In Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War many players are currently intentionally losing their matches. Among them are also well-known and big YouTubers. The reason for this is a protest against “Skill-based Matchmaking” (SBMM).
Why are players playing poorly? Players are intentionally losing matches and allowing themselves to be killed disproportionately often to artificially worsen their statistics. Some leave the matches with a severely negative KD ratio.
This method is called “Reverse Boosting” and has been known in Call of Duty for a while. There was already Reverse Boosting in its predecessor Modern Warfare and it soon became a problem there as well.
Even the YouTuber ChainFeeds is participating, as he states in a tweet. ChainFeeds has over 436,000 subscribers on YouTube and regularly shows content about Call of Duty.
According to gamingintel.com, entire lobbies are reportedly applying this method. The apparent reason for this is a protest against the matchmaking system of Call of Duty, the so-called “Skill-based Matchmaking” or SBMM.
Reverse Boosting against SBMM
This is the purpose: Players achieve through reverse boosting that they end up in lobbies with significantly weaker players. The SBMM determines based on the player’s recent performances which matches they will be placed in next.
So, those who lose overwhelmingly multiple times and play poorly will eventually end up in a lobby with absolute beginners and “weaker” players. However, as they are actually significantly stronger, the better players can here accumulate thousands of points or even snag rare achievements.
The CoD insider Tom Henderson impressively shows this with a screenshot:
SBMM has been a topic of discussion in the CoD community for years. It ensures that players always play according to their performance and therefore must basically always perform at full capacity.
For weaker players, this usually allows for a more balanced gameplay experience. However, stronger players feel obliged to always use the best tactics and weapons instead of being able to play casually.
Where is this leading? Already during the alpha of Cold War the Head of Technology Martin Donlon commented on SBMM. He said at the time that this system is something that can be adjusted fluidly and is not something that simply exists or does not exist.
In the past, however, SBMM has been maintained in Call of Duty. For the larger portion of players, it seems to be no problem, even though it leads to ongoing discussions. Furthermore, the developers themselves apparently have little say in this matter.
The developer Michael Condrey stated: Developers frustratingly have little influence on SBMM.
