All i want is for those duos that i always get to stop bringing their 1 rank lower console bot player into my lobbies where they clearly dont belong. If his partner wanna try carrying him fine but dont force that dead weight on me too.
I completely understand this frustration. I think that's actually another reason individual accountability is worth looking at.
The proposal isn't specifically designed to solve premade duos bringing lower-ranked friends, but the underlying problem is similar: one player's decisions shouldn't be able to disproportionately determine the experience and RP outcome of the other two players.
Right now, everyone pays the normal RP entry cost regardless of who made the bad decision. If the lower-ranked player hot-drops, gets eliminated immediately, and leaves the other two to deal with the aftermath, the two teammates still lose their normal RP and have to decide whether to risk crafting or respawning them.
And that's not a harmless inconvenience. Crafting or using a beacon can effectively announce your location to the lobby. Teams actively look for crafting stations and respawn beacons because they know players are likely to be vulnerable there.
Then you're potentially fighting the rest of the match as a 2v3 because someone else made the initial reckless decision.
That's why I think an additional individual penalty makes more sense than simply making everyone lose more RP. Everyone still pays the normal base entry cost. The player who triggers the reckless-behaviour conditions simply takes an additional deduction.
If someone repeatedly makes those decisions, eventually losing an additional 2x or even 2.5x entry cost should discourage the behaviour. The objective isn't to ruin their progression; it's to make reckless behaviour have a consequence for the person actually choosing to do it.
One additional thought on the matchmaking issue you raised: I think Respawn could actually give players more control over this through a Ranked matchmaking preference filter, similar to how the Cross-Play setting works.
For example, in the settings/menu, you could have a preference for the rank range you're willing to be matched with:
This wouldn't necessarily change the actual Ranked eligibility rules or allow people to bypass rank restrictions. It would simply act as a matchmaking preference/filter where possible.
I'd also add a second preference for the type of squad you're willing to be placed into:
That would be particularly useful for people who solo queue but don't want to constantly be placed as the third member of a premade duo, or alternatively for players who don't mind filling that role.
For example, if I'm playing Platinum and don't want to be placed with significantly lower-ranked players, I could select Same Rank + Either. Someone who doesn't mind helping lower-ranked players could select Below + Either. Someone who specifically wants to play with higher-ranked players could select Above + Either.
Obviously, matchmaking population and queue times would have to take priority. If your preferred filter can't find a suitable match after a certain amount of time, the game could warn you that it's expanding the search or simply leave the choice with the player.
I think something like this would address part of the problem you mentioned much more directly than trying to solve everything through penalties.
And importantly, it would give players an actual choice instead of forcing a solo player to accept whatever rank combination the matchmaking system gives them.
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