Update 22 for the PC version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG is now going off test servers and rolling out to all users. As previously noted, the new update brings a bunch of changes including a new ranking system and a new region locking system. The latter automatically decides which server a player should be assigned to based on region. If a player is grouped with players from different regions, match making will decide which region would be best to play on. However, this doesn’t seem to be going as planned.
According to a report by Polygon, many players on the PUBG Subreddit are voicing their complaints that the new matching making system is doing more harm than good. According to Redittor Fred5612, instead of restricting players to their own region, the developers of the game, Bluehole, created a global matchmaking pool. This caused players with pings ranging from 20 to 600 playing together. As a result, players pulled into far off regions have had to play against “desyncers” who then kill them.
Players are also reporting that they are being matched to other far off regions without even being queued for a minute. Some others also complained about being matched with players from China, a region that is criticised for having players that tend to hack and cheat their way to the top. The players have gone so far as to ask Chinese players to be segregated into separate regions, away from other players.
To their credit, the guys over at PUBG seem to have noticed these issues are are woring towards solving them. The official support Twitter account for the game tweeted, “Following PC Update #22, a bug occurred in some regions which effected global matchmaking. We've released a patch to resolve this bug. We are working on improving the accuracy of the estimated matching time. For now please use "quick join" for the fastest matchmaking time.”
The new update also includes other changes such as new wheel menus and new anti-cheat measures. So those thinking about cheating may want to think again. A few days ago, it was reported that the company banned as many as 13 million players for resorting to cheating, just to get that elusive chicken dinner.