Let's talk about the main Season 13 Ranked problem: It's not fun
I mean, not for most people it seems. And the reasons can vary, like some people don't like Storm Point, or bad team play, but the one problem you hear most about in Season13, because the others have all been around before, is the new way ranked is scored.
This isn't a universal statement, some people like it. And also some people don't, but are struggling through with it. But I think it's pretty apparent a whole lot of people are cutting back on ranked play. You can't prove that unless you are Respawn itself and privy to the data...and you know they wouldn't say so unless it somehow favored them to put up those stats. But from casual, to streamers and pros, the grief volume has significantly increased.
Not saying Respawn should instantly revert inside of 1 week or a few days, because you have to see if all the complaining is a knee * reaction and people figure out the new way. But I get the impression in this case it is not the players doing their usual gripe. I've climbed, admittedly not as fast or to the rank I want to be yet, but I have found myself playing ranked less. I just don't want to deal, and I usually don't want to deal, but I've found ways. This one feels different.
I've never liked playing with my team mates because the core way Apex works discourages serious play with my team. This time, around, however, I find myself just entirely disinterested in Ranked play, but actually having fun pugging with my team mates in solo play. There are more, better players in solo too, which is starting to send me the impression a lot of people are going casual. Don't care which way you cut it, the goal of the Ranked system was not to have less people play Ranked, sorry, not from Respawn's perspective. More than anything else, people seem to care less about encouraging the teamwork as a goal, and the awful buy in system of negative RP.
It doesn't matter so much to me, but it does point out more and more, too, that people played Ranked because it seemed to be the more serious mode. Less team mates throwing, disconnecting early, and more trying to work together. Now it's less team mates throwing, less team mates disconnecting and less team mates trying to work together...because there are just less people doing much more than going to ground and waiting for the last rings. I like the post that shows 10 teams still around in the final two rings...says everything about what ranked is like now right there.
And then there's the iiTzTimmy video where him and his team are parking like 6-11 kills each...in Plat III (heh). That's pretty much ensuring that most of the teams in that game simply got smashed with a full -54RP. I'm sure they loved that.
