After competing in yesterday’s Warzone Wednesdays tournament, Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag took to Twitter to beg for ranked play in Warzone and says that there’s some form of skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) in the battle royale, despite the game’s developers claiming there isn’t.
The 100 Thieves founder and former Call of Duty pro had been putting in solid performances throughout the first instalment of Warzone Wednesdays alongside teammates Jack ‘CouRage’ Dunlop and Dennis ‘Cloakzy’ Lepore, but wanted that competitive experience outside of tournaments too. After the tournament concluded, he tweeted: “I’ll never understand why Call of Duty goes through all of the trouble to implement skill based matchmaking but won’t add a ranking system. If you’re going to match me up against better players, why can’t I have a rank to be proud of and work towards?”
While it was unclear at this point whether Nadeshot was talking exclusively about Warzone or Modern Warfare’s multiplayer (which also still has no rankings system), it became clear that it was the battle royale he was referring to after Twitch streamer Tim ‘TimTheTatman’ Betar questioned: “Is there SBMM in Warzone?”
I’ll never understand why Call of Duty goes through all of the trouble to implement skill based matchmaking but won’t add a ranking system. If you’re going to match me up against better players, why can’t I have a rank to be proud of and work towards?
— 100T Nadeshot (@Nadeshot) March 25, 2020
Nadeshot’s response shows that he firmly believes there is some form of skill-based matchmaking at play like there currently is in multiplayer, despite Infinity Ward stating that large player count modes like Ground War and Warzone don’t use it when finding players a lobby.
“If a dev told me that there wasn’t skill based matchmaking in Warzone, I wouldn’t believe them. There are over 30 million registered playing Warzone, and somehow I consistently face off against players I know that are at the top of the leaderboards. It’s beyond coincidence.”
This includes players that are on my friends list that live all over the country so I know it’s not connection based. I’ve fought Merk, Teepee, Maven, Crowder, JoshOG, Diego, Huskers, Crimsix, Ninja and Noah all in the last few days MULTIPLE times.
— 100T Nadeshot (@Nadeshot) March 25, 2020
Nadeshot claims that in the last few days he has encountered the likes of streamer Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins, CoD pro Ian ‘Crimsix’ Porter, and the winners of yesterday’s tournament Josh ‘Josh OG’ Beaver, Jordan ‘HusKers’ Thomas, and Diego ‘Diegosaurs’ Navarrete “multiple times.”
His observations were supported by a number of figures in the Call of Duty community, such as OpTic Gaming LA general manager Eric ‘Muddawg’ Sanders, who says he gets “killed by Crimsix twice a day.”
However, Nadeshot’s call for ranked play in Warzone, which would likely act similarly to the Apex Legends rankings system, was not echoed by everyone, despite it being near the top of the wishlist for a lot of the community.
Mixer streamer Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek boldly claims that ranked play and SBMM “don’t work” in battle royales, and that devs should focus on just keeping everything as balanced as possible rather than try and separate players based on skill.
