Apex Legends Season 17 Ranked is Broken, Pros Speak Out
Professional Apex Legends Players Speak Out on the Broken State of the New Ranked in Season 17 Arsenal
- Season 17 introduced the biggest overhaul to Ranked Mode in Apex Legends history.
- Sweets of NRG, a professional Apex Legends player, was able to hit Predator rank without a single kill or dealing a single point of damage, all by himself.
- Players of all ranks and skill levels are calling for immediate changes from Apex Legends developers.
Apex Legends Season 17 Arsenal hasn’t even been out for a full week and players are already voicing their concerns and dismay over the new ranked changes. A full reset for the new matchmaking along with a new algorithm and points system for advancing your rank may have been too much for Apex Legends to get right on the first try. There are a ton of dissatisfied voices in the community over the changes and they’re all calling for immediate changes to save the ranked experience.
Season 17 Arsenal’s High Hopes
While a lot of the new features have been welcomed with open arms, such as the firing range, the new Legend Ballistic and the Weapon Mastery System, the Ranked Experience has been abysmal for players.
One of the two main goals the developers had highlighted for the Ranked system change was “evolving matchmaking to enable consistently competitive matches.” But with everyone starting at Rookie rank in the new season, players of all skills are being matched in lobbies.
Low level rookies and bronze players are being queued into lobbies with three time predator banners and players with 4k damage badges and 20 kill badges. One of the Apex Developers even commented that performances from past seasons still play a role in matchmaking, so why are newbies being matched against pros?
New Matchmaking, Who Dis?
To a certain extent, players should expect a bit of an adjustment period. The new matchmaking also comes with a brand new system that is supposed to match players and score them based on their skill. Since this system is fresh, it may have come with a reset or require a period to set base lines for what this skill based system needs to work.
For example, in the new provisional matches, which helps determine what rank you should start at so pros aren’t playing through low level lobbies, you are awarded a lot more Ladder Points if you do well to boost you more quickly to your proper rank.
So naturally, once you are in the rank you should be, it was thought that the points would slow down. But as it turns out, they don’t. In fact, you don’t even need to get kills or do damage as the biggest rewards for Ladder Points come just from placing high.
Professional player from NRG, Christopher "sweetdreams" Sexton was able to hit the highest rank in the game, Predator, without dealing a single point of damage or killing another player. He did this solo, all by himself and even managed to get 5 wins along the way and place top 5 in 45 of only 50 matches. Clearly, there’s an issue.
Ranked Entry Cost Too Low
One of the big problems that players have identified is the new entry cost requirement. Before Apex Legends Ranked had a scaling entry cost, the higher rank you were the more points it required to buy in. If you did poorly, you lost rank, if you did well you gained.
Now it costs a flat 35 Ladder Points regardless of your rank and if you survive til at least the top 10, you’re guaranteed to gain points. From there, you’re supposed to get bonus points based on your eliminations, assists, participation, skill and other factors.
But the bonus points players are getting are massive and propelling them forward even when they hide all game and do nothing.
Players are suggesting that the entry costs need to rise, or the amount of points you gain need to come way down.
We reached out to Respawn for comment and will update this story if they respond.
