Approximately 1 week before the launch of Season 18 Respawn tweaked matchmaking for pubs (and Ranked, but the Ranked tweak happened with S17’s launch).

Respawn has NOT acknowledged the change whatsoever. There is no hard, indisputable proof backing what I’m about to say. But this is the best assumption we as a community can make based off of our collective experiences thus far since the change.

With the launch of the change, Respawn tightened the pool of players Apex can/will match you with. (E.g. Whereas before you may have been able to match with anyone within 2 standard deviations of your hidden MMR, now you can only match with players within 1 standard deviation. Not exactly how the system works, just an example so you can paint an accurate picture).

What does this mean? It means one of three things for you performance-wise for S18.

1. You are a below average skilled player. You will perform better after the change because you are only being matched with other below average players.

2. You are an average player. You won’t see much change either way.

3. You are an above average skilled player. You will perform worse after the change because you are only being matched with other above average players.

Keep in mind this is also a sliding scale: the farther from the “average” player you fall on the bell curve, the more you will be affected by the change. You will also experience longer queue times as there are simply less players the game can match you with who are the “worst of the worst” or the “best of the best.”

Any arguments for or against such a matchmaking system get into game design philosophy/theory, which is a healthy discussion to have. But that’s essentially the best idea we have for what changed with Matchmaking recently, and why nobody can agree on whether it is a good or a bad thing.