What’s Going On With SBMM Squads In Fortnite? (UPDATED)

Fortnite fans are currently unhappy with popular content creator SypherPK. Having been one of the loudest voices to remove SBMM (skill-based matchmaking) in the game, some sections of the community are now blaming Sypher, real name Ali Hassan, for it being added back in.

Skill-based matchmaking is currently all the rage for competitive multiplayer games, it pairing players up with others of similar skill. The idea is to allow newer players to feel better about their skill and keep them invested for longer, who they are paired with getting increasingly more competitive the more they play.

The issue is its inclusion in casual matches for experienced players, resulting in their lobbies being far more competitive and harder to unwind with. It also cuts out some of the random fun when everyone else is trying so hard to win.

According to players, SBMM was recently removed from squads in Fortnite, something that wasn’t officially announced but instead quietly tweaked. As a result of this, it’s believed Epic then decided to try to balance things out by adding more AI bots to lobbies.

Problem is, with a reported 60%-90% of Fortnite squad lobbies now being AI, that’s not the right kind of a balance.

SypherPK addressed this in the video below, which, while a well received video on his channel, has led to a rather unsavoury trend on social media.

#fuckSypherPK is currently one of the hottest trends on Twitter, the content creator being blamed for another unofficial change that has allegedly resulted in the re-addition of SBMM to the game.

This is, obviously, nonsense. Sypher was not asking for the re-introduction of SBMM in Fortnite at all, being one of its most outspoken detractors. Adding to that, one man’s opinion on bot balancing is unlikely to have made Epic do such a dramatic U-turn.

This hasn’t stopped him from receiving plenty of backlash, though.

Sypher addressed the trend in a Twitter post, reiterating his hatred for SBMM and assuring Fortnite’s fans that he had nothing to do with the change.

To those tweeting.. #fucksypher

I’m one of the most outspoken people who wanted SBMM changed so the game can be more relaxed and enjoyable. Very strange of you to think that I wanted it back in the game. There was too many AI (60-90% of the lobby) that was the only thing wrong. pic.twitter.com/rl1lTyFP55

— SypherPK (@SypherPK) May 12, 2020

UPDATE: he also published a response video on his channel.

This intense outrage is quite the common issue with Fortnite and its younger fans, a constant back and forth of “he said, she said” that results in things getting wildly blown out of proportion. The Fortnite community is definitely outspoken, and it seems like they’ve leapt to this conclusion before they even started walking.

It doesn’t help that Epic haven’t addressed the recent removal and subsequent re-addition of SBMM to Fortnite squads at all. Epic’s communication hasn’t been brilliant since the start of Chapter 2 with them no longer supplying patch notes. By not addressing many of the game’s major talking points, speculation routinely just gets out of hand within the community. There’s been no official line on SBMM at all in the game, meaning that the perceived removal may not have even been true.

Who knows where SBMM in Fortnite goes from here. SBMM itself is not popular across social media, its inclusion in Apex Legends being one of the game’s biggest negatives for its community. While there’s nothing wrong with SBMM in principle, it seems like live service games still have a long way to go until it’s widely accepted.

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