YouTube streamer and former CoD esports caster Jack ‘CouRage’ Dunlop has blasted the Modern Warfare 2 Beta as “horrible” for its insistence on skill-based matchmaking (SBMM), as complaints over the system inundate developers Infinity Ward.
The Modern Warfare 2 Beta has given players of all platforms their first hands-on experience with Infinity Ward’s 2022 title.
It will be live until Monday 26 September, giving the developers just over a month to implement feedback from players.
Currently, the feedback has centered on minimaps, footstep audio, and, predictably, skill-based matchmaking.
SBMM is a controversial mechanic, designed to put players into lobbies with opponents of a similar skill level. Some argue it allows closer matches but others claim it punishes good players and disproportionately protects lower-skilled ones.
CouRage slams “horrible” SBMM ruining Modern Warfare 2 Beta
Joining the likes of Dr Disrespect in criticizing the system, CouRage claimed it forces all players to play the same way in order to try and benefit from marginal gains against players of similar standard.
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“It truly is a shame that I can’t use ANYTHING but the most meta class setup or else I’ll go triple negative in these extreme SBMM lobbies in MWII,” he tweeted. “Inflatable Decoy over Dead Silence for fun? No. Throwing Knives over Semtexs? No. Mess around with a weird class? No. Horrible.”
It truly is a shame that I can’t use ANYTHING but the most meta class setup or else I’ll go triple negative in these extreme SBMM lobbies in MWII.Inflatable Decoy over Dead Silence for fun? No.Throwing Knives over Semtexs? No.Mess around with a weird class? No.Horrible.
— Jack “CouRage” Dunlop (@CouRageJD) September 23, 2022
In a second tweet on the Beta, the former Call of Duty World League caster said that nearly every stream of MW2 he has seen has players floating around a 1.0 K/D and suggested that SBMM should only be in ranked modes.
It’s a fairly common opinion, with many arguing public matches – as the Beta offers – should be casual and Ranked games should place players with opponents around their skill level.
He said: “Nearly every stream I’ve tuned into for the MW2 Beta is entire lobbies with a 0.9-1.1 K/D and everyone being frustrated at how sweaty their games are due to SBMM. Also, nearly everyone I’ve watched said they wouldn’t mind it if they had a rank associated with it (Valorant/Apex).”
It remains to be seen how Infinity Ward implements the negative feedback over SBMM, but there have long been suggestions that it is implemented by Activision rather than the devs themselves.
