The "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" ("PUBG") arena is about to get a lot smaller for some people, as the developers implement a ping-based matchmaking, in which players are matched with people with the same internet latency as them.
This practically makes it so that players can only do a match with people who are near them or live in the same region since that is what usually affects the ping or the measurement of latency. This makes matchmaking a lot more different now in "PUBG," whereas before, players can easily take advantage of other people's low or high pings, now the chances of abusing the said metric are lowered.
Granted this might also limit who people can play with since ping can also be the distance that indicates how far a player is from the server or the host. Bluehole Inc., the game's partner in Korea, has stated that players with low pings are prioritized with matchmaking in order to provide cleaner and fairer matches untainted by internet speed and latency.
Meanwhile, those with high pings will probably be matched with one another, meaning people who change region servers will still have to play with others who have the same level of ping. This means server jumping might become useless now if one does not belong in the said region they changed to. This new matchmaking system has already been effected via the latest updates for "PUBG."
Still, this does not mean custom or pre-made squads in squad mode are prohibited now, as players will still be able to form their own squads regardless of where they are or who they play with, though the same cannot be said if they chose a random squad since they will probably be teamed with players with similar ping.
"PUBG" is bound to be a lot smoother for players with now, and not just those with low pings but everyone in the game since matches with different pings usually results in network stuttering and lag regardless of how fast one's internet is. In the future, the developers of the game might work on something better for matchmaking, though players are advised to test the new system first and see if it was better than the last.
