Season 20 release is terrible!

100% there with you. Been playing since launch, but solidly average and odd playing times mean I’m stuck playing solo. It’s been bad in the past, but this is a whole new level of impossible. Win rate had consistently been 5%-6% every season, now it’s barley over 1%!!! Forget about k/d/r. Honestly don’t know why I’m still playing. Don’t know if cheating is out of control or just a new sadistic matchmaking. Whatever it is, it’s like they are trying to force a particular cohort of players (average, solo) to quit. 

https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Season-20-release-is-terrible/m-p/13485316/highlight/true#M111383

"Just freed up my whole summer. Can't even articulate how disappointing the changes to game play are." - @bo3nv8maxnj6 

They said the season was terrible with the changes to the gameplay, but didn't fully go into details to explain why they felt that way. That leaves room for others to say why they feel like it either got better or got worst.

"You post a complaint and they post a distraction about how good the game is or how its your fault not the company classic pr backlash against negative feedback." - @Dakyren1

You're making it sound like I'm saying there's no problems with the game. There's TONS of problems with the game. I'm saying its better than it was from what I'm seeing, but its not perfect or the best that it could be. Not to mention that I never had told anyone that the problem is them when it comes down to the issues that they're having. The most I do is state what I've experienced myself.

You do realize that I've complained about no audio, awful servers, cheaters, smurfs, bot teammates, bad rank seasons, etc. for a long time now, right? I'm not going "the game is fantastic" like a payed person. In fact, no one asked for my opinion, and I have been told before that I'm quite critical of the game by an EA Fourm Admin, (I won't call them out, but its true).

I'm saying the game is better in the matches I'm put in, but its NOT the best that it could be and other players do have different gameplay experiences than I do, which may be way worse or even better than mine. S20 is a huge change but its not a one fix for all of the game's problems. If we all stay quiet or listen to one voice, we won't ever see the overall picture and be able to have the problem get addressed for the whole playerbase. I rather things get fixed for everyone, rather than a small part of the community.

I still deal with cheaters, smurfs, and bots. Was this fixed with S20?
- No, I still see them frequently, mainly console players abusing aim assist with things such as strikepacks.

I still deal with little or no audio. Was this fixed with S20?

- No, I still, and many others, have little to no audio. The fact that an Octane can stim up behind you and empty a full R-99 clip with no audio says how awful the audio is, and playing on the new Thunderdome map? Good luck hearing anyone over the crowd, I sure can't.

Servers are still 20hz. Are they any better in S20, such has being a higher hz like 60hz??
- No, not that I'm aware of. A few have said they're better, but I'm not quite seeing that. https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Servers-Are-Super-Laggy/m-p/13495876#M111538

"No one goes on to a forum post about how good thier recoil is to a complaint about a game." - @Dakyren1

Do you also realize that @E9ine_AC was the one who said they had good recoil, not me. https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Season-20-release-is-terrible/m-p/13486529/highlight/true#M111408 I essentially had said that I was seeing players using no recoil, like a cheat or an exploit of the aim assist, (which strikepacks, xim, chronus zen, etc. are technically an exploit to the aim assist).

I've also told @Palette24carats that Titanfall 2 was on sale when they had asked if there's other games made by the former Respawn dev team, as Apex was still having issues that they weren't liking.

https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Season-20-release-is-terrible/m-p/13485556/highlight/true#M111389

"These devs since season 13 have no clue what they're doing. Where are the old devs?" @Palette24carats 

"@Palette24carats I've heard that all the "old" devs had left the development team." - @Midnight9746

"@Midnight9746 Right, what games are they developing right now I need another game lol" - @Palette24carats

To the part about "Companies pay to hush any kind of negative feed back cause there is no regulation on corporations anymore." - @Dakyren1 Have you not seen any of the threads on the fourms?

Players are posting problems with the game and submitting new complaints daily, if not, weekly. Here's an issue about audio: https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Audio-is-worse-in-s20/m-p/13497546#M111548 and here's an issue about how a player feels like to have a good time in Apex, there must be some sort of DLC that they don't have. It sounds like a joke to me with how its phrased, but they're not wrong about the issues that they've pointed out: https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Secret-Store/m-p/13499517#M111569

As for the matchmaking, dead slides, and other problems you've mentioned, honestly a lot of those are issues with the server, and right now in ranked, EVERYONE's rank was reset to Rookie IV, so if you see a bunch of preds in your lobby, right now they are still "around your rank". The only advice I could give you, isn't a "get better", but a "give it a few weeks", so by then, the preds would be in higher ranked lobbies, and you should be left with anyone left behind in the ranks.

Respawn isn't worrying about the matchmaking for ranked just yet as its still the start of the season, and they're waiting for everyone to spread out in the ranks before going, "that was awful", or "that's a better system, lets keep at it!"

I've also heard that the next gen update is pretty bad. I got a Switch as well, but its not one of the ones that supports the next gen update, so I can't say if its good or bad personally. https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Xbox-series-s-performance-mode-is-a-joke/m-p/13499381#M111566

Regardless of where anyone stands, I hope to see improvements to the game, such as to the audio, servers, matchmaking, anti-cheat, and less collection events centered around recolors, especially of heirlooms.

Despite how much fun the Final Fantasy event was for me, (even though the Buster Sword was a Busted Sword as it was too strong), I hope we never see that kind of cosmetic store again, especially when it was like $500 for a deathbox, or more if you were in a country that bans the buying of packs, because it costed those players even more to get the deathbox. Which they had to get if they wanted the Buster Sword heirloom, as that was removed out of the store itself, and put into the pack opening tracker as the last reward alongside the deathbox.

This event also angered a lot of players because after EA/Respawn had released the recolor mythic hierloom Peacekeeper, (Shown below), they had said that they would never do something like that again. Well, the Final Fantasy event was basically "something like that again".
 

Not to mention, its a recolor of S2's battle pass gun skins for level 100 and 110.


TLDR:

Is Apex perfect?
- No, no game is. This update changed a lot for everyone. You either love it or hate it. I remember posting a while back, saying, "please don't add perks", but now that we have perks, it seems alright, for now at least. Anyone have any thoughts on that yet? Lifeline's self-revive is pretty good.

Did Apex get better?
- Somewhat, depends on who you ask. Some are having a better time, some are not, while others are having a mix of good and bad. What exactly are we liking? What are we not liking?

Does Apex still have issues, balancing problems, and other things to look into or consider?
- Yes, I would say that it does still have issues, balancing problems, and things to look into and consider. I have gone days before where I didn't pick up or think about playing Apex. The problems kept piling up, and I considered uninstalling the game many times.