The former boss of Sledgehammer Games, one of a trio of studios tasked with developing Call Of Duty each year and most recently made , has weighed in on the controversial skill based matchmaking system reportedly used in the games.

If you’ve played any amount of Call Of Duty in recent years, you’ll probably have had to deal with the trials and tribulations of skill based matchmaking. In a nutshell, it’s supposed to take into account things like your wins, losses, K/D ratios etc and group you with players of similar skill. You have a few good games, you match better opponents, and vice versa.

While Activision haven’t officially commented on it, or even acknowledged whether it exists in the latest release , it is widely believed that the process is used to determine opposition and friendly players while in online multiplayer. The controversy is that nobody outside of the development staff knows exactly what quantifies players being matched to each other, leading to some wildly disproportionate skill levels in games.

Anyway, pro COD player Nadeshot recently expressed his frustration at the system on Twitter, saying that a ranked mode would help clear up matching and give players something tangible to strive towards.

In the responses, was ex-head of Sledgehammer Games Michael Condrey, who left to work directly for Activision in a corporate role before departing the company altogether. Condrey made a point of stating that it was never his idea to have SBMM included in the games, and that the decision came from higher up the Activision food chain.

Once again it’s worth pointing out that Activision have never specifically confirmed the use of SBMM in their games, but as GameSpot have pointed out, one of the reasons people suspect its implementation is because a number of YouTubers have conducted independent studies which point toward it.

Whatever the reality behind SBMM in Call Of Duty games, it’s clear that it will always be a contentious inclusion for the franchise, especially as Activision have never been openly transparent about how it’s used. I’d wager many fans would welcome a ranking system with open arms, as Nadeshot suggests in his tweets.