A case against sbmm

Before you toss this aside as just another person whining about the game, hear me out. I don’t want to start a spat in the comments or anything of the sort, I just want to explain my point of view before season 4 rolls around. I’m not upset because I can’t win anymore, I’m upset because I can’t have fun with my friends anymore.

You see, during the Kings Canyon days, we had so much fun. It was the first game in years that all of my friends were into and I finally got to sit down, play a game with them, and laugh like we used to during Halo Reach. It was incredible. We could screw around the whole game and talk about our lives and win with 20 kills because the competition was so varied. Some people destroyed us and we destroyed others. Simple as that. It’s how I think all casual modes in video games ought to be. No pre-match dividing of players based on skill, none of that. Just throw in the first available 60 people regardless of play time, kills, or average damage. Call me crazy, but it’s more enjoyable that way.

With the entrance of sbmm, we started realizing that the champions consistently had 20,000 plus kills and everyone around us was on their predator a-game, causing us to have to stop having a casual play session and treat it like ranked. And that was alright for a while until we realized we were essentially just playing ranked. We even played ranked for a while until we got to diamond, when we found that our competition was about the same as it was in the casual mode. Why, I ask you, have I been forced to play every match of apex like my life depends on it? And on top of that, why add that feature so late after the release? I was having a blast cruising around, having decent game after decent game with my friends.

I’ve heard the argument for sbmm from people with a lower skill level than me, saying that they didn’t have fun getting stomped every match by the players that were better than them (sounds a lot like me right now, doesn’t it?). But I can’t understand why they can’t play ranked. When my friends and I played through bronze it wasn’t an issue. And I’ve watched my girlfriend (who is, bless her heart, rough to watch on apex) play ranked and the skill level of the players around her was no different than the public matches she played. Am I crazy to think that a no sbmm world would work if lower level players played ranked with their peers to get better at the game?

I’m only writing this because the first two seasons of apex were the most fun I’ve had on an online game since Reach, and now my friends and I just can’t seem to have fun time on the casual mode like we used to. If it’s the same in season 4, we probably won’t continue to play.

At the end of the day, I'm just a gamer who doesn’t want to have to play every game in the two ranked modes like it’s my last, and just have fun in a video game with my friends like the good old days. I hope you can understand my frustration.