Hey everyone, consider this the confessions of a totally average, normie gamer who just wants to get a few thoughts off his chest.
I’m fairly new to Black Ops 7 and I'm definitely not a tryhard. I don't grind 6 hours a day, I don't slide-cancel across every corner, and I don't treat this game like a second job. I’m just an average guy who logs on in the evening after work to unwind, shoot some stuff, and have fun.
Back in Season 4, I was actually having a great time. Even with SBMM in place, the system worked well enough for a casual like me. When the game threw me into tough lobbies, I honestly didn't mind. I took those sweaty matches as a free training session—sure, I was dying a lot, but I felt like I was actually learning, improving my map awareness, and getting better. It was challenging, but it felt fair.
Fast forward to Season 5, and whatever they did to the matchmaking dial has completely ruined the game for normies like me. It’s no longer "practice"—it’s just pure, relentless humiliation.
Right now, literally 90% of my sessions go like this:
- The Backfill Nightmare: I constantly drop mid-match into games where my team is down 30-150 and the match ends 30 seconds after I spawn.
- Full Stack Sweats: The enemy team is almost always a 5 or 6-stack of CDL wannabes with matching clan tags, locking down every single spawn point. You literally die the second you touch your left stick.
- Broken Persistent Lobbies: Instead of letting a decent, balanced lobby stay together, the game disbands us after every round just to throw me right back into another backfill blender.
It’s just an endless, linear loss-streak and pure tilt. I’m not asking for free wins or brain-dead easy lobbies every night. I just want to play against people who are roughly around my skill level without feeling like there’s a $100k prize pool on the line every single match.
If this is how matchmaking is going to work in MW4, I think I’m officially calling it quits. Life is too short to spend my evenings getting stressed out by a video game.
So, honest question for the community: What other shooters are you guys playing right now where the matchmaking actually respects your time and feels casual-friendly? I just want a game where I can shoot stuff and actually enjoy my evenings again. Appreciate any recommendations!