Nadeshot clarifies SBMM argument in Black Ops Cold War rant

Update (December 2 – 6:00 PM PT): Nadeshot has since followed up on his Skill-Based Matchmaking rant, addressing how it’s easy to lose your temper while grinding for specific weapon camo challenges.

“SBMM is a topic of discussion that has a lot of nuances,” he said in a December 2 follow-up tweet. “What I really want to clarify once and for all… I don’t have a fear of playing players as good as me. I don’t disagree with the idea of playing against players as good as me. All I’m asking for is that people see the level of skill I’m playing at.”

Obviously, a ranked playlist of sorts has been requested to no end in the community. While the feature has been subtly confirmed, it’s still yet to enter the game. Therefore, the only form of matchmaking is standard public games, which happen to have SBMM cranked all the way up.

“If I’m going up against six starting players in the Call of Duty League, I want a rank to reflect that. I understand why SBMM is a necessity, I just don’t agree with the way it’s presented. Right now it’s ambiguous, you never really know who you’re up against and the level of skill they’re at.”

The original story is as follows.

Skill-based matchmaking has been a major complaint from top Call of Duty players for years now, and 100 Thieves CEO and former pro player Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag has finally snapped, going on a rant against SBMM in the new Black Ops Cold War.

Nadeshot has never made it a secret that he, alongside a huge number of Call of Duty players, is anti-SBMM.

Though the sentiment makes sense — pit players of equal skill against one another — in practice, many players aren’t happy with it and want to see it removed or at least tuned down.

Nadeshot clearly falls into that category, and let his opinion be known during a December 1 stream while playing on the latest edition of Nuketown, Nuketown ‘84.

As you can tell immediately from the scoreline alone and the carnage unfolding around him, the match is an intense one, and he wasn’t impressed.

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He said: “It’s time to lower the skill-based matchmaking. This is not fun. I know we want the kids that have never played Call of Duty to be in a safe space, but please stop alienating the people that have been playing your game for over a decade.”

That wasn’t all, though, as Haag continued to complain as he struggled to make much of an impact on the game. “This is not an enjoyable experience,” he said. “Especially trying to get the challenges done on these weapons… Everyone’s got a scorestreak because it’s participation and not skill.”

Both the SBMM and scorestreak complaints have been popular ones for Black Ops Cold War players, and the sentiment seems to be echoed from the top down.

Whether Activision or Treyarch make changes to either issue remains to be seen, but we might not see Nadeshot streaming Black Ops Cold War for too much longer at this rate.