Apex Legends Trick Lets Players 'Reset' Ranked SBMM Pattern

In Apex Legends, the Ranked Battle Royale mode has long been a matter of push and pull between Respawn and the game's community, with players seemingly always longing for major changes to improve the title's competitive experience.

Aside from the Season 13 "Ranked Reloaded" changes that have been hotly debated and continued to see tuning, however, it seems another issue has to do with the game's underlying skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) system that has made the experience feel extra "sweaty" as of late. For those who feel like they are constantly getting sweaty games, it appears there's a trick that allows players to reset the Ranked Battle Royale SBMM pattern in Apex Legends.

As explained by Apex Legends content creator The Gaming Merchant in their latest YouTube video, contrary to popular belief, the game's SBMM algorithm doesn't just run on a simple ELO/MMR system where players will be matched up against others in their exact rank tier.

"Apex SBMM will try to guess your current skill in that very moment," The Gaming Merchant said in the video, "and then start giving you games of varying levels based on your current performance to give you a challenge."

This is perhaps why many might find themselves having a good game right when they hop on, and much tougher finishes the longer they play.

"For example," The Gaming Merchant said, "in one game, your enemies will be lower skill than your current performance, then the next few games, the enemies will be much higher than your current performance and your teammates will be really bad. This system is supposed to give us a challenge but in reality, it just seems the more you play, the sweatier things get and the more frustrating things get."

Ultimately, The Gaming Merchant went on to reveal a potential solution they found based on their experiences with streaks of sweaty games and bad teammates — quit the game and come back later.

By doing this, the theory is that the game will give you better teammates and less sweaty lobbies the next time you log in since it'll better understand the point in which it isn't fun for you anymore.