The Finals devs tightening SBMM has reignited every FPS fan's favorite debate in record time

A player from The Finals cuts another on a rooftop, revealing heaps of coins — (Image credit: Embark Studios)

The Finals is the popular new FPS on the block, meaning the topic of skill-based matchmaking was bound to pop up sooner or later. With a recent patch tweaking just that for "better quality games" happening not long after the The Finals' full launch, that time would be now.

Now that the update has had a few days to settle, fans have been taking to online forums to air their thoughts – the topic has, as ever, been divisive.

"Whatever they did to the matchmaking turned it into the most heated, meta-filled, kill hungry, sweatfest it could be," one fan says. "The beta? Phenomenal. The first few days? Phenomenal. Now? Horrid.

"Why do I know? Because even with the enormous influx of players, I've faced the same sweats in different matches, on two separate days. I'm tired of modern gaming. I was excited for this game because it was just fun for the sake of fun."

The arguments against The Finals' current form of skill-based matchmaking are similar to what you see elsewhere. The FPS has a ranked mode designed for intensely competitive play, so why not let the more casual playlists be just that?

Players also say they generally don't mind the idea of skill-based matchmaking – especially when it's loosely implemented – though the current version offered in The Finals is too tight.

"You can keep the top 20% and the bottom 20% in different lobbies," a fan says. "But the 'average team skill' model that pretty much every modern shooter uses is utter trash."

Meanwhile, others don't mind the implementation of SBMM at all. While it's likely to lead to more closely fought matches, in theory, it shouldn't mean lopsided games where you're stomped into oblivion – fun for one party, not so much for the other.

"If you can't have fun playing a PVP game against players of your own skill level, you're not a good sport and your opinion on the matter is worthless," one fan says. "Cope however you need to, devs arn't going to remove SBMM just because you're throwing a tantrum and downvoting people on Reddit."

Anti-SBMM Kevins be like from r/thefinals

Or is it the SBMM? from r/thefinals

If The Finals is your first introduction to the skill-based matchmaking debate, it’s typically posed as that of fun versus competition. Some are happier for more chaotic matches where you may stomp or be stomped, whereas others are more for fighting on a more level playing field.

There’s much more to it than that, obviously. More generally, skill-based matchmaking can lead to poor connection quality in games depending on server set-up and how the game prioritizes who goes into a lobby.

While the topic appears in numerous FPS games, we most recently saw it in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, and not for the first time, either. Activision recently put out a rare statement on the matter to tell fans the team has seen the unrest and plans to explain with greater clarity what they doing about it.

As for The Finals, Embark Studio has yet to comment. Whether the team is happy with matchmaking remains to be seen, though it’s worth keeping an eye on those patch notes for now.

Need some help conquering SBMM? Here are the best Finals loadouts to help you do just that.

I joined GamesRadar+ in May 2022 following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When I'm not running the news team on the games side, you'll find me putting News Editor duties to one side to play the hottest JRPG of 20 years ago or pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new cloak – the more colourful, the better.