if you're having some amazing games, SBMM ramps up and all of a sudden you're 5 and 15, I just rage quit. The SBMM is optimized for engagement, so any negative signaling (you showing you're not going to play because the difficulty is too high) tells the algorithm that it should lower the difficulty on you. This works quite well actually. Generally this means I only continue playing when I'm having good games - as soon as the game quality goes to shit and I start losing a lot, I quit. Sounds kind of annoying, but honestly, that is what the system is set up for. Some players thrive when they're struggling, and will actually play longer when they are losing often. I make sure the algorithm knows that making the game harder for me does not lead to increased engagement.
This is also my experience. Talk about gaming the gaming system!
I only play mornings and early afternoon and let me tell you it's a huge help, I refuse to touch the game after 3pm and weekends are a big no go.
I'm not the greatest player, I have a 1.2 K/D in MWII but if I play later in the day or not weekends I'm playing some absolute demons, when I play early on weekdays I typically get 3-4 easier games and then a couple tougher games.
Another thing that helps is the camo grind, there's some guns that are just killers of your K/D and when you're grinding those guns you'll find that after a few games you'll start to get the easier lobbies, you just have to be willing to suffer through those tough games
Do you think not playing for a few days helps as well? Couple months back, I was only able to play once or twice a week and each time I played the lobbies were fine. It wasn’t until I started playing frequently again that my lobbies began to be sweaty back to back.
I’ve noticed this too. I never play on work days and when I get back on I get a decent few hours before it feels like cash tournaments every match
@@ryanjones2307 its like they’re trying to reel you back in with a few easy games to start lol
This is definitely a thing. It's in a lot of mobile games (Candy Crush! - stuck on a level for ages? Have a few days off, go back and the RNG will be your best friend).
You're totally right about the different gameplay depending on the daytime. At evenings and weekends there are also many squads playing and this can be very stressful and frustrating for a not squad player like me.
Great tips that I’ll be using! Now is there a way to remove border crossing from the rotation??
Or any non shipment map tbh..
Now to find a lobby without campers is a dream come true
The problem I've been noticing is something weird happening half way through certain matches especially hard point. My team will be dominating the hard points for the first half of a match. Then all of a sudden it gets extremely hard to get kills or hold a hard point and the other team will almost make a complete comeback. I think the game is messing with hit detection during mid game to make matches feel more competitive and close so one team doesn't feel completely destroyed.
cod players will say anything lmao
Or people are getting their perks and playing more effectively
@@DJ.1001 nah its like clockwork happened two games in a row exactly the same way last night.
@@rivermiller1973 lmao if you are not also a cod player what are you doing watching a video about cod and replying to comments
@@BretCahill no i play i was just saying that sounds stupid
Good work. We should never stop complaining about SBMM/EOMM, no matter how much they ignore the topic.
as a 1.0 kda player, I have had very little complaints with the matchmaking. It seems pretty good for your average gamer. I get some easy lobbies, some tough lobbies, and some average lobbies and i tend to be top 3 on my team in most games
Yes, the problem isn't that this isn't happening. The problem is that it's predictable. Oh, you just had 3 good games in a row with an average K/D of 2,5? Too bad! Time to face the elite CoD players.
It's not organic.
But then again, as Ace mentioned, SBMM benefits bad players, makes average players sometimes uncomfortable and completely sucks out the life essence of the above average player.
You are exactly the player SBMM is designed for. it tries to keep everyone at 1KD
I am a 1.14 kda player which is basically the same and it's a completely different story for me. I really can't enjoy the game now because it has almost never given me fair lobbies. Most of my lobbies are rather sweaty and then I try my best (and I am not talking about getting top of the leaderboard, no) the game gives me even more sweaty lobbies. Sometimes game give me "easy" lobbies where I can make 30+ kills (with kd 2-2.5), but only for 1-2 games. And then again... Is it some kind of a joke? I am getting tired by the game and not enjoying it, and it is very sad, because I dont think it's bad(
Dont get me wrong, I dont want only bot lobbies for myself, it's not fair, it's not balanced, it's not interesting at the end of the day. I just want some kind of consistency and fairness. Nobody likes this system. As the Ace said, it's just a manipulative system to make you feel that they want you feel about the game.
I miss so much fair equal game without only sweats or rookies in the lobby. I almost never get it now(
@@openday93 I'm confused... isn't 1.14 kd a fair experience? You're not negative.. and you said yourself that the 2.5 was when they put you against "rookies" for a minute, and you didn't like that either... so what *do* you want? Precisely 1.8? 1.9? Sounds like even more controlled? Or do you want it so random that you go from 100 kills 0 deaths in one match to 0 kills 100 deaths the next? If you're averaging 1.14 with occasional 2.5 then it sounds like a great experience to me.
@@DerekMoore82 you didn’t understand me at all. What you wrote above is exactly that I do not want at all. This is the main problem. I almost do not have fair lobbies with my k/d at 1.1-1.2 which is almost equal kills/deaths. Most of the lobbies I got either sweats and negative kd for me or sometimes easy lobbies where I am at the top of the leaderboard with kd 2 or 3. Mostly because of this easy games I got my ~1.1kd. But I don’t want this. Play several games sucking hard and then 1-2 easy games just to improve my kd, and then again pro lobbies. That’s just not right and it’s not fair at all for everyone. I want something between, mixed lobbies with average players. That’s all. I understand even without sbmm I won’t be getting such lobbies every time, but at least they pop up several times a day)
Thanks for the video Ace and I appreciate the transparency! Hopefully this helps others try to take some of the manipulative factors of the game into their own hands.
Between SBMM and the hardcore mode (not the realism tier 1 system) being non-existent.. I haven't had much desire to play this game which is a bummer because I have always enjoyed CoD..
Still patiently waiting for an actual, true to it's history, hardcore mode to be released..
I don’t play the objective anymore in objective games and I think that helps as well.
curse you
yeah I used to be the first to jump on objectives but not anymore.
I don’t even think SBMM removal would make this game enjoyable to me. Bring back advanced / exo movement tbh. That would at least make me mentally engaged with the game. I feel so tuned out whilst playing.
Is there any tangible evidence of a system that alters things during a match as well? Like something that causes you to do less damage in a match? I've seen a few people in the Steam discussions talk about this. And from my experience of MW2 (and other CoD's since MW19) im starting to think these rumours are correct... Having used certain top weapons in a match. Dominate with it and then suddenly it's as if the damage goes down and i can't get any kills.
no. no evidence of this
I actually posted a comment very similar to yours before I read your comment. I notice this happening the most on hard point. My team will be absolutely dominating the other team for half of the game and then it feels like a flip of a switch and my team can no longer get kills or hold a hard points. The other team will almost make a complete comeback by the end of the match. I think they mess with the hit detection of the winning team so the game feels more competitive for both teams or something.
@@BretCahill That is part of the rumours on Steam as well. The other teams hit box apparently shrinks depending on how well you're doing or your team. I seem to have experienced this multiple times for AND against me. On people standing still (AFK) and moving. Using semi auto weapons i see it far more. Aim is directly on them, centre chest, but the shot goes right through without damage.
System makes camo grinding absolute fucking torture
Wait im confused do you want more compepitive games or more steam roll games? When you say a "better" mix of games you mean more lower skilled players right?
I want more variety in public matches where you never know what you're going to get; some hard games, some easy ones, and everything in between. If I wanted constant competitive games, I'd play ranked play so I can at least see my skill rank and track improvement over time but that doesn't currently exist.
yeah, all this "I dont wanna be punished for playing good" is just a code for "I wanna stomp noobs for my videos". If you want to stomp, go play bots, dont ruin experience for new players.
@@justusnixx “don’t ruin experience for new players” what? 10 minute tdm games that go to the score limit because no one gets more then 15 kills? Bro, do you just have no memory of how cod used to be, everyone got stomped at one point no one complained. Why do people get so upset over stomping noobs these days. It was a regular thing pre mw19. Now everyone winges at the sight of someone killing a level 20
@@lRagingl I play this series since 2009. I don't care if you encounter noobs and stomp them naturally. But when you actively trying to avoid system that tries to find you opponents on par with you, you just acting like a spoiled lazy brat
@@lRagingl also, I dont see the hate for SBMM from the majority of players. But I do see A LOT of videos with negative feedback for SBMM from streamers, who doesnt really care for it, they just want easy lobbies for "impressive" montages. And its not just the COD series, you can see it in Destiny 2, etc, etc
I tried messing with my Netduma Router when Cold War came out and set it to regions with a low population which helped me get my first nukes back then with a ~ 2.7 kd and it worked just fine. Can confirm your tipps work! Thanks Ace!
Skill based match making doesn’t bother me regardless of who’s in my lobby I’m pretty much top the leader board every game. It’s a bit over blown
Let me be more specific. The average skill level of a player in 2023 is probably at least double that of what it was in 2009. You’re just not gonna run into many people that don’t know how to play
@@bradenmchenry995 So explain why I play a game and I feel like scump and then next five I get destroyed.
@@duplo93pc sounds like you should get better at the game
@@bradenmchenry995 sound like you dont know what you're talking about
@@bradenmchenry995 Definitely I should, but that’s the general sentiment around the sbmm. If you’re a pro or play competitively this doesn’t affect you. I, with a 1.2 k/d ratio, want to have fun after coming back from work not get frustrated.
Ace you, Nero, MrJalek, MDB, and other big TH-camrs should start a petition to have a complete playlist for casual players PING related domesticated dedicated lobbies
most of your issues with SBMM don't affect 90% of the playerbase, almost everyone is around a 1.0 k/d which means the lobbies don't tend to vary much anyways and we always have people to connect to so ping is never an issue for the majority, unless you live in an internet desert
The reason everyone's KD is the same is because of SBMM. When your KD should start going up, it will put you against players that are doing better and balance you back out, and for the better player that's when the game is helping their KD because lately they've been getting shit on by better players than them, and the cycle continues.
I remember going 43 to 12 on a TDM the other day. I said to myself, "Sbmm is going is gonna hit me so hard." Low and behold, the next 2-3 games, I'm getting my butt whooped by a team of my skill level, and horrible teammates of my own.
Halo 5 had a great ranked system. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Onyx, and Champion. And you could definitely feel the difference as you leveled up. I miss that game
Thank you for your openness and honesty. This is why I subscribed to you and keep coming back to watch your videos.
I can confirm playing at night with only one mode selected in quickplay is definitely helps or even better - one mode in tier 1
The best way I’ve found to get easier lobbies is to play with your friends that are a lot lower skill than you. It’s still fine if you with you’re friends that are really good, but as long as you join lobbies with at least half you’re players being of low skill (for example 2 high skill 2 low skill) you’re lobbies will be infinitely more easy. If you really want to crank it up a notch then, the more you go above that ratio with lower skilled players (example 1 high skill, 3 low skill) the easier the lobbies will be.
Due to SBMM I can now predict when I need to log off for the day because the congealing and increasing sweat of my enemies between each lobby tells me I don't want to keep playing after a certain amount of matches
I'm so glad I'm not the only one that absolutely despises the matchmaking system in this game. I even get put in harder lobbies of I get a 1 k/d The last round. It's absolutely insane and if they keep this up I'm never buying a Call Of Duty game ever again.
This makes sense to me now. I've always felt like I've never had an issue with SBMM, I've been a COD player since COD4:MW and my skills have improved over the years, I find myself mostly breaking even most of the time and don't feel the sweat but over the last few years I only find myself playing during off peak hours, since my days off work are Tuesdays and Thursdays and that's when I get most of my games in, from morning to afternoon then in the evening I do other things and then usually play after midnight (EST) before going to bed.
I want everyone mixed together and it is what it is… like the old days (ranked can be another animal). With SBMM and dumping lobbies every match there's ZERO social aspect to playing this game and really no incentive to put in time. It was a sense of accomplishment and a point of pride to play CoD and get your butt KICKED until you learned the maps and the weapons. Then you were rewarded with getting to do the kicking on new players. Also, I made SO many friends playing CoD in the olden days but most of them no longer play or I'd be in a party EVERY MATCH to at least avoid MY team getting separated every match.. I returned Advanced Warfare after about 20hrs and haven't bought a CoD until MWII (I was coerced by an old CoD buddy who said it was good... LOL, right).
Anyway, it's insane to me how many videos there are like this one, of players with Stockholm Syndrome, trying to show us how we can make the best of a really BAD situation that we are paying exorbitant sums of money to participate in. It's even more telling that I specifically searched TH-cam for this kind of "help".
Time of day really matters. 11am - 4:30pm is the softest lobbies. 4:30pm - 11:30pm are sweatfests both multiplayer and warzone. Sundays all day are the sweatiest lobbies and probably the worst day of the week to play
There's such a simple solution to this whole thing, and that's just to completely remove SBMM and let matches be totally random, as it used to be. It use to be exciting.
That would require that the devs have a problem with SBMM, they don't.
@@jongustavsson5874 good for them. They can watch as their player count continues to decrease.
The whole player engagement thing is ridiculous. I used to play hour after hour of CoD in years gone by, but these days I feel burnt out after a few matches.
Time of day is huge for lobby quality. I have a “golden hour” that I’ll keep secret. But 1pm-4pm in whatever time zone you live in will be the best time. And if you want to avoid sweats don’t bother playing after 8pm.
i just play how infinity ward designed it. i camp hard asf and never move. almost never go negative and don't care about win loss. that's what IW wants. and i'm super aggressive in treyarch games.
the worst part of all of this is that a video like this is even necessary.
I do and think the same 😊
For wanting people to play the game as mush as possible, sbmm seems to do the opposite. I’ll get online, and my first two games are really fun. Then sbmm kicks in and my matches just get harder and more frustrating as the night goes on. That doesn’t make me want to play. That makes me go “okay the game’s not letting me enjoy it anymore, so I’m getting offline”
Thanks Ace. Barely play anymore but here to like and comment!!
Randomly getting into lobbies with 100% luck would be awesome
I must confess the ping thing does my head in on MW2 - I consistently get stuffed into a server with a ping higher than 50 - and then get killed by people with a ping running less than 20 - sometimes less than 10. I have found ways of getting around it - but its painful and means leaving lobbies before they launch. Its the thing I love about battlefield - I get a fixed server list, and can chose where i play, which then allows my game to be consistent. (Usually around 25).
I also have stopped playing with mouse players (sorry folks), I tend to not join servers if the majority are playing with a mouse set up. The odd one can be fine, but some are just negative experiences.
I might try limiting my play to PS only, and see if that improves things.
The game is so inconsistent - and I assumed it was just my ping - but thank you for explaining this, it now makes sense. I hate that the beta was decent, I had a KD ratio of around 1.3 (not brilliant), but in the game it has dropped off to around 0.94 now - and the games lack of consistency means there is no way I can ever recover it back to 1 even. Which annoys me, as it is down to the servers it puts you in.
I couldn’t agree more about the time of day has an effect, I know that’s definitely true. I had a week day off work last week, jumped on at about 10am and it was taking me 15-20 minutes to find a game where it couldn’t find my skill level to match to then eventually put me in lobby’s where I’ve never had so easy! I mean REAL easy.
For PC players, you can use Firewall to block high ping datacenters for COD. No need for expensive router, just few days of collecting IPs and blocking /24 range on firewall. No more 100ms+ servers after few games.
@TheXclusiveAce , one of your long time fans here. I just wanna say the thanks you've probably read a bazillion times, but thanks for being awesome! Keep up the fantastic work! I hope to see more of you and Drift0r collaborating in the future, as you guys are just both phenomenal human beings and beacons of hope in the CoD community! Also think I ran into you once in CoD WW2, was honored to have you fighting by my side!
I was wondering why I have so much back pain, now I know it’s cuz I play solo all day
I only work 4 10’s and have Mondays off and even playing on a Monday morning I’m still thrown in the ring with the most absolute sweaty of the sweats
It's not about limiting the pool of players you play with. It's about the time of day. Mornings have so many easy players. Midnights are full of sweats. I'm below average or average at best and I get in sweaty lobbies almost every time if I play late at night.
From my experience the best way to enjoy the game with such heavy sbmm as an above average player is if you’re not in a party is expect to lose and just focus on having fun otherwise the game will be very frustrating as an above average player you are going to be expected to carry your team hard every single time if you want to get a win and trust me it gets exhausting and the fun goes away very quickly when you’re trying to win all the time just use fun classes and don’t care about winning it’ll help enjoy the game a lot more this is coming from a 2+kd search player
"a slot machine to hook gamblers" is perfect description of this predatory algorithm.
I'm a Battlefield player and MWII was my first taste of MP in a modern Call of Duty. The EOMM made me actually quit MWII and buy 2042 instead. It was just too frustrating to deal with. You either alway stomp or get stomped. The good games in between where so few that I was done after 80 hours.
Not for me. I never stomp and never get stomped. Probably because I'm average and they can always find enough average players of my skill level.
Probably you're just really good and so it struggles to find opponents who are the same as you or something?