Call of Duty: Vanguard launches November 5th, 2021, and after an alpha and a beta, fans are ready to get their hands on the full game’s release. Many are wondering about how the game’s matchmaking system will actually work, though, because many dislike the way SBMM, or skill-based matchmaking, works in Call of Duty. In this article, we’ll tell you everything you’ll need to know about SBMM in Vanguard.
In short, yes Call of Duty: Vanguard has SBMM. Much like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Call of Duty: Warzone, Vanguard will have a similar SBMM system, and matchmaking in general inVanguard will closely resemble these other Call of Duty games.
This will naturally tie into Activision’s monetization plans for Vanguard, which will also closely resemble that of other recent Call of Duty games. Blueprints for weapons, skins, and various cosmetics will be sold for Call of Duty points which are purchasable with real-world currency.
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To sell these cosmetics, gamers can’t load into matches and constantly get owned, so the SBMM system does its best to protect average gamers from matching with people who might be better than them at the game. This keeps engagement up, and if people are engaged, they’re more likely to buy something.
Vanguard isn’t going to bring any profound changes to this formula. However, the way Vanguard’s matchmaking works does have some important differences with other recent Call of Duty releases that will influence SBMM in the game.
Combat Pacing in Vanguard allows players to select how many players they want in their games. The Blitz Combat Pacing is the mode with the most players, seeing matches up to 24 players per team, and across Call of Duty games in general we know that the larger the match the less strict SBMM has to be.
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In order to fill games with lots of players, especially if you’re an above-average player, you’ll be matched with lots of people at different skill-levels than you, or at least you’ll be matched with more of a variety of players than you would in the smaller game modes.
Naturally, turning off crossplay is another good way to get around SBMM in Vanguard. With a smaller player pool to draw from, you’ll get more of a variety of players at different skill-levels. This isn’t always the case for every lobby out there, however.
Partying up with friends without good stats in Vanguard is another thing you can do to get around SBMM because depending on what the stats of everybody in the party actually are, matchmaking will try to average these stats together and find a lobby based on that.
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Playing at an off-peak time of day is another great way to get around Vanguard’s SBMM system. If you play in the morning, for example, you’ll have a much better chance of being matchmade into games with players at a variety of skill-levels.
Reverse boosting will be another effective, popular method of exploiting SBMM in Vanguard, as it is in other Call of Duty games, but it’s best to avoid this practice. It’s frowned upon by the community, risks a ban, and is tedious to pull off, and it still won’t guarantee the matchmaking system will always work how you want it to work.
As Vanguard gets into the hands of gamers across the world, new ways to take advantage of the game’s matchmaking system may be discovered, too. Plus, it’s important to keep in mind that Activision hasn’t confirmed anything about SBMM in Vanguard directly.
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It’s very unlikely we’ll get official word from Activision, or even from Sledgehammer, about SBMM’s role in Vanguard’s matchmaking system. Just like how SBMM is a mysterious, totally backend system in other Call of Duty games, it will be like that in Vanguard, too.
This also means that recent performance will play a big role in Vanguard’s SBMM system, judging from past Call of Duty games and Vanguard’s performance during its alpha and beta releases. This has been a key feature of SBMM in modern Call of Duty games.
However good or bad you perform in the last five to ten games you’ve played will directly impact your next five to ten games. This means that the game will never let you get destroyed by other players for too long just as it means it will never let you dominate players in every lobby.
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Ultimately, this means that like other modern Call of Duty games, performance in Vanguard will be less dependent on your actual skill or time spent in-game and will be more a measure of what the matchmaking gods have decided for you. Who they’ve decided will be on the enemy team and who they’ve decided is going to be on your team, that kind of thing.
Combat pacing may make this a little less of a certainty, but big picture, this is how the system works in Vanguard just as it is the way the system works in other Call of Duty games. Perhaps in the future matchmaking in Call of Duty might change again, but it’s not going to have big changes in Vanguard.
If you’re not a fan of SBMM, spending your time exploiting it for unreliable results isn’t the most useful thing you can do. Let Activision and Sledgehammer know how you feel with a Tweet or post on social media, politely worded of course, or simply don’t buy the latest Call of Duty at launch. Maybe wait for a sale down the road if you’re curious.
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All isn’t lost either, though, as if you spend your time learning the maps in Vanguard, figuring out how to control weapons, and putting in the time and energy necessary to get good at the game, you will be able to succeed in-game more often than not, and rising above the average player is an extremely manageable goal.
SBMM may not be the most popular system, but it will ensure that you aren’t endlessly placed into matches with people that vastly outskill you. This will happen, but as long as you aren’t queuing with someone with significantly better stats than yourself, you will be able to find lobbies where you can succeed regardless of your skill-level. Though, it won’t be like Call of Duty games of the past, like Modern Warfare 2.
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