Yesterday, Bungie announced the return of skill-based matchmaking – or SBMM – in Destiny 2’s main PvP mode. This week at Bungie blog post, the studio detailed upcoming changes to matchmaking, with the addition of “loose SBMM” to the Control playlist that will arrive at the Season 18 launch on August 23. Described as “the first iteration” of a larger matchmaking overhaul, this will continue through Season 19.
Supposedly anticipating the inevitable backlash from PvP tryhards, the lengthy post goes into detail as to why this change is necessary. In it, Bungie highlights how big the gap is between the best and worst players under the current connection-based matchmaking system. Here’s the eye-opening stat: “In Control, the skill differences in a team can be huge – more than 50% of matches have a skill gap of 900 or more between the best and worst player, which is so important that the outcome is already known before a single shot is fired.”
The skill number referenced here is an internal stat that Bungie tracks, which seemingly takes into account everything from kills, deaths, and round wins to gear (down to the mods you may have equipped) and reaction times. It’s a 2000 point scale, and Bungie says that “once you hit a 600 difference, there’s basically no chance for the less skilled player to ever win a 1v1 conflict”.
Earlier, Control and other Destiny 2 PvP modes did have enabled SBMM. It proved controversial at the time, in part because Destiny 2 uses peer-to-peer connections over dedicated servers. Preferring skill over link quality led to numerous instances of lag, player teleportation, and missed shots. It also affected players at the highest (and lowest) end of the skill spectrum with longer queues. That said, I also got the sense that the backlash was fueled in part by influencers who make their living making PvP compilations of killstreaks against less skilled players. Flashy pubs with new seasonal weapons are much harder against players with similar skills.
Content creators have already started weighing in, with opinions ranging from fair to salty borderline.
As long as the connection quality is good and games don’t feel like a tournament forcing me to play full meta all the time then I’m fine with it.July 28, 2022
You know what would make pvp easier for new players? Have an in-game tutorial.July 28, 2022
Thank goodness for SBMM, these content creators can now play against people at their skill level. I’m excited to see how well they use X new season weapon against Lord of Wolves Omni. 🙏🏽July 28, 2022
In June 2020, SBMM was removed from all playlists except the Elimination and Survival playlist. In the years since, the community has grown increasingly frustrated with the current form of matchmaking – not surprising given the stats above.
Still, Bungie won’t fully revert to the old system. The key word here is “loose”, with Bungie saying they’d rather sacrifice some match fairness to maintain connection quality and matchmaking speeds. “Our first version of standalone SBMM for the Control playlist is going to work a little differently. It starts with a wider acceptable skill variance and then very slowly expands to include both acceptable skill and connection quality at the same time.”
“More than 50% of matches have a skill difference of 900 or more between the best and the worst player, which is so important that the outcome is known before a single shot is fired.”
This week at Bungie, July 28, 2022
Matchmaking times are likely to go up, especially for those on a pre-existing fireteam, or at either end of the skill curve. “We hope the trade-off for matches that aren’t super sweaty or lopsided will be worth it.”
Inevitably there will be some teething problems here – there is always one for matchmaking. But as a regular PvP player, the current system feels untenable. Anecdotally, the number of obvious blowouts feels higher than ever. There are many possible reasons for this: new players in particular are clearly at a disadvantage in terms of gear options and buildcraft knowledge. Bungie’s own data seems to match my anecdotal experience – with 25% of matches ending in grace on some maps, and over 50% of matches ending with the best player getting 20 more kills than the worst.
Destiny 2 will never be the most competitive PvP game, in part because of its randomized loot system, meaning it can be time consuming to ensure the most advantageous perks for the best weapons. But it’s also worth emphasizing that most games use some form of skill-based matchmaking, even for more casual modes, because you don’t want newer players to be scrapped by experienced professionals. It’s wild that it’s even a hot topic, even if the old system was far from perfect. Anything that can make PvP less of a soul-crushing task will be a long-term gain for the game.
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