[AMA] Let’s talk about Apex Legends Matchmaking

Originally posted by Naive-House-7456

In ranked, are there any ideas or plans to either:

1) reduce/separate masters and pred players from high plat and lower diamond ranked lobbies?

2) Offer RP loss offsets for diamonds and plats killed by preds/masters (in exchange for being fodder for their faster queue times) ?

3) Or something else? Thanks

Originally posted by I-AM-NOT-THAT-DUCK

Why do we not have a SoloQ or ranked Solos gamemode when we see how successful it is in other games, i.e. Fortnite, League of Legends etc.

Originally posted by Matyeev

Playing rank, plat 1 rn, peak d2.
Why am i in the same lobby of #30 Pred? why is more than 3 pred teams in my game?
I understand that if i am diamond i can play against masters and preds but right now im not diamond, also why my teammates on the exact same match are gold?

Originally posted by Firm-Constant8560

Why is there such resistance to create masters/pred only lobbies?

If it's queue times, maybe create master/pred lobbies only for duo/3 stack, and if they want to solo-queue then they get the shorter queue times while being dispersed among the diamond/plat teams?

Supplemental: After queueing through diamond and watching numerous streams of masters and pred players, I've realized that masters lobbies don't exist. It's always 3-18 masters/pred players being put into diamond/plat lobbies, and just farming kills. I get that you're trying to keep queue times low for everyone, but when the top ~1% of your playerbase is only farming lobbies filled with people that are of markedly lower skill, it's not fun for anyone. There's minimal challenge for the masters/preds (who are 3 stacks 99% of the time) and everyone else is just sweating while hoping they're the last to get jumped on by these professional players.

If the competition for pred spots is who can farm the most diamond/plat players, it becomes a matter of which preds play more and not a matter of skill. Separating masters/preds into their own lobbies (even if it increases their queue times by 10x) or creating solo-queue only lobbies caters to the other 99% of players, which in turn means they play more and are more likely to spend money in the shop. It's anecdotal, but the number of people who play ranked until d4 and then stop altogether or switch to smurf accounts seems incredibly high.

Originally posted by PoliteChatter0

The biggest ranked complaint I hear from people is how miserable the soloq experience is, nobody wants to be fodder to a sweaty triple stack who are running circles around the lobby

I know you guys said that something like Mercenary mode in Call of Duty (only soloqers playlist) is not viable to do in Apex but is there anything you guys can do to help soloqers out?

Originally posted by concretecowboi_

Also why does the pub matchmaking system feel tighter than ranked my experience in pubs as of the last 3 seasons have been bad as a solo queue and duo queue. I don’t think I should be matching with preds in diamond, Masters is fine but I feel if you’re a pred you’re the best of the best and should only play against the best of the best. Preds should have only be able to matchmake with only preds even if it means longer matchmaking time

Originally posted by Irishbros1991

We need to solve solo Q out make it so your not against partys it's a terrible experience if you are a high skilled player matched with team mates not close to your level then go against some of the best players to touch the game don't make it feel like you are forced to play in a team at all times

Originally posted by PerfectAssistance212

• Is there any plans to perhaps add better experience to solo queue and perhaps differentiate solo queue from pre-made team? 

• Is there any plans of introducing solo/duo ranked mode?

Originally posted by kvndakin

Any chance masters+ can be solo queue only. Yes Apex is a team game and that's where it's msot fun, but masters+ teams just ruin the lobby if you let them team up AND put in lobbies with lower ranks. At least make them split up.

This encourages a real pred race instead of who can play Apex the longest with the best team.

EDIT: Maybe even Diamond would have to be soloqueue, the trip to masters should be proof you're able to get to masters on your own.

Originally posted by N2thedarkness

To the developers,

How tricky has it been for you guys to find a balance between making solo queue an enjoyable experience versus not making it too hard on three friends who want to party together but not get brutalized by a lobby full of sweaty three stacks? Apex has always been hard to get casual friends involved where I’m pretty good and they’re not, and with me being good they were always forced to endure my high skill lobbies. Apex’s high skill ceiling makes matchmaking a tightrope I’m sure.

I want solo queue to be more enjoyable(which it hasn’t been too bad this season) but I also don’t want it to be terrible when me and my friends play as a party(if you guys decide to ever match pre-made vs pre-made). It’s a super fine-line to walk because you don’t want to make matchmaking too hard but you also don’t want to make it a walk in the park every game for good three stacks.

Also, a small second question: If I duo queue with my brother in Trios, do we get the same level of matchmaking as if we’re three stacked, or would it be a little tamer being a duo party vs trio party in Trios?

Originally posted by Apexlegends

From JP Community

Currently, the ranked point loss seems to be the same regardless of party size, which can feel unfair. Has the team considered adjusting RP loss based on party size?

Originally posted by Think-Date2307

what specific changes are you planning to prevent low ranks from being matched with higher ranked players like Masters and Preds, especially since this has been a problem since at least 2023?

Originally posted by Little_Annual1336

Seems like everyone else has already covered what's been on my mind but I'll ask anyway.

Why are pred players more common than masters players in diamond lobbies?

I usually stop grinding ranked at diamond because it just becomes a cycle of getting ran through by the handful of pred teams for a few games before I get a pity lobby full of diamond and plat players. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen any masters players in my lobbies- I don't understand how there are only 750 preds but I somehow manage to get more of them in my games than the other 10,000 or so masters players.

Originally posted by AveN7er

Can you do something about mixtape matchmaking as well? In lobbies with 14 players it'll be 9v5 instead of 7v7 like so . Additionally it feels like all the good players are always on the same team. Some form of team balancing would greatly improve the experience. It doesn't have to be a complex algorithm. XDefiant used a snake draft to balance the teams

Originally posted by HamiltonDial

Why are masters and preds being reset to plat and plat is also reset to plat. Having such a wide band of players of varying skill levels absolutely reduces match quality.

And a semi-related question, why are current preds able to be lobbies with players who are in plat and even gold?

Originally posted by AddisonNM

Maybe cap it to Diamond 1. Once a person gets positive RP over D1...go sign into Apex Legends 2.0...Masters and Preds only.

If you and your friends go golfing on Saturday, should you be going up against PGA Masters? No. They have their own leagues to play in.

Originally posted by DefinitionChemical75

Why don’t yall stop doing split ranked resets?

Seriously. You can see people asking why preds are ending up in DIAMOND lobbies. 

It’s a simple solution. Quit with the frequent ranked resets. You literally are only hurting your casual players. 

Originally posted by IParadigmShiftI

Just curious what makes you guys think that someone with 40,000-80,000 rp more than me should be in the same lobby as me? Have you considered adding a rank between diamond/master to separate very poor players from top 5(ish)% players?

Originally posted by SnooRobots3896

I don't get why your in is such resistance for masters/pred only 3 stack lobbies? If it's queue times?

I do not care, it is not fun when solo queuing and you still end up against 3 stack sweats and master/pred teams!

Originally posted by mgibs18

So I’m sure you all invest a lot of time into it, but ranked matchmaking feels like a bit of a joke at the moment.

I understand that Preds/Masters will appear in Diamond lobbies, but having 8-12 of them in almost EVERY Diamond game when the queues are almost instant doesn’t make sense. I’ve been master the last 4 seasons and I promise I wouldn’t mind waiting a few more minutes for a more competitive lobby of majority master/preds. I’m willing to bet both Diamond and Master+ players would benefit from longer queues if it meant more competitive lobbies.

So my question essentially is will we see longer queues and stricter ranked matchmaking sooner rather than later?

Sidenote: has removing sbmm (or whatever iteration is used in Apex) from pubs ever been considered? Pubs tends to feel like diet ranked and I’m not sure the matchmaking is very beneficial for that mode considering how the games tend to play out.

Ranked and pubs shouldn’t feel as similar as they do. I’m sure the game mechanics play a part in that, but so does the matchmaking.

Thanks for taking our questions!

Originally posted by RobPlaysTooMuch_YT

Why are preds not considered a separate rank in the matchmaking algorithm?

Originally posted by Paramedic124

Regarding high elo matching, how about making only Solo Q possible from master and above?
now rank meta : pred has 50% hack boost,cheater and ano half jst kill all day(time bill gates can do grind) low elo plat dia

Originally posted by LilBoDuck

If the goal is to eliminate widely imbalanced lobbies then why are preds and masters allowed to Que into plat/diamond lobbies?

Originally posted by theenigma77

Is there any plans to deal with Smurfing. Feels like half the time I am killed by a level 40 with a 4k badge.

Originally posted by Firm-Constant8560

Announcement was posted yesterday and there's a litany of questions posted by the community. AMA has now been live for over 15 minutes and we've yet to see any responses. What's going on? u/RSPN_Thieamy