Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War leaker tells why the game's SBMM won't be altered

Notable Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War leaker Tom Henderson shared his opinion about the skill-based matchmaking heard on Twitter and also revealed why "it won't be toned down."

The amount of people that send me abuse tweets and DMs on the daily because they think I'm a Call of Duty developer is astounding. I can't imagine the amount of abuse actual devs get... It's quite concerning tbh.

— Tom Henderson (@_TomHenderson_) December 22, 2020

According to Tom, the reason why Treyarch is not willing to remove skill-based matchmaking from Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is because of the mixed reactions from the community.

He further clarified that as long as content creators advertise their creator codes in support of the developers, the other half trying to get SBMM removed won't have their voices heard.

Yeah. It won't be toned down. You can't have 1 half of the community trying to back the removal of it and the other half advertising their creator codes for 80 cents a purchase. The only way to get it to be toned down is to work as a community, together. But X for doubt. https://t.co/6lD5NPu6At

— Tom Henderson (@_TomHenderson_) December 17, 2020

Skill-based matchmaking in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has been an extremely controversial debate since the game's alpha stage. So much so that multiple notable community figures such as TimTheTatman, Scump, Attach, and Censor have complained about SBMM publicly.

SBMM does not belong in Call of Duty. There should be a ranked playlist for people to sweat in. I’m not trying to play Scuf wielding game fuel chugging demons with szn in their psn on Miami TDM. Also, to the noobies that are gonna cry about this tweet, hold this choppy gunny.

— OpTic Scump (@scump) September 19, 2020

SBMM doesn’t belong in CoD Just give us a good Ranked Playlist instead

— MN Attach (@Attach) September 19, 2020

Here's everything that fans need to know about skill-based matchmaking in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

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Skill-based matchmaking in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

The fact that players don't have the option to choose between a ranked and a casual mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War makes it an extremely bitter encounter for multiple players.

SBMM in the game has caused players so much trouble that even some of the pros are finding it difficult to manage a K/D ratio of more than 2.0.

SBMM in Black Ops Cold War is so strong, that not a single pro player on my friends list has a 2.0 KD pic.twitter.com/OyGuZmRGeZ

— Censor (@Censor) November 16, 2020

On the other hand, skill-based matchmaking can be an absolute curse for content creators who are just trying to chill and play a fun game of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Nevertheless, in spite of growing cries in the community against SBMM, Treyarch are yet to make any changes.

Some even argue that SBMM makes the game playable for new players, and to some extent, they are right. No one likes buying a new game and getting stomped as their very first experience of it.

Keeping that in mind, SBMM is probably essential in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War up to some extent.

If you think only 1% of people who play MP are engaged in social media then ouch.

— Tom Henderson (@_TomHenderson_) December 17, 2020

However, according to suggestions from multiple community figures, Treyarch should think about implementing a separate casual mode for players who just want to play for fun.

Until that happens, it looks like SBMM is here to stay, and as Tom suggested, the only way to get the developers to notice is to actively raise the concern as a community.