Nadeshot pleads with Treyarch to reduce Black Ops Cold War SBMM

Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag, 100 Thieves CEO and ex-Call of Duty pro player, has called on developers Treyarch to reduce levels of skill-based matchmaking in Black Ops Cold War public matches following the game’s November 13th release.

Few topics in the last year or so have been as contentious in the Call of Duty community as skill-based matchmaking. Some of the most prominent CoD content creators in the world have criticized Warzone, Modern Warfare and now Black Ops Cold War for their stringent inclusion of SBMM in public matches. 

SBMM refers to the algorithm a game uses to decide which players are put in your lobbies. Where there is SBMM, a game will try to match you with players who have similar stats, in the hope of fostering a more competitive match. 

However, some argue this kills casual matches and means higher-skill players are punished for their talents. 

Nadeshot, with his history as a professional CoD player, clearly falls into the higher-skill players category. As a result, his lobbies tend to feature tough opponents, who closely match his online stats. 

However, it seems his patience is wearing thin with the mode, just days after BOCW’s global launch. 

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“I truly believe it is imperative that Treyarch dials back the difficulty of lobbies,” he tweeted. “We’re gonna drive so many big creators away, these games have been no joke. I’m dead after playing for 9 hours.” 

He said that he would be happier with a system that, if it does indeed match players with similar skill opponents, shows players their ranks. Many believe SBMM has a place in Ranked modes, but that public matches should remain casual.

One of the main defenses of SBMM is that it prevents lower-skill players from being put in lobbies against higher-skill individuals and annihilated. 

Nade addressed this in a follow-up tweet: “I get how it can benefit new or casual players but I feel as if Call of Duty doesn’t have enough faith in the people playing their game. People are inherently competitive and if they are told that there is a higher ceiling of skill, they’d want to strive to hit that ceiling.” 

Even if Treyarch reduces levels of SBMM in public matches, we will probably never receive public confirmation. Many video game developers and publishers prefer to keep their matchmaking systems under wraps, so avoid discussing them at all in the public domain.