Do several encounters with top 100 players count? I used to be good friends with the guy that is now world #1 in Elimination (had a huge fallout with him in Halo: Reach days) and I've seen him more times than I'd like.
When I check the monthly top 100 players for Xbox, I've played against the following from that list within that last month.
-an abyssal one #2
-Ace of Di4monds #14
-no backup plan #22
-FullSpe3D (my current worst enemy) #42
-vI2 #70
-I Skye, lowest K/D listed here at 2.64 #93
Not to mention some other players that are within the top 1% (and top 100 in specific playlists) but weren't in the monthly Top 100
Went into Skirmish with a couple of friends the other day (both negative) and were decimated by a particular team of players at 2.30, 2.61 and 1.44. With myself being at 1.64, I hardly think that [i]that[/i] counts as a similar skill level for me alone, certainly not my friends.
You're right when you say that we can only theorize, but it comes down to two options - SBMM is closer to what I say it is than to what you say, or I'm one of the unluckiest players around.
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The problem with your theory is that you've only had several encounters Judging from your time played and higher bracket it isn't surprising you've rubbed shoulders with people equal or above your skill. As I previously stated, the current sbmm probably drops in people above/below your bracket for the sake of match making time. That's why you would get matched with better/worse players There's also the problem with destiny pvp being imbalanced to a large degree, which skews people's stats and would result in them being put in the wrong bracket.