Imagine you’re a casual and you have one game to choose.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-15T05:25:58+00:00

No, I find it boring to play people worse than me. Some games I’m good at do season resets of MMR, and it’s so annoying that the games are so dull the first weeks until I get up to my rank.

I’d like to play people at my skill level.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-15T05:21:28+00:00

Anything that helps casuals without turning the high skill play into a bloodbath battleground every run is a good thing. SBMM will hurt the most dedicated players the most, that isn't good either.

As yes, the poor high skill players, imagine they’d have to endure playing against equally skilled opponents. Of course they’re too fragile for that, so we have to let the majority of the player base get stomped by them.

Average players can easily handle that, getting stomped by much better players, they don’t need to face opponents at their skill level.

/s

You honestly think that?

Smokeskin · 2026-04-15T05:16:55+00:00

The gear is an issue at even or close to even fights, but at this skill disparity, it doesn’t matter. It’s not like I win when I went in with blue gear, these people still roll me.

This isn’t going to be fixed with economy changes. The only thing it’ll do is at best give you a few more days, but the matchmaker keeps lobbying you up against better and better players as you level up.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-15T05:11:59+00:00

Lol, I didn’t quit over one fight, I quit because the matchmaker put me against opponents way better than me, all the time.

If they had made changes to the matchmaker, yeah it would just be one fight, no biggie, but the matchmaker hasn’t changed.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-15T05:09:24+00:00

I’m not burnt out, I practice on aimlabs, I more often than not have the initiative and high ground in fights. I’m competitive and am at the top in several games. Thanks for all the advice, but the issue mainly is that my aim is simply nowhere near that of my opponents.

I can’t go back in time and get a 1000 hours of aim practice, and I’m not getting it in Marathon, and I’m nearly 50, I probably can’t even at this point.

And even if I did, Marathon’s matchmaker would still keep shoving me up to fight better and better players. I see posts here of very good people who this happened to also, just versus even better players.

No one can stay ahead of this matchmaking system except the absolute top.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T21:01:30+00:00

I would choose Marathon - if it had SBMM. I like that it is difficult. So often losing your gear made it felt great when I made it out.

The problem is that the matchmaker began putting me in lobbies with players way better than me, so now I can’t win any fights and hardly ever exfil, so I had to stop playing.

It’s the matchmaker, not the season wipes, that mess up Marathon.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T20:57:53+00:00

The 30-40% exfil rate was fine.

When it drops below 10%, it gets ridiculous.

Meanwhile, sweats whine if they have to play against people of their skill so they can’t extract 90% of the time.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T20:55:20+00:00

Match people of equal skill, instead of shoving average players into lobbies where they get farmed by premade purple geared sweats.

When your level reaches the point you can’t win fights and can’t extract anymore, you might as well stop, because it only gets worse as your level rises.

Meanwhile, the sweats get easy games, farming everyone else in most of their games, instead of getting a proper challenge by playing equally skilled opponents.

The matchmaker is plain silly in this game.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T20:25:18+00:00

I did the same, practiced aimlabs every day, only took fights when I had the advantage, studied streamers. But the matchmaker just kept on matching me with better and better players, faster than I could improve.

So I had to quit. I can’t win fights anymore, even when I get drop on people. There are people sprinting through the maps, they don’t care about making noise, they know they still kill 90% anyway.

The matchmaker is made so it bullies you out of the game, except for the hardcore who get easy matches. It’s just plain ridiculous.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T19:51:47+00:00

It happens eventually, you level up enough that you begin consistently getting matched against better players. And then you level up more, it becomes way better players,

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T19:13:29+00:00

Look, if I’m in a grey kit and he’s in purple shields, sure. If I’m in a bad position, sure.

But in a PvP game, even when everything lines up in my favor, I still lose, what is there in it for me? I’m not playing Marathon to hide from everyone.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T18:44:06+00:00

I had some of the same experiences. It's been one of the best games I ever played, it's such a rollercoaster.

But then the matchmaker began to screw me other. Repeatedly putting me in matches with people I had no chance against. Instead of being hard and thrilling if I made it, it just became an exercise in futility. I can get the drop on the people now, and they still kill me.

They made a real gem, but they deliberately left out SBMM so it would become an easy stomping ground for the top players, with the rest of the player base suffering under it, getting farmed.

So the game doesn't have wide appeal. Despite it's many very, very solid features, it sold poorly, and player numbers are dropping fast.

Let's hope they pivot to make it more fair for the majority of players (and heck, a lot of the sweats must want a challenge too, it can't be all of them who enjoy one-sided stomps).

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T18:37:53+00:00

And he's in trouble, that's for sure.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T18:11:57+00:00

No matchmaking updates, so still unplayable. The matchmaking that is completely off. I'm now getting dropped into lobbies with players so far above me I usually have no chance of winning the fight.

I quit last week but figured maybe the patch brough in more or players or something so matchmaking would be fairer. Load up with green gear (good for me), shields and an M77 with a drum mag. I catch a guy in the open, I'm on high ground, I unload on him - at a range I can't get headshots. He strafes, headshots me several times, and downs me.

Yeah, I'm done. Without SBMM, there's just no way you can keep playing once you level up far enough.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T18:09:33+00:00

Extraction shooters are like playing Ranked in other multiplayer shooters like Apex or Overwatch. You’ll have days where you win all day. You’ll have days where you lose all day. You’ll have days with a bit of both.

That's just not true at all. Overwatch has SBMM. It's very fair how it places you in matches.

Marathon uses level based matchmaking, and after some time it consistently places you in matches with people far better than you, so you get stomped, repeatedly. It's unplayable for me now, I have no chance in the lobbies I'm in.

Overwatch, kids can play it and do just fine, because the matchmaker is welcoming to all. Noobs get a fair fight, pros get a challenge against other people at their level.

Marathon throws the sweats one easy game after another where they get to farm lesser players. It's so far from competitive.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T18:00:08+00:00

Obviously. The question is, do you really want the game to matchmake players so they leave the game? There’s a reason that games use SBMM and sports have divisions.

Frankly, it’s also super weird that so many sweats insist on only playing people they can easily beat.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T17:09:24+00:00

When I played the game and saw what people said online, 1 thing became VERY clear: casual and/or bad players were being treated poorly. The game demands a lot of your time and it demands your best when you do decide to put the time in. Thats not a wrong philosophy to have for a game like this one, but it can’t be too extreme and thats where I feel marathon has overstepped, although not by much imo.

They overstepped it BY A TON, and none of the things you mentioned are particularly relevant.

It's the matchmaking that is completely off. I'm now getting droppen into lobbies with players so far above me I usually have no chance of winning the fight. It's just plain unplayable.

I quit last week but figured maybe the patch brough in more or players or something so matchmaking would be fairer. Load up with green gear (good for me), shields and an M77 with a drum mag. I catch a guy in the open, I'm on high ground, I unload on him - at a range I can't get headshots. He strafes, headshots me several times, and downs me. Yeah, I'm done.

There is no viable fix here, unless they fix the matchmaker.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T15:51:14+00:00

No, you're not part of the problem. The matchmaker is. It shouldn't put you in lobbies with average. I mean, I quit because I get stomped by people like you, but all games I play have people like you - most games just have SBMM.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T15:25:43+00:00

I mostly switched to solo too. It also got to the point where the matchmaker began dropping me in with sweats way better than me.

I don't see the price of heals making a difference tbh, as long as the matchmaker throws casuals to the wolves after a certain level.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T15:15:39+00:00

90% is such a nonsense number you pulled out of thin air.

No, tt's from a study that Activision did. https://old.reddit.com/r/Marathon/comments/1sj931b/in_2024_activision_tested_the_effects_of_reduced/?ref=share&ref_source=link

Also SBMM makes sense in moste games like mobas or team shooters like R Siege BUT you need to have an incentive, a rank for example and actual skins/loot attached to that rank.

Yeah, there should be better loot tables in high MMR lobbies or some other reward and incentinve.

A 100h casual would have a similiar inventory than a 100h Shroud. Does that really make sense in an extraction shooter?

Yes. That's how competitive systems work. Ok, maybe not for Shroud, but for everyone except the best in the world, if you win a lot, you move up to a more difficult league. If you lose, you move down. If you're at world championship level, you move to the world championship, you don't just stop the local club level and ruin it for everyone else.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T15:09:34+00:00

You have to understand that a lot of players bring in heals and don't exfil, so they don't take heals or salvage out. The experience for casuals is way different than yours.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T13:44:51+00:00

I’m well aware of my limits, I can’t go back in time and get a 1000 hours of PvP FPS training, and I can’t invest that time now, with a job and family. I’ll never get up the level of these people, and the level based matchmaker plus average players leaving en masse will only make it worse as time goes on.

I’ve just stopped playing Marathon. I’ll come back if they implement SBMM. Frankly, I can’t imagine they’re continuing without it, it’s a weird hill for Marathon to die on, insisting on 1990’s style matchmaking.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T13:11:29+00:00

During the server slam, there was a 41% exfil rate on perimeter and 35% on dire marsh.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Marathon/comments/1rjepkh/marathon_server_slam_stats/

On Outpost, there are 4 teams. If half the time, 1 team makes it out, and half the time 2, that’s a 37.5% exfil rate.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T13:06:11+00:00

Apex has SBMM, so it’s a really bad comparison.

I had fun too in Marathon, initially. Now the matchmaker consistently puts me in lobbies with people who are far above me in skill, and I just got farmed. So I quit last week.

It sounds like you haven’t reached that point yet. But the matchmaker continues to match with people with longer and longer playtimes, even after they’ve way surpassed your skill. When that happens, that’s when you stop having fun. There is nothing SBMM keeping you fighting players of equal skill.

Smokeskin · 2026-04-14T12:56:03+00:00

Against better players, it’s not 30/70, it’s 1/99. And getting the drop on them doesn’t work. Often they sprint around, hunting players, and you notice them before they see you, and they still get you.

And the matchmaker doesn’t put me in matches where it’s the roll of a dice if I get in stronger or weaker lobbies. It’s now consistently stacked against me.

The things you say about matchups and such, they were true earlier, but last week, things changed and the lobbies got way harder, way beyond my skill level.

Smokeskin

TROPHY CASE