"SBMM has destroyed casual players": Fortnite communites cries for help over broken match-making

Epic Games has made numerous changes to Fortnite Battle Royale since the game came out in September 2017. Players are now in Chapter 3 and each chapter has its own unique characteristics.

The developers decided to add skill-based matchmaking with the release of Chapter 2 back in October 2019. This type of matchmaking had already been in the game, but only in competitive modes.

However, Chapter 2 marked the start of skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) in core game modes as well. With this, Epic Games has also added bots into Fortnite. Unfortunately, even three years later, many players believe that the matchmaking system is deeply flawed. However, it doesn't seem that there is any solution for it.

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Fortnite's skill-based matchmaking is not working the way it's supposed to

Reddit user Otherwise-Ad-1116 recently posted a matchmaking complaint on the official Fortnite Battle Royale subreddit, which has received a lot of attention and hundreds of comments from other users who agree with it.

The original poster mentioned how skill-based matchmaking is necessary in the game, but that it's not balanced at all. They mentioned playing Trios with their daughters and them dying immediately at the start of the game.

The Fortnite player also complained about skill-based matchmaking in the Solo mode, saying that they didn't win even one out of their last 20 solo matches.

Additionally, the Reddit user also spoke about how they got a player with a 8.5 K/D ratio in a lobby, while one had a "building god," who was at a much higher skill than the lobby should have allowed.

Other players who commented also complained about the matchmaking system in Fortnite, claiming that it's not fair.

One user pointed out that lower-skilled players should be party leaders. Apparently, this is what affects the quality of opponents, so it could be a solution to this huge problem many players are experiencing.

Players have also talked about streamers who sometimes win five or six games in a row. If the system was balanced, this wouldn't be happening as they would face the competition of the same skill level.

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What is actually going on with the matchmaking system?

The skill-based matchmaking system is definitely not balanced. However, many players believe that Epic Games changed something in Season 3, which most likely isn't the case.

At the start of each season, lower-skilled players usually get matched up against "sweats." This is because the game almost completely resets everyone's matchmaking rating in the new season, making it take some time for it to properly adjust.

This isn't just the case in the current season, it's been happening ever since Epic Games added skill-based matchmaking to the video game. This was the case in every season of Chapter 3 as well.

The game developer has been transparent when it comes to big changes, so players would have most likely received a notice if there were any big changes done to the matchmaking.

However, the fact is that everyone's ratings are slowly adjusting and will get to the right level soon. The first few weeks of every season are definitely much tougher, but things get better later on.