Apex Legends: The Many Problems with Ranked Mode
As the second split of Season 16 Ranked in Apex Legends gets underway, players have been taking to social media and reddit to express their current issues and displeasure with the ranked system in the popular battle royale.
Apex Legends is no stranger to a passionate and vocal fan base letting them know what they like and do not like about the game. And to Apex Legends and Respawn Entertainment’s credit, they have implemented quite a few changes to the Rank grind over the last few seasons. These include a new ranked match-making system that players are still waiting for confirmation on whether or not that was fully implemented worldwide.
Players Unhappy with Ranked Splits
One of the most recent complaints with Ranked play in Apex Legends is the ‘Ranked Split’. A season of Apex Ranked is split into two time frames, Split 1 and 2. Whatever the highest rank you achieve in one of those splits is the rank you earn at the end of the season. If you earn the same rank in both, the banner badge you get as a result will have a shine to it instead of a matte finish.
Outside of that, the only other reason it served to have rank splits was the changing of the map. Prior to Season 16 players would have to play on the same map for the entire split and then a new one in Split 2. But this season, Respawn has added in a map rotation with three maps that rotate every 24 hours. Players have said that with this addition, the rank split serves no purpose except to drop peoples ranks.
Every split and every season reset, all players are dropped 4 divisions, or 1 and a half ranks in Apex Legends. So if you were Platinum 2, you’d start the new split or season at Gold 4. The ranked split resets adds a few player complaints to the list.
It can feel frustrating as a player to grind for the first half of the split, just to be reset back down in the season for seemingly little reason. You also end up with high rank players often playing in low rank lobbies because they took a break for a split or two and were reset several ranks. For example, if you’re a Diamond 4 Player in Season 16 Split 1, you’ll be deranked to Gold 2 in Split 2. If you don’t play in Split 2, you’ll come back in Season 17 as Bronze 1 player.
What justification is there for a Diamond Ranked player to be playing with Bronze players? If you go even higher and a Masters or a Predator takes a season break, they come back to Bronze Rank as well.
Pros Playing in Low Tier Lobbies
The high ranked pro players in low tier lobbies is a problem all in itself. Not just from the perspective of the rank reset. It’s become a trend for professional Apex Legends streamers to do “Bronze to Predator” challengers where they’ll make a fresh account, or log into an alternate account they haven’t played on in awhile and just trounce through newbie players.
A few seasons ago Respawn uncapped the amount of Ranked Points you can earn through kills in an attempt to help propel these players through the ranks more quickly and get them to the rank they below. But if they’re going to be sent back down into the lower ranks eventually, does it really solve the problem?
When Kill RP was first uncapped, social media was filled with screenshots of players earning ungodly amounts of RP for winning which seems to just further incentivize playing in those lower ranks for the screenshots and clips that garner the most views on Twitch, Twitter and Reddit.
There's also been past reports of high tier players teaming and taking advantage of the uncapped kill count by using a Crypto to instantly respawn downed teammates. Then feeding kills to the other team throughout the match.
Outdated Rewards
Which brings up the final and longest running complaint for the ranked grind in Apex Legends, what’s the point? Currently, the only real reason for the ranked grind is bragging rights or the sense of accomplishment for attaining a new rank.
But once a player has proven to themselves that they can do it, Respawn expects them to just keep wanting to prove it to themselves over and over every season? For most players a love of the game will keep them playing. But a lack of incentive is what leads to things like professional players HisWattson doing SoloQ challenge after challenge starting in Bronze rank and fighting their way to the top in as many different ways as they can think of.
In Season 3 Respawn removed permanent dive trail rewards, now each season, you need to hit Diamond, Master or Apex Predator again or you’ll lose your dive trail. The only other rewards are banner badges that all look the same with minor changes to the design, or gun charms that most of the community largely ignores.
The recently shut down Apex Legends Mobile rewarded ranked players from Silver through Apex Predator with cosmetics from weapon skins, to banner rewards and special skins for Diamond, Platinum and Apex Predators.
With Arena's being recently removed from the game and Ranked Arenas going along with it, only time will tell if the Ranked rewards structure will see any changes or improvements. Regardless, the Apex player base shows no sign of slowing down with their growing discontent for the current system.
