Call of Duty: Warzone, the battle royale spin-off of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, is out and it's incredibly popular. That doesn't mean that it's perfect, though. As with other battle royale games, players have a huge variety of criticism of Warzone. Some of that criticism is oddly familiar, such as the conversation surrounding Warzone's matchmaking system. Nadeshot, the founder of esports organization 100 Thieves and former Call of Duty pro, offered his thoughts on the subject recently.
Nadeshot posted his thoughts to Twitter about Call of Duty: Warzone's matchmaking unprompted, though there is a larger conversation about the issue in the community. Nadeshot says that he's frustrated Warzone uses a skill-based matchmaking system, but doesn't feature 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?" is Nadeshot's thoughts on the subject.
To be clear, Infinity Ward has denied that Warzone features a skill-based matchmaking system. Professional players don't believe Infinity Ward on the matter, however. They claim to see the same high-level players in lobbies more often than not. They also claim that they're more often than not put into matches with players of similar skill levels than in games with no skill-based matchmaking.
To Nadeshot, Warzone's skill-based matchmaking system is obvious. "If a dev told me that there wasn't skill based matchmaking in Warzone, I wouldn't believe them." He goes on to list players from across the country that he's played, to show that the matchmaking isn't simply connection-based. He's seeing the top Warzone players game to game.
Whether Nadeshot is actually campaigning for a ranked mode in Warzone or whether he's just letting out his frustrations over the current system isn't clear. It's a much more common attitude amongst streamers and community figureheads to hate skill-based matchmaking. Odds are that nothing will change in Warzone, or other battle royale games, regardless.
As an example of a more common perspective regarding skill-based matchmaking, Twitch streamer Shroud replied to Nadeshot's post on Twitter. Shroud says blankly that, "SBMM doesn't work and ranked also doesn't work." Shroud doesn't provide a reason for his argument. He simply says it's best for devs to "try to do your best to balance everything" and then let the game alone. Of course, that's an easy perspective to have when you're already a top player in a competitive game.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.