Do you hate SBMM in Warzone? Yeh, we kinda do too. But we know that it’s not going anywhere anytime soon, and so you better learn to love it. We’re going to try and help you do that.
What is SBMM?
SBMM stands for “skill based matchmaking”, and is essentially an algorithm that runs behind the scenes when you search for games in Warzone. It aims to pitch you against players of a similar skill level to you. Pat Kelly, development lead at Infinity Ward was quoted as saying that “skill-based matchmaking does not feature in any of the larger player count modes of Modern Warfare”.
As can be seen from the Tweet above, many took this to mean that it would not feature in Warzone. This is categorically not correct and we have the data to back this up thanks to a neat new service provided by the guys over at sbmmwarzone.com.
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How does SBMM work in practice?
The honest answer is, we don’t really know. Not for sure anyway. Activision uses their own proprietary method of matching you with similarly skilled opponents and doesn’t share this with you, however, there does appear to be a very strong correlation between the overall skill level of the lobby, and the individual players KD. Since Warzone doesn’t share this information with you, it can leave players feeling frustrated and disenfranchised as it’s not possible to track progress and understand whether you’re getting better or worse at the game over time.
Enter sbmmwarzone.com
The guys over at SBMMWarzone have created a tool that allows you to track the overall skill level of the lobbies you have been playing in. The website works by taking the average KD ratio of the lobby you have played in, and compares that against a huge database of over one million other games. Using this information it then displays a skill bracket outlining the tier of games that you’re playing in.
Despite suffering a fire at their data centre as recently as March 10th they’re still pumping out consistent updates and you can now access an improved match page, with more stats, match ranks and leagues for team KD, with an improved design.
And should you want to check your stats on the go, you can now do just that via the SBMM Warzone app!
Are lobbies created based solely upon skill level?
The short answer is no. The long answer is; if Activision could get away with sorting based solely upon skill, they probably would. Other factors come into play however, JackFrags speculated recently that Warzone prioritises skill, before latterly matching players based upon ping, and the amount of time spent waiting for a lobby. This has a number of important implications, the main one being that you will end up in more difficult lobbies if you play during peak times for your region, as it it will be easier for Activision’s algorithm to match you with similarly skilled players.
If you want to know how you fair up against the competition we recommend you mark sbmmwarzone.com as a favourite. We see this new tool becoming part of the foundations of the Warzone ecosystem, and we look forward to seeing what else they have in store for us going forwards!
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