SBMM Should be in this game, but its not working as intended

Games Halo Infinite
#1

First of all, the gameplay in this game is amazing. 343 has done a great job in many ways.
However, the SBMM that has been implemented is not actually working.
First of all, I agree with there needing to be SBMM, but it should be a laissez-faire approach.

Let me preface by saying I have been playing halo since the original xbox with CE
My last 20 games, my winrate is 18%. I only went negative once, I average a 2.0+ kd while playing objective. Since I manage a good KD even though I lose, the game thinks nothing was wrong and puts me in same skill bracket even tho we got rekt as a team.

I mostly play with friends below my skill level, but this persists in solo queue as well.
Basically, my 3 teammates are always paired against people well above their skill, they get stomped and I am forced to 1v4 the entire game, every game, after we lose 5-6 games in a row 343 then feels so bad for us that they pre-engineer the next game to be all noobs. So we win and then the game thinks we are all pros, so the following game is back to square one.

At no point are my teammates matched against opponents of similar skill, the enemy team is biased to be higher in skill to match me because im the outlier. its just a back and forth of pre engineered games where 343 dictates “you will win” “you will lose” and you are just along for the ride. I have 1 close game each day, and the other 25-40 games are all either we stomp or we get stomped. with a heavy get stomped bias
I dont want to just pwn noobs 24/7, dont be naive, I just want my W/L to be higher than 18% bc the game feels the need to punish me for doing well. I dont want to win a game and then know the next game im gonna have my teeth kicked in. Also, im not a robot that operates at my best 100% of the time. I want it to feel random, I want to have more close games, win 4, lose 2, get REKT for 1, then stomp for 3 etc. Or if me and my friends all wake up and feel cracked at halo, we should be able to do a 15 win streak. Stop trying to achieve what is “fair on paper” by engineering games to win/lose

TLDR, if SBMM was working as intended, why are my teammates noobs? Im not a noob, i should have same skill teammates, and the enemy should be equal skill. if my teammates are noobs, there should be equal amount of noobs on other team. This can not be done by averaging people together, 3 three month pregnant women does not = 1 nine month pregnant woman lmao

Solution: SBMM should work in a way that each player has their individual “matchup” in the game. 2 ok players will beat a great and bad player almost every time.
if this can not feasibly be done outside of ranked, then entirely remove SBMM from casual playlists. The law of averages tells us that by default, players will have a W/L thats close to 50% in the long run. unless they are good, then it will be 1 standard deviation away, so 50-70. Also, if 343 is hellbent on not changing the SBMM, at least make the ranked and unranked MMR separate. People cant casually play casual playlist games. Cant ever do pistols only or vehicles only, cant mess around and try new guns. It is a constant fight for your life. I swear to god I am not making this up, I had to change my shirt today, because of the amount of sweat soaked into my shirt. playing CASUAL

My friends hate playing with me, some friends outright refuse to, and my best friend un-installed halo today. So clearly there is an issue here. I have never got on my computer to complain on the internet about the SBMM in COD, but yet here I am now.

Also, plz remove slayer from quick play, if you want me to 1v4 whole teams at least take slayer out, 100% loss rate on slayer, Im just gonna start quitting every slayer game. Slayer should be its own playlist, tons of ppl would play it still.

I hope to God someone from 343 sees this and takes action. Some of my happiest memories have been playing a halo game with all of my friends. I can’t do that with this awesome game, just needs a small fix :frowning:

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#2

I think SBMM in Social should be based around the teams.

But you are always going to struggle going in with a squad that has outliers in rank.

If your weaker members are comfortable against the enemy team then your better players are going to dominate.

I can’t see what else match-making can do. The other team doesn’t deserve to be stomped by you just so you can play with mates.

The only alternative is some sort of handicapped mode where good players and weak players can compete on a relatively equal footing. This would require changes to individual damage, shields, and pick ups… which may be a hard sell to players who like to show off.

No it doesn’t. You are picking random players from a normal distribution. The only people who get true 50:50 are those in the middle of the curve. Someone on the right hand tail is going to get game after game of easy opponents to stomp.

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#3

Outside of playing with my friends, I experience similar W/L with the random ppl

No, SBMM should never be based around the teams, this is what’s currently happening, Its looking at collective skill and averaging us together. It should be individualized so each person in the game has an opponent of their respective skill. I have someone my level, person b has someone their level, person c has someone their level etc.

Did you miss the part in my post that was in bold and italics? I don’t want to stomp noobs. I dont want my win rate to be 18%, I’d say thats a MASSIVE difference. Especially since the entire reason SBMM is in this game is to ensure everyone has more or less a 50% w/l and a 1.0 kd

I am getting stomped in 82% of the games I play, forget me, my teammates are miserable! they get annihilated!! Again, this happens in the overwhelming majority of solo queue games as well. the margins for skill are far too wide when SBMM determines who can play with who, you can not average peoples skill on a team game.

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#4

People also act like once you remove SBMM I’ll get to go 70-4 every single game for my life
Im gonna run into people better than me just as frequently as I am stomping. It wouldnt be perfect but it would damn sure be closer to 50/50 than the mismanaged system in place now

2 Likes
#5

I suspect the problem is that even if you match the teams like for like it’s going to be miserable for the lower ranked players.

I’m not sure that the idyllic scenario of the two silver opponents shooting it out between themselves is a real one. More likely that the it will just be a race between the opposing good players to who can mop up the fastest kill streaks. ​

So the best option for all the players is still just to match on teams and leave the struggle for the team which made their choice to have a wide range of skills.

That definitely sounds miserable. I’m not sure why you would be hitting a wall like that. I regularly play with mates who are way above me (onyx to my platinum) and below me (silver).

I know that I have to hide and minimise my deaths in the former… and go out of my way to protect and kill streak in the latter.

I can only assume that the difference between you and your mates is huge. Like way too big to match against. I certainly wouldn’t want to be matched in such a game.

It depends.

If you are Onyx. Top 5% (or less) - then 95% of your opponents are going to be ranked below you.

If you want the stomps to be 50:50 then the system has to preferentially select half of your opponents above you and half below you.

ie. some form of SBMM.

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