Do Not Change the Rules at Diamond
Hi Respawn team,
I want to raise a concern about the current structure of Apex Legends Ranked.
This is not a request to make Diamond, Master, or Predator easier.
My concern is much more fundamental:
Why should the rules of the game change when a player reaches the higher ranks?
A player can climb through Ranked playing traditional Battle Royale with the Dropship, but once the lobby contains enough Diamond, Master, and Predator players, the game can switch to Drop Zones.
At that point, Ranked is no longer simply giving the player stronger opponents.
It is changing the competitive environment itself.
I believe this creates a structural advantage for players who are already established in the highest ranks, while making it unnecessarily difficult for new players to enter that ecosystem.
THE BASIC PROBLEM: DO NOT CHANGE THE RULES HALFWAY THROUGH A RANKED LADDER
Imagine a football tournament where every team plays under normal football rules until the semifinals.
Then, starting with the semifinals, the rules suddenly change.
Even if the new rules are perfectly fair by themselves, there is an obvious problem:
The tournament is no longer testing every team under the same competitive rules.
I believe Apex Ranked currently has a similar problem.
From the lower ranks through Platinum, players learn and demonstrate their ability under traditional Battle Royale conditions.
They choose where to land.
They observe enemy squads during descent.
They decide whether to contest or disengage.
They evaluate POI value and risk.
They adapt when another team unexpectedly lands nearby.
They manage imperfect loot.
They decide whether an early fight is worth taking.
They recover from bad situations.
These are not accidents that exist outside of Apex.
They are Battle Royale skills.
Then, around Diamond and above, Ranked can switch to Drop Zones.
Players are assigned POIs and much of the uncertainty surrounding the initial drop is reduced.
That may create a more controlled competitive environment.
But it is a different competitive environment.
My objection is not that Drop Zones are inherently bad.
My objection is that they are being inserted halfway through the same Ranked ladder.
If Drop Zones are better for competitive Apex, that is an argument for a competitive mode.
It is not necessarily an argument for changing the rules of standard Ranked after a player reaches a certain level.
WHO IS RANKED DESIGNED FOR?
This leads to a second question.
Who should the main Ranked mode primarily serve?
I understand why professional players, streamers, and established high-rank players may prefer Drop Zones.
They reduce chaotic early contests.
They reduce the possibility of losing large amounts of RP because several teams happened to land at the same POI.
They create more structured matches.
They may also reduce certain problems associated with predictable player drops at the highest levels.
Those are understandable concerns.
But professional and top-ranked players represent only a small part of the total Ranked population.
The main Ranked ladder is played by a much broader population.
If highly competitive players prefer an ALGS-like environment, I believe Apex should support that preference.
But it should not require the standard Ranked ladder itself to transform into that environment at Diamond.
Competitive Apex and Ranked Apex do not necessarily need to be the same product.
THE COMBINATION OF SYSTEMS MAY CREATE AN INCUMBENCY ADVANTAGE
Drop Zones are not my only concern.
The larger problem appears when several systems are considered together.
Established Master and Predator players have already spent significant time playing in the high-rank environment.
They understand its rotations.
They understand its pacing.
They have experience with Drop Zones.
They are more likely to have established teammates.
They are also placed relatively high again after rank resets.
Meanwhile, a player reaching Diamond for the first time enters this environment without the same accumulated experience.
That player may simultaneously encounter:
Higher-ranked opponents
A different drop system
Players with extensive high-rank experience
A much higher concentration of coordinated premade squads
Different macro expectations
And matchmaking expansion caused by the relatively small Master and Predator population
Each of these systems may have a reasonable justification when considered individually.
But game systems should also be evaluated by their combined effect.
Together, they may create a feedback loop:
Players who are already established in the high-rank ecosystem gain more experience in that ecosystem.
Their previous rank allows them to return closer to it after resets.
They are more likely to have established teams.
They become increasingly familiar with the rules used there.
This makes it easier for them to remain part of that ecosystem.
Meanwhile, new players attempting to enter it must overcome both stronger opponents and an environment in which established players already have accumulated experience.
I am not claiming that Respawn intentionally designed Ranked to protect existing Master and Predator players.
I am saying that the combined system may produce that effect regardless of intention.
And that possibility should be investigated.
RANK RESETS CAN REINFORCE THIS EFFECT
There is a legitimate reason not to reset former Predators into low ranks.
Nobody wants genuine Silver or Gold players to repeatedly fight former Predators at the beginning of every split.
But the opposite problem should also be considered.
If established high-rank players consistently begin much closer to the top while new challengers must climb through the entire ladder, previous success becomes a continuing structural advantage.
Initial seeding makes sense.
Repeatedly recreating an ecosystem in which the same population begins closest to the top deserves more scrutiny.
The objective should be to protect low-ranked players from elite players without making historical rank unnecessarily important to future rank.
DIAMOND SHOULD NOT SOLVE THE MASTER/PREDATOR POPULATION PROBLEM
Respawn has already acknowledged the difficulty created by small high-rank populations.
When there are not enough Master and Predator players, matchmaking has to expand.
But this creates another structural issue.
If the Master and Predator population is too small to create fast matches, who should bear the cost?
Currently, part of that cost can be transferred downward.
Diamond players become matchmaking supply for higher-ranked lobbies.
That effectively produces this relationship:
Small Master/Predator population
-> insufficient players for fast matchmaking
-> matchmaking expands downward
-> Diamond players face substantially stronger competition
I believe the more reasonable relationship is:
Small Master/Predator population
-> longer matchmaking times for Master/Predator
The highest-ranked players are already an extremely small and highly competitive population.
Longer queue times at the extreme top are a reasonable tradeoff for preserving the integrity of the ladder below them.
PREMADE ADVANTAGE MAKES THE TRANSITION EVEN MORE SEVERE
Respawn’s own matchmaking analysis demonstrates that premade composition matters.
A premade duo plus one solo player wins more often than three solo players.
A full premade trio also wins more often.
And the concentration becomes particularly extreme at Master, where Respawn reported that 85% of Master squads are full premades.
This means a newly promoted Diamond player may not simply be facing better individual players.
They may simultaneously be facing:
Better players
More experienced high-rank players
More coordinated teams
A different drop environment
And opponents from ranks above their own
That is not a smooth increase in difficulty.
It is several advantages being stacked at approximately the same point in the ladder.
WHY “THAT IS JUST YOUR TRUE RANK” IS NOT A SUFFICIENT ANSWER
A common response to players who stop progressing after reaching Diamond is:
“Then Diamond is simply your correct rank.”
Sometimes that will obviously be true.
But that explanation becomes too simplistic when the system itself changes around the same point.
A player’s final rank is not determined only by mechanical ability.
It is influenced by:
Scoring rules
Entry costs
Matchmaking ranges
Rank resets
Premade composition
Drop rules
And the population distribution created by those systems
Apex’s own Ranked history demonstrates how dramatically rank distributions can change when these systems change.
The players did not suddenly become massively better or worse between seasons.
The ranking system changed.
Therefore, we should be careful about treating every player’s current rank as a perfect measurement of their ability while ignoring the structure that produced that rank.
THE SOLUTION: KEEP STANDARD RANKED STANDARD
My preferred solution is simple.
Standard Ranked should use the same fundamental Battle Royale rules from the bottom of the ladder to the top.
Use the Dropship throughout standard Ranked.
Let stronger ranks become harder primarily because the players are stronger.
Do not introduce a different drop system halfway through the ladder.
CREATE A SEPARATE MODE FOR COMPETITIVE APEX
I do not want Drop Zones removed from Apex entirely.
If high-level and competitive players prefer them, preserve that style of play.
Create a separate competitive environment.
For example:
Apex Premier
or
Apex Competitive
Such a mode could use:
Drop Zones
POI Draft
ALGS-style scoring
Premade teams
Dedicated leaderboards
Qualification requirements
Tournament-related rewards or opportunities
This would give competitive players an environment specifically designed around competitive Apex without changing the rules of the standard Ranked ladder for everyone else.
REDUCE THE STRUCTURAL ADVANTAGE OF PREVIOUS RANK
Previous performance can be used for initial placement to prevent former elite players from destroying low-ranked lobbies.
But after initial placement, current performance should matter most.
Rank resets should be reduced.
Split resets should be reconsidered.
Historical rank should prevent inappropriate low-rank placement, not continuously reinforce a player’s position near the top.
TIGHTEN MATCHMAKING AROUND ACTUAL RANK
Diamond players should primarily fight Diamond players.
Master players should primarily fight Master players.
Predator players should primarily fight the highest-ranked population.
Some overlap is unavoidable.
But when matchmaking must expand significantly, the RP system should recognize the difference in lobby difficulty.
A Diamond player placed into a Master/Predator-heavy lobby should not be evaluated exactly as if that were a normal Diamond lobby.
PREMADE STRUCTURE SHOULD MATTER IN MATCHMAKING
Playing Ranked with friends should absolutely remain possible.
But matchmaking should prioritize similar team structures whenever population allows it.
Full premades should preferentially encounter full premades.
Duo-plus-solo teams should preferentially encounter similar teams.
Solo-heavy teams should preferentially encounter solo-heavy teams.
The objective is not to punish people for playing with friends.
It is to prevent party coordination from becoming another advantage stacked on top of rank, experience, and different competitive rules.
RESPAWN CAN TEST WHETHER THE INCUMBENCY EFFECT IS REAL
This does not need to remain a theoretical argument.
Respawn has the data required to test it.
Compare players reaching Diamond for the first time with previous Master or Predator players.
Control for current performance metrics such as:
Damage
Kills
Survival
Win rate
Top 5 rate
And other measures of current performance
Then compare:
RP gained per match
Probability of reaching Master
Number of matches required to reach Master
Solo versus premade performance
Performance in Dropship versus Drop Zone matches
Opponent rank distribution
Performance immediately after entering Diamond
And performance later in the split
The key question is:
After controlling for current player performance, how strongly does previous high-rank status predict reaching a high rank again?
If previous Master or Predator status remains a very strong predictor even among players with similar current performance, Respawn should investigate which parts of the system are producing that persistence.
That would help distinguish genuine persistent skill from structural incumbency advantage.
MY MAIN REQUEST
Please do not interpret this feedback as:
“Diamond is too difficult.”
That is not my argument.
Diamond should be difficult.
Master should be extremely difficult.
Predator should be extraordinarily difficult.
My argument is:
Do not make high ranks difficult by changing the rules, stacking multiple structural advantages, and using lower-ranked players to solve population problems at the top.
Make them difficult because the opponents are better.
A player climbing from Platinum to Diamond should think:
“The players are much better now.”
Not:
“The rules changed, the lobby structure changed, premade prevalence changed, and now I am also fighting players from above my rank.”
A Ranked ladder should allow new players to challenge the established elite under the same fundamental rules.
It should not unintentionally become easier to remain at the top simply because you are already part of the top-rank ecosystem.
Apex has experimented with Ranked systems for many seasons.
I believe it is time to establish a clear principle for what Ranked is supposed to be:
Same Battle Royale.
Same fundamental rules.
Stronger opponents as you climb.
And a fair opportunity for new challengers to replace established high-rank players if they are good enough.
Thank you for reading.
