Modern Warfare 2 players fight back against SBMM by “reverse boosting”
Call of DutySkill-based matchmaking (SBMM) is something many Modern Warfare 2 beta players don’t like. So, they’re using a strategy called “reverse boosting” to trick the game.
SBMM has been a controversial topic not only in Modern Warfare 2, but in many different competitive multiplayer games. From Apex Legends to every CoD released in the past 3 years, reverse boosting has been a strategy players employ to manipulate matchmaking.
What is reverse boosting, and how does it impact Modern Warfare 2’s matchmaking?
Modern Warfare 2 players “reverse boosting” to counter SBMM
In a nutshell, reverse boosting is a comparable term to inting. The idea is to either kill yourself or let yourself be killed repeatedly to trick skill-based matchmaking into thinking you’re a bad player.
Some Modern Warfare 2 beta players are already reverse-boosting to take advantage of SBMM and guarantee they’ll be matched against worse players.
Some players are determined to get their matchmaking rating down at any cost, even if it requires them to reverse boost their way through entire matches.
There is basic detection within Modern Warfare 2 (and other Call of Duty games) that will detect if someone’s sitting in a lobby. So, players have had to outsmart the system.
Instead of sitting in spawn and dying repeatedly, players have to move around and shoot in order to trick SBMM into thinking that they’re trying to play the game and losing rather than dying on purpose.
Many of Modern Warfare 2’s early issues have been addressed during the beta, but SBMM wasn’t on the list from game developer Infinity Ward.
Big figures in the CoD community like TimTheTatMan, Dr Disrespect, and CouRage have weighed in on this issue, and a great deal of them have rallied against SBMM.
Reverse boosting is both a way to counteract matchmaking and a method of protest, one that is skewing the results of every match these players are involved in whether they stomp a lobby or go 0-30.