I'm done with ranked, I'm done with Apex, I can't deal with this matchmaking

I wrote a lot, so here's the summary if you don't want to read. I as a plat, keep getting pulled into diamond/pred games. These have been happening more frequently the longer that goes by, likely due to people also quitting / taking a break, or turning to smurfing. This season also has the most amount of smurfs ever, which in turn ruins even more people's gaming experience. While playing with a friend on a smurf two days ago, 1/3-1/2 of our teamates were smurfs. Keep in mind that we only had on slot open for a random teamate to be in on our team... We asked for verification, and if they didnt provide, we guessed from their skill level and account level. The game expects me to deal with getting into lobbies two ranks higher than mine by also giving me gold lobbies where I get 10+ kills, but this can no way compensate for the amount of frustration I get from being forced in higher lobbies, especially when I solo or duo q. As sometimes I will even get a gold teamate in a freaking pred / diamond game. With a diamond teammate being counted on one hand out of the many times I have played. There is no skillbased matchmaking this game. It is poorely made in favor for q times and catering to the preds. The rp bonus you also get for killing higher ranks was also completely removed this season, which removed the little to no incentive you've had in previous seasons to deal with thsi problem. This season was just a massive trade off. For a fixed RP ranked system, the game only traded a much more horrible matchmaking to the already horrible matchmaking the game had already possessed. Not to mention public matches has always already been unplayable due to it being sweatier and harder than ranked.

I'm finally going to take a long break from this game. Hopefully I'll never come back, though I find that unlikely...

Apex has been driving me mentally insane. Last season masters was full of bots versus real preds who just farmed those bots. Me being one of the better bots made me get masters, and eternally stuck in that hell for weeks due to no rank drop and the faulty rp system making it the season with the most masters ever.

This season, I've been plat for 2-3 weeks. Which I wouldn't mind. But I literally keep freaking getting into pred games as a PLATINUM for 2-3 weeks. Solo Q is even more of a * universe, where I will frequently get no diamond, and even getting golds in a freaking pred/diamond lobby due to the matchmaking desperate attempt to cater to the preeds, and find a match as soon as possible, regardless of how many people's gaming experience will be ruined.. It doesn't help that I get these games on an increasing basis.

Before other than during the first few days of where all the preds/masters where quickly climbing through the ranks on season 13 release, it was somewhat of a low chance for me to be pulled into a diamond/pred game. Around 10-20% of my games. This chance increased more when it was 1am-8am my time though when there was less players on. Lately however, this chance has been frequently increasing. Now if I play any other time, I get pulled into these games around half the games, and the other half isnt even plat games, as a big portion of that, maybe 30% is gold games. Within those games, sometimes I even get silvers (likely stacking, I hope...). However, if I play during the cursed times I have mentioned earlier, than I get pulled into these diamond/pred games around 80-90% of my games now.

I attribute this fact due to people, similarly like me, quitting / taking a long break from the game as they can no longer deal with the horrible matchmaking of Apex. For those that still play Apex, I figure a big portion of them turn to increased use of smurfing in order to get lobbies that are enjoyable. This in turns, ruins even more people's experiences, which make even more people quit the game. I feel like this is the season with the most smurf usage ever. When I was solo q and duoing with a friend also on a smurf, around a 1/3-1/2 of our random teammates were also smurfs. We either asked for verification by voice then text, than later guessed (may not be accurate) based on their skill and account level (as most low level skilled players are smurfs).

Maybe I am just blessed, but every other game that included a rank mode that I have ever played, at least let you play evenly, or around same skill leveled matches, and rewards / punishes you during those games where you win against people you should've lost and vice versa. I was lucky enough to be average top 100 on Overwatch for a couple seasons, and when I had played that game, the rank matchmaking very very rarely gave me an uneven game. And even when they did it rewarded the underdog team heavily while punishing the other in the case they lose., while if they win they dont gain as much. Although the matchmaking was very long, 10-60 minutes (played before roleq) I did not mind this feature at all. And I could at most just do other stuff while I wait for my game. Unlike Apex public matches, their version of it called quiickplay, was also balanced. I usually got thrown in games where people were much lower rank than me, however, teams were usually within enough margin of each other to be evenly matched. I frequently got people 1000-1500sr below me, which would be like a pred getting a plat/diamond teamates.

In Overwatch, they also countered the stacking problems of higher ranks by creating a rule where grandmasteres can only duo q. This helped the game out a lot, as many grandmasters, including myself, were usually capped at an sr range due to being gatekeeped. Being such a highrank, we also only q against the same people repeatedly. Everyone will tend to recognize everyone. This helped the game's lifespan as it fixed solo q in higher ranks, and also made the matches much more diverse as when there were stacks, it was often the same stack going against the same stack for multiple games for hours straight, or the same stack farming solo q players for when one of the stacks get off. Although this might not work for Apex, it is crazy to me that Apex still does not match people at a similar ranking to another. My expectation of a competitive game is for the matchmaking to be competitive, of people equally or near your skill level. But Apex Legend's take on "competitive" genre is just throwing the majority of the playerbase to be farmed and destroyed by those in the leaderboards. The preds should be playing against preds. Not playing against people much much worse than them.

As a last note about my complaints, what about public matches? Well, I have essentially left that untouched since 2 seasons ago ever since I got past level 20-40 where from henceforth, I just got pulled into lobbies where everyone was masters, when I was just a measly freaking noob. Then eventually I got diamond that season... from there, I started to be put into public matches with preds in it. Great, an even worse experience than what I already had. Then the next season (season 12) I reach masters pretty quick in the season as I got much better at the game and started stacking frequently in order for me to reach this. Somewhere around there, every time I even attempt to play public matches, I only get matched with preds and multi season masters, people who are way better than me. It is extremely rare to spot any diamond trails for me. Public matches which are supposed to not be sweaty, in reality, are always much more sweatier and try hard for me than ranked.

The only way for me to play this game is for me to make a brand new smurf, or to play an existing smurf. As even when I stack with friends, it doesn't mean * if most of my games will just be camping/ratting in corners due to us being in a game where everyone's skill levels are way beyond ours, while we try to prevent the amount of rp we lose as much as possible. However, I do not wish to become one of the cancer cells of an already dying game that is on life support. It is also tiring to make smurfs. And it is not enjoyable to me as for one, I know that I am just completely ruining people's experience and enjoyement in the game, and two, the games are way to easy for me, which loses any sense of accomplishment, and the reason I like competitive games.

I highly doubt that Respawn will fix this issue as it seems to have always been present within the game, but at the very least, I hope that the ranks will be sorted out enough where I won't repeatedly be pulled into freaking diamond and pred games, when I eventually come back to this game a few weeks later as I know I won't be able to stop myself from coming back. But at the same time, I also wish that it stays the same, so I can finally permanently remove myself from the game, as this issue is giving me enough push to do so.

I know posting here doesnt really do anything, but I must list my complaints somewhere, in the millionth of a chance the company listens to this and many other similar complaints, versus how the higher ups want the game, and the catering to the pred streamers / pros (possibly bias due to what I've heard). I've literally just posted a complaint earlier today, but after playing for hours after that, I am finally triggered enough to stop playing the game, after repeatedly getting into lobbies way higher than my skill level, and oftem times geteting teamates lower or at my skill level in a game where that amount of skill wouldnt do anything anyways. It doesn't help that the rp bonuses for killing higher ranks was completely removed, despite this season being the biggest season where players get matched into games not at their skill level, reegardless if it is higher or lower. This only removed the little incentive there was before to deal with this issue, and also increases the wish to farm lower rank players the higher rank the person is.

Although the lower side of kp rp amount should be adjusted, this is the season where I love the rp system the most. However, it is a shame as the matchmaking ruins any sort of joy I get from the game. Like the game tries to reward me with getting a gold/silver lobby as a plat where I usually get 10+ kills and live really long, but that one good game can no way in hell compensate for the amount of frustration I get from repeatedly being thrown in games not one, but two full ranks above me. I have already been past my tilting point days ago.