Fornite - kid suddenly facing tough opposition

antiskeptic

Hi there,

My eight year old has been playing Fortnite for about 6 months now. I've played along a bit to keep abreast (great game!) and I've observed what he's now encountering - so it's not just him whinging 'cos a VR slips through his fingers.

Hoping someone can give some insights.

He seems to have been bumped up the equivalent of 3 or 4 football leagues in terms of the quality of opposition he's facing. This appears to have occurred maybe mid Season 2 Chap 3?

Before, he'd acquit himself fairly well, get the odd VR to boot, collecting perhaps 10 eliminations on the way.

Now he seems to be up against ace builders and folk who can headshot at sniping distance whilst armed with a pistol. I play myself a bit and have gone from an occasional VR to being more often than not, knocked out in the first one or two encounters. I play on his account.

He hasn't changed his gameplay as such, landing in not-hot / not remote locations in the main.

His account level is 350 ... which I gather is an accumulation of the Battle Pass levels he's built up to date.


Anyone any idea of how he's being matchmaked with such serious opposition. And what can be done about it, if anything?

I'm writing this on behalf of my son, honest.

Cheers

gimli2112

it's sounds like skill based matchmaking, it's what all the youtubers whinge about in COD
I think it's been a big factor in COD's popularity and it's probably going to be around for a while. Allegedly it's being enhanced for Black ops.

Atlas_IRL

Not sure about fortnite but cod has skill based matchmaking as the above poster said. A new account will have easy opponents whilst if you get some wins and your KD level gets better and better you'll get better lobbies.

My COD lobbies are way harder now and we honestly dont play as much anymore becuase of it, i only get a few kills a game and some of the teams would get 30/40 between them.

Rob2D

Just a hidden ranking system so basically.

Honestly you shouldn't be trying to do anything about it. Time for your son to start learning what competition is!

gimli2112

a lot of "content creators" intentionally lose and reverse boost their accounts. I saw one of them post their game play and compare it to a reverse booster getting a nuke. The difference was staggering
The reverse booster's a really good player so put him in lobbies with wombats like me is embarrassing

Canis Lupus

If the skill bands are wide enough he could be entering the lower end of a new band and the upper limits of said band might be way better than him. In gamer talk he needs to git gud.

But realistically he's 8... so it'll be a case of just playing and learning as best he can.

antiskeptic

Thanks for the responses. Makes sense: someone promoted from the Championship is going to find it very tough in the Premiership.

Good excuse to play more!

Thanks folks