Hey,

The XDefiant team recently posted information on how Skill Based Matchmaking would work, at least for the upcoming Closed Test taking place. The update came from the official XDefiant reddit.

To see the post and reply directly, you can visit this Link or by visiting r/XDefiant

I've also copied the post below:

Hey Defiants,

We’ve seen a lot of questions come in that you want to know more about. Some more than others but being a first-person arena shooter, skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) has been a consistent hot topic among the community.

During the Closed Test we will NOT have SBMM. Matchmaking will put players in lobbies based on their ping. Now once the players are in the lobby, we use player skill to balance the teams to be as fair as possible. So please, register for the Closed Test and come play and let us know how the system worked for you. We want your feedback!

We hope that settles the question for the many, many people who were interested in this topic.
So it does look like the XDefiant team will be closely monitoring the feedback, so for those who do take place in this test and upcoming tests, make sure to give feedback as it will help shape the game going forward.