Lately games seem to be harder

I so feel you cheater issue has gone haywire... SoloQ was completly killed this season.

The sad fact the cheater issue has not been taken seriously for so long it will only get worse just sayin fortnite has 10 times more players currently and it doesn't have a cheater issue how is that they both run with same anti-cheat. The reason is EA just don't care. They try to bump new content but don't realize the game itself goin to die even if they manage to make a quick buck with skins and stuff. What then? making a brand new game as popular as apex is not as easy as it's sounds.

I report every cheater I bump into and well maybe 1/10 gets banned so that's another issue.

also 2nd split def had major change way more cheaters than first split it feels completly unplayable right now most cheaters are at gold lobbies currently just try play a gold lobby matches and you will see how it is 60 players in a match if u lucky there's 5 legit players others are smurfs or cheaters. or combination of that

it's also really annoying when people just say it's a skill issue. i'm a masters/pred player, top 2% percentile (as far as ranked goes), but I just cannot compete with these lvl 70 players. start of s24 was fine but it's been downhill from there.

idk maybe there really are just thousands of cracked lvl 70 players with no skins/badges  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The game ages... and people leave for newer games.

The game suffers with weak anti-cheat... and people leave the game to get away from cheaters.

The game ages and has weak anti-cheat... and the people who stay use secondaries to cheat the sbmm algorithm... and if there were any players left of moderate skill then this is the nail in the coffin for them. And they leave the game.

So now all that's left are cheaters and people trying to fight below their weight in an attempt to get easier matches. It's circular, self-reinforcing, and ends in a downward death spiral. Not sure where we are in that downward trajectory right now, but we definitely are heading down and I'm not seeing any convincing signs on the horizon that there is anything that Respawn will do about it. I'm not convinced that there's anything they can do about it.

So now every lobby is level 25 players who move in ways that seem to me to defy game physics and who shoot like they have an aimbot. They will shoot at you from any distance using any gun with any scope and they'll miss hardly ever. And if you even get the chance to shoot back then they just teleport away while their perfectly coordinated teammate picks up shooting at you almost without pause. And if you manage to take cover to try and heal then some Ash will teleport half way across the map to magically appear beside you, one clip you, and then disappear again as quickly as they came.

When EA said years ago that the game would evolve over time so that the game we'd be playing in the future wouldn't be the same game we were playing then... I never imagined that this is what they meant. I'm almost sorry that I invested so much time in this game.

I don't think everything can be blamed on cheating.  There are smurfs (they are usually really obvious via their online name) which are problematic.  For context I don't play ranked; haven't touched it in years.  I'm a day 1 player.

I'm also not saying cheating DOESN'T exist.  I'm on console so it's less of an issue compared to PC but I have spotted Cronos players... their movement makes it SO obvious.

I suspect that once people finish their BP and the season draws to a close there are going to be fewer people online playing so you are at the mercy of the match making.  Match making can only deal with what's in front of it.  I had a wild session a couple of days ago with sky highs and total lows; it was the strangest day of apex I've ever had since the game launched.

First session we gave up after about 45 mins.  We were just getting absolutely destroyed every single encounter; none of those fights were going to end any other way.  Teams clearly on comms with co-ordinated attacks.  It was actually kind of impressive how fast we got wiped over and over but we just gave up as being constantly smashed isn't much fun.  This was mid-afternoon.

Tried again early evening.  Started off the same, first few games just got constantly destroyed.  Then I had 3 10 kill games, a win in a span of 4 games... what just happened?  A few more good games then back to getting smashed.  I honestly can't explain that.

I think we are in the Type 3 Churn phase now. 

I pretty much exclusively play Bot Royale or the LTM Rotation (except gun run, despise, no, OMNILOATHE that mode) these days. 

If Arenas comes back, I might play that. But I don't even worry about the battle pass anymore, really. I just do the "4 matches as" for the day and jet. They at least let you get those stars in Bot Royale. You're never on when I am anymore, kid is working all the time, so no one to play with, might as well play it like single player simulator.

And the one reason I WAS playing it at least weekly, was to keep showing interest in the IP for Titanfall 3, which now seems to be deader than dead. 

I probably am on when you are, but a few months ago I upgraded my xbox and was literally too lazy to bring over my account so just started a new one. Next time I'm on I'll try to remember to look at my gamertag so I can message it to you. I seem to remember your tag is not the same as your EA name here on the forums??? Don't worry, we'll figure it out!

...  But... why?

Not sure how much longer I'll be playing though. The new default "auto" difficulty is frustrating even in Bot Mode. Seems like they just set it to screw you as much as regular BR matchmaking. Also, I love how the new bot AIs perfectly mimic the average real player I get. Had a bot Octane run off leaving me waiting for a revive just so it could die in a 1 v 6. Perfectly like real people! 

I play bot mode to GET AWAY from real people. 

And the season updates... wow. I hate Sparrow SO much. Can we stop having wall hacks, please? 

Yes there are smurfs. It's me. Sorry. I'm the guy dropping 20+ kills in TDM. Sorry.

Anyway, why I decided to reply to this thread initially... Story time:
My first and only ranked game last split: D4, playing on e-district. I'm jumpmaster. I want to drop at the 2nd closest POI, because I prefer not to hot drop if there are multiple other teams doing so. One or two teams are okay but not 5. Random yells in my ear that I should drop. I refuse. I'm jumpmaster. He drops, and I presume his duo, drops with him. Of course they're both dead on arrival. Of course they blame me. I land safely at the very next POI. Not the other side of the map, the next POI. He keeps yelling in my ears that I'm playing looter simulator. Whatever dawg. They both leave the game, taking a penalty. Nice. Since I'm alone, I decide to go to the next further POI so I can rat there and scroll Instagram waiting for zone. I checked, no other teams landed there. I'm far on the east edge of E-district under a bridge behind a crate. I hear someone flying in. Footsteps coming closer. A solo Ash runs straight toward me. She knows where I am. We exchange a few shots. I can tell I could kill her if I wanted. But how would I report her? I let her kill me, I report her and close the game. How did she know where I was? Couldn't be killing my teammates, that was like 8 minutes ago and her passive only lasts for 8 seconds. Mayyyybe she saw me from 2 miles away going under the bridge. IDK. I report anyway, it's not for me to decide if they're cheating. 

GG what a great experience, 10/10 would do it again (/s).
I should know by now not to play ranked solo. I should wait for my teammates to get on. Oh wait, they don't play this game anymore either.

Yeah, no. If I cared about the old account then I'd have brought it along. It wasn't as if I had any money tied up in it, or as if the banners were anything that anyone would care about, or as if I couldn't unlock Valk on the new account in a matter of days.

Yup, Sparrow is a train wreck. If I was ever to be found in late-game diamond matches trying to move up then I'd be pissed. But as it is I've just added him to my list of quitable opponents. I get to late game and I look for Ash, Mirage, and now Sparrow. If I see one of them on the enemy squad I instaquit. Even if there isn't any of the above, I still watch carefully and if I see three people moving as one, or any kind of swarm mentality, then I quit. If I start poking and find I'm getting poked back at poke range with automatics that have no recoil or bullet drop... you guessed it: I quit.

Yeah, the Bot Royale thing I have yet to really play around with. But OH YES, they run off and engage all on their own and go down like a cheer leader on prom night. Just like real players. It's staggering. It's starting to make me think there are more bots in pubs than I thought. I've run across them before. Today even. But I thought they were a rarity. Maybe not so much?