Destiny 2 PvP Matches Are Getting Skill-based Matchmaking In Season 18

Once Season 18 of Destiny 2 kicks off next month, PvP players can expect to be more fairly matched up against other competitors when skill-based matchmaking is applied to Control in the Crucible. According to Bungie, the idea behind applying SBMM over the current connection-based matchmaking is that it’ll add a broader definition of match fairness that creates a more even playing field.

“We are going to start turning match fairness back up in Control–and only Control–in the Crucible,” Bungie explained. “We want to start slowly to limit the number of playlists we consider when tuning matchmaking with hundreds of thousands of people. We are going to be live-tuning the matchmaking parameters over the first few weeks until we land on something that provides a better balance between fairness, quality, and speed.”

What this means is that matchmaking will take longer to fill up teams, but the end result is that players with varying levels of skill will find themselves facing off against opponents with a similar level of talent and a fairer chance at winning a match. If everything goes according to plan, Bungie says that 90% of matches should have less than a 20-kill difference between the best and worst players.

“Our initial version of loose SBMM for the Control playlist is going to work a little differently,” Bungie added. “It starts with wider acceptable skill variance, and then expands very slowly on both acceptable skill and connection quality at the same time.”

For a deeper dive into how Bungie determines player skill, you can click the link above to get a very detailed breakdown on how the studio approaches that facet of the game. In other Destiny 2 PvP news, you can check in later to get more details on what’s happening in Trials of Osiris this weekend. If you’re looking to stock up on rare gear ahead of Season 18’s launch, you can also see where Xur is when he arrives later today.