The Finals Update Improves Skill-Based Matchmaking

The Finals from Embark Studios has been out for just under a week now which has given players plenty of time to optimize their builds and team comps. It's also given people enough time to start taking issue with parts of the game's matchmaking system, specifically when it comes to getting put in mismatched games against people of noticeably higher skill levels. It'll come as good news then for those who've had issues with the skill-based matchmaking system that Embark put out an update this week to address that very topic, an update which should "ensure better-quality games," the developer said.

Yes, The Finals has SBMM, the often controversial matchmaking system which is employed in games like the Call of Duty series, Apex Legends, and pretty much any other competitive game where developers want to make sure players are matched at least close to the same skill level. While this latest update should improve the SBMM setup in The Finals, Embark did warn that this could make queue times a bit longer since the game will seek out optimal matchups. It's also worth noting that a change has been made regarding the way backfills work so that players hopefully won't be joining into in-progress matches as much which often is frustrating given that your team is probably at a disadvantage if they've been playing without a third teammate.

The patch notes for the 1.2.3 hotfix for The Finals can be seen in full below:

The Finals Patch Notes for 1.2.3 Hotfix

• Fixed a Steam login problem that caused players to receive a faulty ban message
• We've made some changes to our skill-based matchmaking to ensure better quality games. This means matchmaking times are likely to be ever so slightly longer, but you should find yourselves in slightly closer matches
• We've updated the way backfills work in Quick Cash and Bank It. This should mean that you get backfilled less often and when you do get backfilled, you should have more time remaining in the match, especially in Bank It mode
• We've fixed the incorrect timer on the in-game shop

While not directly related to this particular update, Embark did alert players to a situation recently where people have been getting falsely banned. Embark said it's looking into these erroneous bans and is trying to reverse them, but if you haven't been unbanned y et and you think you didn't actually deserve the ban, Embark encouraged players to reach out to support.

"We are chasing the false bans. We have fixed some of the issues – please give it a try and restart your client," Embark said on Discord. "After that, if you are still banned now and you know that you should not be, write into player support so we can handle your case. Make sure to provide your Embark ID – it's much faster for us that way. reachthefinals.com/support"

The latest update for The Finals is out now on all platforms.