In November, the new Call of Duty is coming with Modern Warfare 3. A German YouTuber had fun in the beta but had to manipulate the matchmaking for it.
The release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is getting closer, and many shooter fans are eagerly watching the upcoming title. Are we finally getting a good CoD again, or will we be disappointed?
The German CoD YouTuber HapticRush, who has played the MW3 beta extensively, is also addressing the topic. In a video series on his channel, he talks about the aspects that players like or dislike about MW3 based on the beta, and criticizes the SBMM (Skill Based Matchmaking).
One thing stands out: the YouTuber had a lot of fun with the MW3 beta – when he manipulated the matchmaking of the shooter.
What does the YouTuber say in his videos? The probably most important point is the criticism of SBMM. He repeatedly emphasizes that he does not want to constantly play against the top “sweat players” and the best players. SBMM has no place in casual CoD modes like Team Deathmatch and Kill Confirmed, and belongs in competitive ranked modes.
On the other hand, he praises the fast movement, some maps, and the weapon selection. Even seemingly minor changes to MW2, like the reload cancel, are well received by the YouTuber. In general, MW3 feels again like a game that friends who turned their backs on CoD years ago would come back to.
In the videos, it quickly becomes clear: according to HapticRush, MW3 does many things right, can definitely be fun, and is one of the best CoDs of recent years – only the SBMM dampens the enjoyment.
YouTuber creates mixed lobbies with second account
How does the YouTuber trick the matchmaking? He helped himself with a smurf account that intentionally racked up many losses and performed poorly to lower the average skill of the opponents.
However, instead of playing on the smurf account and only measuring himself against beginners, he played on a normal account and only brought the smurf into the lobby. This account then got kicked out during a round for inactivity, as it wasn’t used, but automatically rejoined the group in the next match.
By mixing the smurf and the normal account of a top player, he received a mixed lobby with truly good and comparatively bad players – just like in the past. And he had a lot of fun with this mix.
What is the criticism of SBMM? The criticism of SBMM is not new and has existed in the CoD community for years. Many players wish for mixed lobbies, where players of all skill levels are represented – just like it used to be.
It is simply much less fun when you always have to give your best and play at the highest level because you are competing against the top 5% of the players. Even good players want to relax and play after work.
Moreover, SBMM is not advantageous for worse players either, believes HapticRush, as even for them the lobbies are always the same, keeping them at their level.
And the YouTuber is not wrong about that. To improve, worse players should also sometimes play against better players. This way, they can observe movement routes, movement tricks, or meta weapons and setups from the players who dominate the scoreboard. However, if you only compete against similarly bad players, this learning effect completely disappears.
In general, SBMM continues to face criticism from CoD fans. They already found ways to manipulate matchmaking in Modern Warfare back in 2019.
Player shows how easily matchmaking can be manipulated in CoD Modern Warfare
