Jack “CouRage” Dunlop is primarily known for his content on CoD Warzone and other Call of Duty titles on YouTube. However, for the new season, he played the competitor Apex Legends again and was excited about a generally unpopular feature.
What kind of system is this? Skill-based matchmaking (“SBMM”) has been annoying players in Call of Duty for a while. The feature assigns teammates that are approximately on your skill level.
Your performance in your recent games is calculated and compared with that of other players. Generally, the rule is: the better you play, the tougher your opponents will be in upcoming rounds.
What is bad about it? To stay in the positive point area or maintain a positive K/D, you need to play even better in each round than before. This makes it difficult to “play casually” since you have to always give your best.
Stronger players are particularly annoyed by the system, as they have little chance to relax and are constantly under pressure. Also, SBMM can be exploited, as many players have shown multiple times.
At times, there were entire “reverse boosting” lobbies where players deliberately played poorly. They dragged their ranking down so much that they faced only beginners and the weakest players in several rounds afterward.
Since they are better, they could easily dominate the weak lobbies and ruin the fun for all players who “rightfully” belong there. And even in the previous games, they likely annoyed their teammates with their constant deaths.
CouRage celebrates ranked in Apex Legends
How does Apex Legends do it better now? CouRage explains in a tweet that while Apex Legends also uses SBMM, it does it better here. The reason is simple: There is a ranking system.
With a proper rank, the SBMM is not bad at all, according to CouRage. He says: “Who would have thought that playing with skill-based matchmaking WITH a rank would make people want to play more?! What a crazy thought!”
In Apex Legends, you receive a reward for consistently putting in effort and can track and display your performance through a rank badge. CouRage, for example, has climbed to “Master” in a short time, which is apparently a satisfying achievement.
Warzone does not provide anything like that. There, you play without a rank, but with a hidden matchmaking rating (“MMR”). So you are basically playing ranked matches continuously, but without tangible rewards. For CouRage, Apex Legends is clearly the “best battle royale there is” right now.
Who is CouRage anyway? CouRage actually comes from the professional scene, where he started in 2007. After his career as a pro gamer, he worked as a caster for Major League Gaming (MLG) and eventually as a streamer and content creator for 100 Thieves.
He is best known for his content in Halo and now Call of Duty. At 100 Thieves, he seems to be very successful, even though there have been some issues lately with the e-sports clan:
Call of Duty, LoL: “€114 for a hoodie?” – Allegations of overcharging against e-sports clan
