I Accidentally Exposed A Fatal Flaw In Apex Legends SBMM System

[@Thegamingmerchant]

I think what happened at 15:40 was the game somehow thought I was in the "mid-air" state so it gave me spread as if I was jumping or flying through the sky, really not sure why

[@zsideswapper6718]

Yeah, weirdge.

[@TheRealDirtyDan31]

i felt as if it were registering your shots as hip fire instead

[@yathurssan4017]

Ohhh

[@TheRhysj5]

Ah. I see you downloaded an anti-aim bot to keep yourself on a mortal level.

[@lambosnicko]

That was sus af lol they be making your aim bad on purpose 😂

[@Zach_on_repeat]

I brought a friend into the game yesterday, he's literally never played before and we were instantly matched with masters and preds. After he turned the game off and I played some more I was matched with lower tier lobbys. It's actually broken.

[@ArchWolfVegasEditor]

That’s because you were playing with him either make a new account or let him get better on his own

[@ollywoodx]

@@ArchWolfVegasEditor yeah i agree and was gonna say, i’m pretty sure it’ll go off of whoever in the lobby plays the most (their level lobbies) for SBMM.

[@Shoob__]

He is “Unrated,” he needs to play more to be assigned a rating.

[@itsd0nk]

This happened to me too. After playing with a friend who never plays apex and getting crushed for ten games straight by preds, I played solo for the best streak of bot lobbies I have ever experienced.

[@Ex0rz]

The reason is that it matches you based on the highest sbmm rating in your party. When you obviously get rekt in a few master/pred lobbies your sbmm went down and when you played alone your rating had gone down.

[@appleboymax]

TGM: I shouldn’t even be in this lobby! Also TGM: well anyway I started shredding

[@maxlopez439]

Lmfao too good

[@jessjohnreed7964]

"So anyway I started blasting" - Frank iasip

[@_fowlplay_]

I'd still lose the game cuz of bad RNG

[@thejuice15]

@@_fowlplay_ bruh the only RNG is the drops or the circle. Wdym bad RNG?

[@derHallen_Ch.]

@@thejuice15 floor loot, enemy team could be stacked

[@ddremoboyable]

Hours of dying to get into a bot lobby, but a single decent game and Apex be like: "Woah! We clearly made a mistake and you're actually a top .000000001% player. We'll make sure you're put against players of your skill for at least the next few hours."

[@fail4878]

“Dayum This mf s good” that’s how the sbmm speaks for sure

[@lefi8522]

this is so true and its so annoying got a 10 kill game against (probably) bots (because they werent moving when i shot them) when i was level 10ish and ever since then i keep getting put into diamond master lobbies in pubs (level 50+ now)

[@netorare_ow7446]

Yeah, devs are brain damaged. Unfortunate.

[@CrimZonOnYT]

IKR?!?!? I'll die with like 5 kills AT MOST every game for like 100 games and I get one 15 kill game, boom: 4K, 20 Bomb, Predator, tier 4 teamwork badge, fucking 10k kill sweaty TTV Wraiths every goddamn match for like 3 hours.

[@atdynax]

I get into bot lobbies in Arenas a lot. Every day actually.

[@ollywoodx]

yeah same which is weird. maybe it’s cause i don’t play it as often as normal trios, but as someone who has over 250 wins with lifeline in arenas it’s weird when i’m up against people below level 30.

[@latunen5241]

@@ollywoodx i mean honestly 250wins in arenas isnt that impressive

[@zsideswapper6718]

@@ollywoodx I have like 510 wins on her and get matched against or with lvl 8's (pubs Arenas).

[@ollywoodx]

@@latunen5241 okay? i wasn’t trying to flex i’m just saying i’ve clearly played a lot of arenas games and i’ve reached platinum before. would be more but i work and have a life so don’t always have time to play

[@ollywoodx]

@@zsideswapper6718 yeah it’s strange 🥴

[@LyK0sa]

The bot lobby that sticks out in my mind the most was a while back when I was playing duos with a mate, the previous game didn't go great, we hot dropped, got between 1 and 3 kills each and died within minutes. Queued up again, and we were shocked and very confused to see our names on the champion screen. Apparently, our miserable performance in that last game was better than anyone else's in the lobby. It was a total bloodbath, and I genuinely felt bad. The last 2 squads were the only semi competent players we came across.

[@Chowy_Xo]

so you telling me getting a few second places Inna row left me to be champion?

[@LyK0sa]

@@Chowy_Xo not exactly. The champion is just whoever performed the best in their last game, that's why you can win a game and still not get champion, because they also won but had more kills at the end. In the game I was talking about I think we placed around 15th, which apparently was better than anyone else in that lobby... And based on the players that were in that lobby, I believe that 100%. It's only ever happened to me once

[@zackkelley5762]

I've been the champion 3 times, since season 0, where I wasnt the winner of a match. One of them I came in 2nd place, the other 2 times it happened, I was somewhere between 5th-10th place. It can definitely happen, but it's rare to say the least.

[@Nightstick24]

There are times where I'm genuinely concerned that I'm the Champion. When we're the 10th squad out and I die with 2 kills and 300 damage but I'm the Champion you know they're scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel to find people... But I can't deny that it's kinda fun to run around the map being an absolute menace to robots, small children, or the elderly.

[@LyK0sa]

@@Nightstick24 yeah, I won't lie... it is kinda fun. It feels less like playing apex, more like playing doom 2016.

[@jman4430]

I wanted to test out how many games me and my friend must lose before getting into bot lobbies, it was 5, we didn't want to wipe the floor with them so we avoided fights as best we could, we both had 4 kills and got the win, next game the champion squad was a 11k kill octane and 8k kills master Valk. How does one win and 8 combined kills get us into those lobbies. Definitely broken

[@twerkmaster-yn7yz]

I don’t think that it shot you back up to the insanely skilled lobbies, the octane and the valk probably purposely got into the bot lobbies you were in, trying to get good games.

[@jman4430]

@@twerkmaster-yn7yz hm, I could see that, because when me and my friend were doing the trick to get into bot lobbies, we started to notice other players doing the same thing as us

[@HopeBlasey]

@@twerkmaster-yn7yz I attempted this and got the same results. Lobbies with players who stand still while shooting, got a win with one Kill and instantly put back with 3 Stack Master’s & multiple 4K 20B’s

[@DanaBanana94]

One good win with 5 or more kills and a few top 5's definitely boosts you straight into master-level pub lobbies where the whole sky is filled with dive trails. And then you throw yourself off the map for like 5-10 matches in a row and make your way back to beginner lobbies again. It's fundamentally broken.

[@jordonthomas6288]

Yooo Ash season week 1 challenge: 25 sniper knock downs feels impossible... Me after reading this "oOooO I know what I'm going to do"

[@PyrrhaNikos115]

18:10 This was the best part of this entire video. TGM is just SO used to people in his lobbies playing movement legends that he forgot that in these not lobbies, defensive ‘trap’ legends are king.

[@prisoner122]

He sounds so confused to people using Caustic the way he’s meant to be played lmfao

[@PyrrhaNikos115]

@@prisoner122 It really is how he was meant to be played. People these days have forgotten to be at least a little afraid of going inside of buildings

[@ShmooCanDo]

Ya that was funny I see hidey lil campers Allllllllll the time like that lol and it looks like that team was just 2 ppl probably why they were doing that too so they weren't 2 v 3ing

[@PyrrhaNikos115]

@@ShmooCanDo Hey, just goes to show you that you don't NEED fancy tricks to get the job done. They certainly HELP, but sometimes simplicity and stupidity can be KING.

[@ShmooCanDo]

@@PyrrhaNikos115 haha very very true!

[@zsideswapper6718]

With the figures you've shown in the beginning, I concluded you would have more than 1M subscribers if every single viewer actually subscribed. You deserve the 1M for sure. Everyone agrees.

[@jackpepper4432]

that's just not true though if his vids average 100-200K views

[@ItzAche_]

@@jackpepper4432 PewDiePie's videos average 200k-300k views but he's got 110M

[@jackpepper4432]

@@ItzAche_ no they average 2-6 million views please do your research

[@ItzAche_]

@@jackpepper4432 ok

[@ryann6230]

@@jackpepper4432 lmao you just disproved your own point though. That means 2-6% of subs watch pewdipies videos and about 33% of TGM subs watch these videos, so he should have more…

[@gudmundursveinsson9060]

Noticed the same thing when i was doing a weekly to play some legend. Just did no fill and left the game as soon as i landed. 12 games doing that and noticed when playing a normal game that it was nothing like my regular lobbies. This also explains the player that jumps straight off the map from the ship

[@zsideswapper6718]

Yeah it is like that man.

[@pablosirius5]

lately I had soooo many randoms doing that, either dropping immediately out of the map or just getting killed in the most dumb ways, like really on purpose and its so damn annoying, cause now you are 1 player down in your squad or 2 sometimes -.-

[@flokisenpai106]

@@pablosirius5 There’s been KZbin videos of how to get bot lobbies to get a 20 bomb. It requires you to dive off the map. So I guess that’s what some of the randoms are aiming for

[@akres13]

I actually tried this, and it doesnt work just like that. You actually need to die. A death needs to be counted into your stats. Jumping off the map right from the ship, doesnt give you a death. Getting knocked and leaving ALSO doesnt give you a death. You need to actually get killed by a player. Just drop hot, pick up a gun, shoot and miss everything, get killed. Repeat the process 5 times, and you are in a bot lobby.

[@samaantree]

@@akres13 the joke is, if your lobbies are full of high skill stacked squads and you always solo q and hot drop you will die soon after you land really fast anyway, which means one of your games might be easy enough for you to get high kills

[@grivoc]

I think SBMM seems to have an engagement bias (event though Respawn has said they don't). I've almost stopped playing completely in the latest season doing at best 2 hours a week. Now when I join a game it usually only feeds me to the wolves for one game before I get bot lobbies. People crouch walking out in the open, no strafes, nothing. When I played a lot in previous seasons I'd get placed with killers all the time. Almost seems like if the game detects that you're going to stop playing and it throws you some lambs to make you feel good about yourself. I could be wrong but that's the way it feels.

[@javianbrown8627]

For me my first games are usually pretty easy especially if I played a bunch or ranked that season

[@craig291086]

Definitely does. I stopped playing for a season and a half due to terrible lag and unreal lobbies. When I came back my skill drastically dropped, yet I was put in with bots first game back. Ended up with 4 kills. I mean I was playing terrible. So I instantly uninstalled it again. Wasn’t playing a game that was intentionally giving me easy games to try lure me back. Came back this season but my interest is almost zero.

[@grivoc]

@@craig291086 yup. Played with friends last night and had three games in a row of getting killed with 10K+ 4k 20 badge sweaties.

[@codebearer72]

I definitely feel the same. When I'm playing consistently for a few weeks or even a couple months it gets to the point where I can't even get a kill to save my life. But I come back a month or two later and shred every lobby I'm in for the next couple of weeks... while I'm rusty and out of practice. Super strange.

[@DeolomTM]

The Lore is insane in this videdo, you can see the bangalore smoke at the very beginning of the game, so the Pathfiner must have been there all game long too. In the meantime, Merchant is fighting of other teams, while trying to find out where the grapple noise came from. All other teams also just straight up ignore the Smoke and Pathfinder on the roof, acting like the grapple mans miniouns on their quest to defeat Merchant and keep him from finding out the secret. While still under attack and fighting for his life, Merchant finds out the dark truth of the mysterious grapple man. Better plot twist than most Anime

[@zsideswapper6718]

"The Legend of the Grappleman" S o o n I n T h e a t e r s I'm hyped for watching it.

[@samosa1323]

Haha

[@chadmcalpha3511]

I like your way of thinking are you a writer ?

[@xer0day]

I make apex videos, I just put out a new montage this morning if anyone will give it a chance and check out a video or two!

[@TheAccount-vj1de]

@@xer0day no thanks bro, apex videos aren’t really my thing

[@Rain1]

The problem with SBMM in this game isn't that it exists, the problem is how insanely extreme it is. There are only two types of lobbies you can be placed into: Bot lobbies or Masters lobbies. For some reason there are no in between lobbies in public matches , even though there is obviously a great gap between gold and Diamond skill level players. There needs to be in between lobbies for the days that you aren't doing well or you just aren't warmed up yet. You shouldn't be forced to lose 10 games or 15 games in a row to finally be in a Lobby that you can handle yourself as a solo q'er. And don't get me started on people who have to solo queue against three stacks and are punished for not having friends to play with at that time.

[@psilocin6739]

100% agree. You hit level 20? sbmm: "oh he's ready"

[@djatlasmusik]

I do get placed in hard lobbies but I think they also give you bot lobbies way too easily. Like all my games are bot lobbies recently just becuz when I warm up I hot drop for 3 games that shouldn't put me in a lobby with level 55s

[@vaodinYT]

It feels more like three types. Easy lobbies where you won't see any masters and barely any diamonds, the typical sweet lobbies, and then these actual bot lobbies. I started in season 7 and noticed the games getting harder as I learned and started winning (got out of the actual bot lobbies), but I almost never saw masters or 4k badges. Then at some point it jumped to that being normal every game.

[@Rain1]

@@djatlasmusik not for me. Man, no matter how many games in a row I lose it's always Diamond / Masters lobbies. I don't know if they require you to be alive for a certain amount of time and then die to an actual player for it to count, or if you can just jump off the map right at the beginning.

[@Rain1]

@@vaodinYT I haven't played on controller since 2012, but since I started watching a few controller Apex Legends KZbinrs I've become inspired to try it out and see if I can get good with it. Let's just say my gamesense carries me a lot more than my ability to use a controller. I'm learning quickly but mastering it will take some time. You can get a lot of damage by being in the right place at the right time and disengaging at the right time as well. Bot lobby players always seem to push Solo or not know when to follow up on a push so you just get to get a battery off for free. That said though after a few games I get suddenly placed into the Masters Diamond lobbies. I've never seen an in-between Lobby even after a few new accounts.

[@honeybadger036]

About a month ago, I got super excited when I saw a well known apex pro enter my lobby, but after 5 minutes of not seeing them knock anyone on the kill feed, they eventually died. Very odd I thought, would not be surprised if they were doing this.

[@kenjisxsad5404]

Either that or they where having a bad game

[@edwardchester1]

This is genuinely quite damning. That respawn's sbmm system isn't better at tracking a player's historical ability makes it problematic in a whole host of ways. Most obviously, it's too easy to game, but also it means the experience for mid-level players just trying to grind out wins is ruined by being forced into harder and harder lobbies when your skill isn't getting any higher. There's also the fact that it basically confirms respawn is using sbmm not to actually put players in balanced lobbies but make it a lottery of what lobby you're going to get (which ultimately would seem to defeat the point of having sbmm).

[@sayamqazi]

yes. the system is obviously designed to make it so as soon as you have a good game the dopamine is neutralized with consecutive losses and you keep searching for that high game which comes back again after a few losses to keep you in the game longer.

[@edwardchester1]

@@sayamqazi Yeah, exactly this. A slightly sinister addictive element to the whole thing.

[@ShmooCanDo]

I was just saying this and it's beyond frustrating as a mid lvl player. I feel horrible at the game but I know I'm not horrible horrible even though my kd is .41 but I'm a lvl 500 lol but literally 9 out of 10 games I'm up against preds etc then I get one good even feeling game, get some decent damage and kills and either win or top 3, then I'm right back to those 9 sweaty lobbied games and I feel like I'm never going to improve or raise my kd cause of it... It's so frustrating. I even started playing ranked this season and I'm only a silver 2 and im noticing definite smurf accounts in lobbies.. lvl 15s and 20s with 50-150 kills and they're either silver or gold ranked already.... and their movement is DEFINITELY not of a new player....

[@alarrim29574]

That’s just all sbmm systems. It’s that way in cod and fortnite too. It’s annoying and overly sweaty even for average players and lobby’s zap the fun out of the game. Plus there is always a way to game the system for easier or literal not lobby’s. It’s why I think games shouldn’t have any sbmm at all unless it’s a ranked mode

[@marta-dy4no]

Me and a friend got a literal bot squadmate recently! When we landed it got stuck on a ledge, and kept on jumping with regular intervals, which was obviously scripted. When we died and spectated it, it survived three rings and ended up in 2nd place 😂

[@mstrick64]

@@JP-hr3xq Right? One my first wins in Apex (Season 2 or 3 I think), a random and me won by standing on top of a building watching the last two teams go at each other with the winner of that battle being taken out by the ring. We won by never firing a shot. 0 DMG. 0 Kills. Do nothing *is* sometimes the best play.

[@deimos351]

@Strickles That reminds of the time where it was during the first shadow royale I think, not sure though but the map was KC nighttime, and I didn't get any teammates for some reason, didn't get into a single fight, and the one time people shot me, I bamboozled them and ran away, last team died to the storm

[@simulacrxm]

bots are op tbh respawn should definitely nerf them

[@gokuhalfandhalf4130]

My teamates fly off the map like we just started and they just fly off

[@avwholesomegamer]

There needs to be an achievement for getting carried by a bot! I’d definitely have it already 😅

[@jakethornton4856]

Yeah I have had the opposite happen to me. I just started last season and I started this season on fire. I got a couple of quick wins and my k/d was 1.5 and then for about 40 games i got put in lobbies were I cudnt get kills for my life. I even had times where i thought i was playing hackers because they got all head shots on me. My team mates not being the best didnt help either but for about 40 games i did horrible but for the last couple of days i have been doing well again. It sucks when u go from beating a whole team by myself to not being able to win very many 1v1's.

[@fixthat3269]

You'll get used to it the more you play, it's a rough jump up in skill trust me I remember it

[@fatalpushing]

Same happened to me, I'm a life time .8 K/d player and pretty below par but play for fun. Start of this season first 10 games I was at 2.0k/d and loving life. Then the same dry patch happed couldn't win 1v1 fight not to mention my team most of the time was horrible off looting and splitting all over the place.

[@memento_mori7108]

I honestly don’t know how they think that they can judge whether it is a bot lobby or not when they don’t know what a bot lobby is and just deny a player’s skill.

[@edwardchester1]

Sure, but you're saying that on a video that also specifically proves that you can game sbmm to give you easier lobbies...

[@memento_mori7108]

@@edwardchester1 so? My point is most of the times pros don’t get into bot lobbies and when they do they don’t upload that game. This game was a bot lobby. Other games aren’t.

[@memento_mori7108]

@@edwardchester1 do you honestly think that a person will intentionally go into a bot lobby and make a video out it like “I dropped 9k damage 28 kills” or something like that?

[@edwardchester1]

@@memento_mori7108 I've definitely seen "record kill" videos in the past that were clearly smurf accounts. People either smurf or game sbmm all the time. Whether a pro (or specifically that pro the posted the 9k damage) would do it, I don't know. Depends on the player, probably. Never mind that plenty of the more toxic pro played regularly belittle their opponents calling them bots while playing in pubs.

[@L0LSH33P]

@@edwardchester1 yeah but the point of the video was that people call out streamers like itztimmy shiv and gaming merchant for being in bot lobbies when they are streaming the game and have proof in that they are playing the game, that they aren’t in bot lobbies, or they’d be put in better ones after a few games, especially in ranked you can’t game it in a way so that every game is a bot lobby on stream. But yeah videos on yt that have “world records” are very sketchy Edit: the pro that posted the 9k was itztimmy and he was streaming for a while at the time and was hunting for the record

[@itsd0nk]

At 15:40 your recoil suddenly became hip fire pattern instead of ADS. That was crazy

[@chadmcalpha3511]

I feel like the recoil pattern was more like while you're on octane's jump pad

[@itsd0nk]

@@chadmcalpha3511 yeah that checks out. He was kind of stuck bumping up and down on some geometry so it was likely registering as being midair

[@stretchyscroggs1390]

I have personally experienced this with my friend in duos. We were using the drop ship speed glitch just to juke people for fun so we died a lot cause you can't defend yourself, but we decided to play a regular game and I dropped like 15 kills and 3k.

[@slippy9251]

The real crime is how sometimes in the loading screens it says "Shake it off, no one wins every game, get back on your feet and try again". Kinda hippcrocy when you build a system that makes sure that when I win one game I get 5 hard ones next.

[@m4xDr0ne]

The thing is, this is how it is supposed to work, and yes streamers (unintentionally) utilize this mechanic. Since most do not want to watch someone drop in the edge and kill three teams to win the game, people end up watching the streamers who hotdrop and take out the whole lobby. That often comes with a caveat which is that you will be dying more often than not and every few hours (if you're decent) you'll get one of those games where everything lines up. Go and check out your favorite "montage" player live and you'll see the reality of things.

[@may-ym5si]

its engagement optimized matchmaking, to keep yall playing for the longest time and spend more money. i love this game, shame that it will never live up to its true potential with profits as the number one priority :(

[@ThistleBlue]

Not me, just getting dropped into two high tier lobbies one after the other and completely making an arse of myself because I kept dying. As it turns out, I was the bot in those lobbies haha

[@theapterousbird]

Saaaaame :(

[@turtle7288]

Dude your uploads are always in time with my lunch period thanks for the daily uploads

[@memento_mori7108]

If the content creators wanted to abuse these lobbies then merchant would have titled this easy 20 bomb 6K and would not have given the win to the last squad

[@ShmooCanDo]

💯 I honestly loved this watching him beg not to kill him and give him the win so effen amazing honestly. However some content creators do abuse these lobbies... I'm not saying a lot or all but I definitely seen some of them, and I'm not trying to knock content creators I am sort of one myself but I have seen it, merchant is just a really honest player and content creator

[@memento_mori7108]

@@ShmooCanDo true bro. I think most content creators are honest( maybe not as much as merchant) and many of them (like me) just want to get their epic or funny clips seen by other people.

[@ShmooCanDo]

@@memento_mori7108 definitely agree 😊

[@memento_mori7108]

@@ShmooCanDo 😊

[@august_yuuka]

The big problem with SBMM that most apparent is for us lower skill level players, im only gold rank and never get 4k20bomb or anything never reached diamond either but when i win a match once JUST ONCE i get thrown into lobbies filled with Diamonds and above, i know its purpose is to help me improve my skill but its just too much most of the time, the skill gap is waaay too big

[@jamescunningham1774]

Same. I only play a couple of hours a week and will admit I'm uttee rubbish though I keep levelling up. I rarely get over 500 damage and a couple of kills isn't that common, my average is low,yet I keep coming up short against people with 2,3, even 4,000 kills

[@ShmooCanDo]

Same I'm horrible at the game my kd is .41 but I'm a lvl 500 lol but literally 9 out of 10 games I'm up against preds etc then I get one good even feeling game, get some decent damage and kills and either win or top 3, then I'm right back to those 9 sweaty lobbied games and I feel like I'm never going to improve or raise my kd cause of it... It's so frustrating. I even started playing ranked this season and I'm only a silver 2 and im noticing definite smurf accounts in lobbies.. lvl 15s and 20s with 50-150 kills and they're either silver or gold ranked already.... and their movement is DEFINITELY not of a new player....

[@alarrim29574]

Pubs is like ranked and ranked feels like pubs.

[@TheRhysj5]

I could be the best player in the world and still I wouldn’t have let them win the game because I’m a douchey competitive player. Props to you for giving it to them.

[@imtoxiq_]

These are just the words of a loser

[@Masochistickoala]

@@imtoxiq_ If he tries to win at everything isnt he the exact opposite?

[@mer6088]

I feel like what TGM said at the start is absolutely accurate with the performance statement, as in the "you havent been doing so well today so the SBMM puts you in easier lobbies" We definitely don't see all the games which maybe they play worse or don't play as good or die off drop from third parties because it wouldn't make for interesting content and of course only the best content will be posted and thats perfectly fine

[@samuraiSpamX]

I've known about this matchmaking issue for a while. Because when I would look for Lore and I repeatedly it did the same thing for me.

[@--.._..--...--.._..--...--....]

That one time I tried getting 5 games with BH so I dropped off world's edge and it didn't count as a game so I entered a game landed on the edge and just jumped. I did it 5 games in a row and then noticed this diamond horizon doing the same thing. We've had like 7 games in a row of us getting IN THE SAME LOBBIES dropping on the edge and jumping off. The first game I played after that (after like 15 games of me dying from falling off) had such bots I had the highest damage kill game ever. Then I realized diamond horizon was doing it to farm bot lobbies and apparently that's how you get bot lobbies good luck 👍🏽

[@pixelschubser2556]

15:32 you became a Stormtrooper for a few Seconds there Merchant 😂

[@clichesymmain4370]

Okay gaming merchant, I know you like a challenge. I've been racking my brain of stuff to do myself in apex to make it more fun, and I think you might enjoy this one. It's a no ammo challenge. Quite self explanatory, you can use any gun you find, you can use anything for damages, but you constantly need to switch weapons, because you can't use any ammo. I think this would make an interesting video, or you could do it just for fun, or not at all. But keep it in mind.

[@ShmooCanDo]

Ooooooo I like that 🤣

[@shadybradyofficial7368]

The MM is soo strange when ever I platoon with a Friend of mine we always see top tier players players with 10,000+ kills, ranked trails and all that, but when ever I play solo I see allot more players my level and under, and for his it's the same. Our combined K/D doesn't even equal 1 so seeing these type's of players shouldn't be possible.

[@FatalBagel]

TGM’s non subscriber ratios are close to a 50%, that’s actually insane consider most people’s are in 70s-80s or even 90% ish. Shows how good he is

[@preethiest]

We need connectivity based matchmaking once again man, just only in causal for they could be QUICK matches to queue into for FUN. And ranked using the RANKING system to be competitive

[@Khastrx]

Honestly even if it were bot lobbies, I wouldn't really care. It's entertaining to just chill out and watch other people play, commentary is a bonus.

[@jakedasnake7703]

It’s engagement optimized matchmaking, which is really actually a bigger issue than regular sbmm is in the gaming industry nowadays believe it or not. The game literally just wants you to play as long as possible and spend money. That’s what it’s all about. I also wonder if apex is actually adding actual AI bots in their game just like fortnite did. Crazy stuff

[@javianbrown8627]

lol if they were adding bots they would've literally used the code for the Titan Fall grunts like with the Firing range. Respawn is very lazy

[@iamatlantis1]

There ARE actual AI bots. I promise, start watching more carefully

[@halfcafian]

I’m gonna cry at that ending, you could hear the octane spam pinging his banner on the other team

[@NerdRapper]

I appreciate your honesty. You could have easily just chopped up this edit to all your kills and post this video as “19 kills 8,000 damage game”

[@not_imy]

I never knew there were Apex lobbies with players of my skill level in the game. Great to know my people are around, just not stuck getting queued with Preds.

[@marianaa.5531]

Its true, one game im playing with lvl 500 and then when im playing really bad, im suddenly with randoms at lvl10-20, they even think im the enemy and start to shoot me and act really weird.

[@ItzLight]

I also found a Fatal Flaw In Apex Legends SBMM System, the fact it doesn't work.

[@DanaBanana94]

I do intentionally lower my Matchmaking-rating by jumping off the map at match start or hotdrop and let myself get killed with zero damage. But I only do that whenever Respawn's algorhythm thinks I belong into a diamond & master pubs lobby after winning a single game with like 5 kills and a few more top 5s in a relativels short time. And I don't go back into bot lobbies and stop whenever I'm in higher gold/ lower plat-level lobbies where I actually belong and have fun. It is extremely easy to manipulate the MMR and has been for a very long time.

[@albertgl9216]

Man, its alright. Just exposing more sweats

[@frederichabsalonsen]

"Wheres the Grapple man?" man i loved it so much 😂 Grapple just grappling around

[@illJug]

Hey TGM I often find myself getting killed while I use the Rampage. Do you think you could make a short video saying when and where you should use it?

[@krayterade]

He did a vid a while back talking about how it was great early game especially when amped up but crap for late game. I can't recall the name of the vid sorry

[@TortugaAW]

I'm a level 129 in Apex, and since level 20 i was playing against level 200-500, yesterday i had a match AGAINST a PREDATOR in GOLD V

[@evanjacob8858]

Apex Legends dev's r coming for u

[@theexpirien6079]

That’s how many people get their 20 bomb and 4k, just join a match and leave while drop 10 times and you will be in a bot lobby

[@amundflakkenberg]

The easiest way to notice you're in a "bot lobby" is the amount of players still in the lobby after certain amounts of times.

[@peanutbotters]

One thing I'm really grateful for about Merchant is that he doesnt shove subscribing to his chanel, down your throat. He also doesn't ask you to like his videos before you've even watched it. I really appreciate it, it makes your videos so much more enjoyable to watch🥰

[@zteezee_5677]

ironically all those people saying "bot lobbies" are also the same ones who have never even gotten 4k damage. anyways, ignore them merchant you've taught me a lot about apex and how to improve! could we see more wattson gameplay btw? I'm starting to play her a lot more and I would love to see how you use her fences and abilities.

[@roel1971]

Does 3997 damage count?

[@chrxs61632]

I’ve never got 4k is that bad?

[@SevericK_BooM]

I’ve gotten all the way to diamond 2 solo queing and never got a 4k until a couple weeks ago when I sat down and decided to try to get one. Getting a 4k damage game doesn’t mean you’re great at the game, or bad at the game if you don’t have one. If you have a 15 kill game and do an average of 200 damage to every player you have only done 3k damage. The likelihood of even finding 15 kills in a game these days where the entire server is dead by the time the first ring comes in makes getting these badges incredibly hard. Having a 4k badge means nothing other then u got lucky and were probably trying to get it by modifying your play style.

[@SevericK_BooM]

@@chrxs61632 no, just means u havent camped your heart out with a charge rifle and gotten lucky enough to shoot that many people

[@juangarza5510]

@@chrxs61632 Not really bro, some people have more time in their hands and with more time there's a higher possibility to get the 4k. Others have luck. Other's skill. And other's 3 stack. At the end of the day not all 4k badge players are equal. I usually solo queue duos and never had a really hard time against 4k badge players or even diamond players, some are boosted btw, but i'm not interested in putting the time to get the badge myself because it means nothing now.

[@thatguy_5240]

"Maybe you have a few games in a row where you die off drop, so the game puts you in a lobby thats lower skill" Me, who is barely in plat, getting at least one masters squad in every single pub game: can I please have a crumb of sbmm

[@cloudierpenny3844]

This has happened to me before as well. Back a couple of seasons ago my friend and I wanted to do challenges to get battle pass tiers and jumped off the map for 5-6 straight games. After that we had one lobby where I think the highest level player was a level 30. It’s interesting to think about how people can manipulate SBMM like this and I’m scared since I already get at least a couple of preds and masters in my lobbies even though I’m a trash player with an awful kdr (although these lobbies could result from my high avg placement).

[@Krovonovskiy]

5:19 that sound of dissapointment got me lmao

[@BryanGQ593]

People just can't come to terms with the fact they're just not as good as they think they are. I've accepted that I'm trash and that's okay. More room to improve. 😌

[@millkshakes4046]

I believe the grapple thing is just a super weird audio glitch. Noticed it different times, sometimes it sounds like someone's grappling, zipping, or a robotic character is running next to you when there's nobody

[@felixedwards3003]

So many times I've heard "What is this matchmaking?" from new players as insane players get into their so called newbie lobbies, I forgot it was a problem. Except now, barely anyone I know rates Apex as a fun, playable game. I'd say play ranked, but telling someone new to play the competitive side to get even skilled lobbies ain't right.

[@JensBurvall]

Returned to Apex like 3 days ago, haven't played since season 5. my first ranked match was against a 500k damage wraith, 8k kills pathfinder and a lvl 230 octane top team.. I lasted all about 40 seconds in that game.

[@destroyer7712]

i literally had a lobby like this yesterday it was so weird. found a squad sitting on top of rocks waiting for the ring to close, fought a gibby standing still, 3rd squad died to ring while not being pushed into it, so weird lmao

[@charlieterrell8501]

Do y’all get horrible teamates in duo’s too? I feel like my games bugged because I only get level 10-60s...

[@4_drei]

maybe, idk just maybe there might be a slight possiblity that thats your skill group?

[@ronnieb8893]

@@4_drei Nah the game gave me a level 23 teammate and I died to a 69,000 kill lifeline and a 34,000 kill Pathy. And it wasn't like the 23 was a smurf account.

[@charlieterrell8501]

@@4_drei then why do I drop 10-15 kill matches every other game while my teamate gets 3 with 200 damage

[@zyrex6266]

As a former Pred that recently returned to playing the game (no longer playing at peak performance) played over 20-30 rounds of non-stop dying and getting rolled, I can confirm that despite all these games my SBMM has never put me in any lobby below diamond rank (My lobbies are ALWAYS filled with either pred / masters and diamond players all of which are super sweaty) Even as my initial K/D for this season has tanked or dropped, I still get matched against sweats and never get any of these "bot" lobbies so to speak. I find it quite intruiging that upon trying to re-learn the game, it has always been UNFORGIVING and just plain much more stressful than it should be specially for people who no longer play it as religiously. I would definitely love to have some fun in the game and not have to play PUBS / Unranked (with difficulty levels equivalent to playing masters+ ranked tier) It's just not FUN but rather again, stressful and sweaty.

[@jessossenkopp]

Exactly. A think a good portion of the community doesn’t know that actual high ELO pubs exist. I think people think that Masters and Preds are just dropped into low ELO lobbies on a regular basis. What angers me is that people say “Well that’s how it should be.” Everyone should sweat and win at similar rates? What’s the point of improving if we’re all going to have the same outcomes?

[@itsmeliska1186]

My question is how do these pro players (probably with a cosmic k/d ratio) get into lobbys with low skill players? This so called SBMM is really a mystery to me and if it in fact exists it needs some major improvements. I'm on an average / low skill lvl and my lobbys are both full of masters / preds and people who just downloaded the game - all in the same match. I don't get it .-.

[@bennykallenbach8592]

SBMM is not going to be as strict in pubs as it will be in ranked, where your RP will be the main factor in your lobby. This is why you can see both extremely high level/skill players and lower level/skill players in the same lobby. Furthermore, SBMM is designed to serve a completely different purpose in pubs and ranked. In pubs SBMM is designed to keep people playing the game for as long as possible, so your overall/lifetime stats (those cosmic k/d you mentioned) do not play anywhere near as much of a factor as your recent performance. The thought process, from a business standpoint, is that people who are struggling to find success are more likely to stop playing the game than those who are playing well. So if you have a stretch of games where you're struggling the game will start to put you in easier lobbies so you can do better and have more fun, and thus keep playing the game longer. Pubs SBMM doesn't care if the game is fair as long as everyone is playing for as long as possible, the issue with this is it's very easy to exploit if you want to get yourself into lobbies way below your skill level. This isn't just an Apex issue either, this is a problem with any game with a MM system designed to optimize engagement time

[@bennykallenbach8592]

Also, to be fair, I do think the SBMM in Apex is in a better place than a lot of other games that use it to optimize engagement. Yes, there is still the issue with reverse boosting to get into low skill lobbies, but, for me at least, when I'm just playing the game normally I don't feel the drastic swings in lobby skill like I have in something like COD which uses a much stricter engagement optimized match making system

[@lordfoogthe2st4]

I'm level 40 and have just under 40 hours on the game and atleast everywhere game the champion squad consists of 1 or more apex predators while I get teammates between level 1 and level 50

[@der_dude1425]

Classical reverse boosting. I thought only the CoD SBMM would be that bad.

[@WeirdSowleGuy]

So many Apex players have no idea how this system works, they don't even know what reverse boosting is, and yet CoD and Apex have nearly identical matchmaking system

[@Oh_no__]

It’s like everyone’s little cousin all queued up for the same game

[@TheE1st]

if people genuinely do use the exploit, why? It would take the fun out of the game and it would just be boring, you'll never improve by doing this

[@akres13]

not everybody is looking to improve, some people have limited free time

[@joshlavigne3069]

Same question could be asked of people who cheat.. guess some people enjoy seeing big numbers more than actually playing 🤷

[@PunkyMomoIsBetterThanYou]

High pitched Gaming Merchant is something I didn’t know I needed

[@aliv101010]

Shh, you're letting everyone know Ottr's secrets

[@judasblewit]

Oohhhh haha

[@complimentbot7015]

it's not like he can play in higher level lobbies anyway. dude sucks pp

[@GrogedUp]

I really don’t understand why the q isn’t just random

[@samaantree]

When you’re in console lobbies full of Smurfs you very rarely get into bot lobbies. Because level 12 squads are rocking 4K 20bomb badges 😅. Also, legend has it that TGM has paid actors in his lobbies to help him rack up those kills 🤣🤣🤣

[@elytros9618]

You’re completely right with that one. I also quite often experience bad MM but in my case it’s the other way. I usually play with my friends who have a higher level than me and I am doing pretty well which causes me to play in extremely high Lobbies I really don’t fit in in Ranked AND pubs. I think this has its reason of my skill increasing really fast because of those high level players. I really hope Respawn fixes the matchmaking in any way, I don’t know if they can fix cases like me but the MM definitely needs a improvement.

[@DoozyyTV]

I'm sure there are streamers who manipulate their sbmm like this before starting their stream. Though accusing everyone that does something incredible is kinda sad for the streamers that just do their best every time.

[@Mortario]

nah you can look up players match history so it would be very obvious

[@nghiadang2215]

The plop of the caustic lmao 9:13

[@daevion5585]

dummy commenters need to know that it's not because good video is out means that it's always like that. Content creators takes hours and hours of gameplay just to get the perfect match fitting for a concept video

[@notsogood2576]

Exactly lmao. They'll probably change their minds when they watch these pro Apex player stream since you'd see them try to get a good game but fail cause of non-bot lobbies. Literally in almost apex player's stream, most of the time they die off drop then get matched in a low-tier game cause they kept dying. It's just how SBMM works lol. Not cause they're somehow "granted" a bot lobby by EA or a hack

[@javaplays7172]

The amount of people about to do the challenge you did... just increased exponentially. :)

[@TheLemonsDidIt]

45% Subscribed is actually insane!!! Congrats!

[@ricardocosta-tre8909]

TGM: This is an actual bot lobby You: *Sees your username in kill feed*

[@julsie3195]

18:12 I end up falling for that every day lmao

[@zachvannicola4372]

Now I wonder if my greatest apex moments were just me fighting bots….

[@jackcarlos]

Haha that fight for the 20 bomb was awesome. Also Charge Rifle Dave is the best running joke 🤣

[@nappa3550]

I get 4 or 5 games where I'm put in a super sweaty lobby for my skill level (a good chunk of teams are diamond players, I only reached plat 4) and then I drop a game with at least 5 or 6 kills because it's so easy and the cycle repeats afterwards.

[@TheDarkstorm77]

I didn't know this was a thing. I have 2 Arena games recorded where my teammate Gibby was not moving much, he just stands around taking fire and dying. Then another game where a Wraith enemy was kinda the same. Now it make sense what's going on. They were Actual BOTS.

[@justice4g]

content creator games certainly seem different to my games where every team holds hands, there's like no chance to take out a team one at a time

[@1995klein]

TGM probably has PTSD from thermites supercharging at that place.

[@marcofilho]

0:00 55% not subscribed? You're good! I've seen channels between the 10%. Also, amazing intro 😂

[@chaossilva4619]

I’m sick of sbmm I get put with preds and masters in every game but my teammates don’t know how to play the age and are level 50’s

[@DhruvPatel-un2zn]

I have a similar issue where I constantly get teamed up with lower level players, like new ones and I'm a level 200. And I tend to lose my battles as the other teams full of level 200 with diamonds. And then I end of dropping to a lower level and getting matched with level 40 and below

[@yordbaermelk5879]

21:15 You promised me they wouldn't leave that rock >:(

[@gummybearboy2604]

Who else can’t stand when somebody just leaves a red when they have a shield bat, just leaves it behind like riff raft

[@Lansoprazoless]

For still, if it was a bot lobby that timmy had 9k damage from, we cant still do what timmy always does. Aiming, movement, etc

[@MyDadsBeatMe]

He doesn’t hear voices in his head he hears pathfinder grappling

[@RiceCubeTech]

My matchmaking is so weird. Not too many just bot or sweat lobbies: but I’ll have masters as my champions but I’ll also see people crouch walking and standing still in the same lobby. It’s like this weird blend where you don’t know if the person is going to be good or not.

[@masteryosh3376]

Eosm lowers your oppenents skill after a bunvh of death until a good game and then it resets

[@Changingtesting]

The guy acting like he has an insider in respawn sounds like the guy who says he got robbed, stole a car, drove through a place crash zone on his way to the bar

[@drawntosweet]

I’m gonna try this cause I’ve been landing in the lobbies full of smurfs and try hards. I tried switching to ranked and it was actually easier

[@DakiOng]

Apex has insanely strong sbmm

[@royz_1]

KZbin recommends me your every single video and I watch them all. I didn't even realise that I wasn't subscribed lol 😂

[@BronzeUniGaming]

Rampage- "You're hipfiring right?"

[@vemeleh4832]

This man's looting style and healing logic just pains my heart