Ranking system

To echo a little of what the others have said or implied: Maybe you are a D4 player? That's no disrespect intended. It's higher by double than I or most players could ever get. The point is simply that (whether or not the game has cheaters, whether or not you stack) every single player in this game has a ceiling. I think people forget that, or worse, they remember one of the gimme seasons where Respawn handed out master badges like free samples at BJ's. And now they expect that level of reward in every season, and are not interested in hearing that "insert rank here" is their natural high-water mark for their skill level, stack status, internet connection, or quality of cheats. It just is what it is. I've never understood all the hurt feelings and hand wringing over ranks - obviously, given my inability to achieve one of any value - but I sympathize that it matters to you. But still, your life would be better if it mattered a little less???

In the end, as already noted, just start a secondary and lay waste to silver, gold, and platinum again. And if you do that and the season still isn't over, just start another one. Respawn doesn't care if you screw over other players which explains why virtually everyone does it. So don't be proud or principled. No one else is.

vVv_Bjoergen_vVv​ D4 wall has been there forever and only exception were "free to take Masters" seasons when Respawn (as rumored) created easy ranked system to make cheaters get their Masters faster and gtfo of the game (clearly didn't work, loads of camping newbs even managed to get low Preds and flex it big time now :D, given even Gold skill players were Diamond+ lobbies were basically as pubs + everyone was ratting it out knowing that if they take a fight being low skill they will 99% lose it = basically unplayable. Still remember first season of those where I suddenly saw Masters badge pop-up (I do not pay much attention to ranks, points during the game), realized how ridiculously easy it was and stopped playing just because I could not take that bs lobbies anymore.

As per my post "actual infection rate" even from high Plat lobbies you see hackers in 75% of the games -> D4+ the number probably is close to 100% and more importantly not just 1-4 squads have a hacker but you face like 5+ hacker 3stacks = if your chances of winning on Plat+ are slim then in D4+ they are 0. Basically only way you can do so is by luck either playing in times when only kids who don't hack are online and hope for somewhat clean lobby or that odd jackpot game where hackers take out hackers and legit players manage to 3rd party remaining hacker squad to play for the win between legit teams. In my experience happens pretty much never.

Been in Apex since season 7 and it has ALWAYS been the case that legit players aimed for whatever was attainable for their skill level - Plat or Diamond - and then just quit / went to play pubs or more often created a smurf and went to play on that one decimating Gold- lobbies. Respawn have done literary 0 improvements regarding Diamond+ lobbies up till 3-4? seasons ago where they made them even worse by creating this new EBMM system where Preds are not stacked in one lobby instead you get 1-4 (usually 2-3) Pred/Master 3stacks in Diamond- lobby EVERY **bleep** GAME. So yeah because of that I don't even bother to play the game anymore, come when bored to grind battle pass, 0 f@$@ given about ranked points if I lose or have a bad team just forfeiting the game and move to the next. Basically I treat ranked as pubs when doing random battle pass grind.

Hiendofmediumlow​ sounds like something about Apex just gives you hard time = Diamond for experienced players with brain should / haven't been a problem basically up till this / previous season (mainly due to hackers present already in Plat). Also there is huge difference between EU and NA player base = pretty much since I have been playing Apex it was considered that NA is 1+ tiers EASIER e.g. if you were struggling in Plat in EU -> switch to higher ping games in NA and you get Diamond.
Also most players play controllers on NA, knowing that you can adjust, play certain legends like Bang or Path and give very hard time to controller players = giving you advantage if you play it right.
As for 2 and 3 stacks in Masters / Pred = yes, I agree that soloqing to Masters basically was never an option unless you exploit something in the game be it turbo input or less populated servers like Sao Paulo (back in the days). Still the biggest difference in Masters / Preds always have been hacks. I have had 3 stack a few time with decent players who did not struggle to get to Diamond (our fastest run I guess was <7 days from Gold 1 to D4) but we still hit a mighty wall as soon as we went to D4 and never stood a chance vs Masters / Pred 3stack ever despite having good teamwork and mechanics, because you can't fool wallhack and outaim aimbot.
Typically how you can see them hacking:

• they magically isolate and push as soon as someone from your team breaks apart from the team, creating unlosable 1vs3 (given they have radars / aimbots, they never lose that)
• magic skynade for 100 to gain massive advantage
• more blunt cases where they just use mobile legend, push into your face and one-clip you with r99, PK or whatever other weapon

As in recent video of Zeus on YT where he actually went to cheat in some other game he proved what many like me knew from the start in Apex = if you have skill and work on mechanics Apex is more about timing and ability to spot enemies in cluttered environment -> if you have even "just" radar and see on the map where people are, you don't even need wallhack to make huge improvement in how good you can time your pushes, isolate enemies, win fights you otherwise would not as you would not have a clue where to look, had to spend time scanning environment, would be late to switch targets etc. Which Zeus proved making some sort of world record in that game just by radaring.
Point being - in many cases of your mentioned Master/Pred/Streamer 3stacks people can play so chilled, interact with their stream chat, have limited comms just because they use radar or worse and don't need to worry about being surprised by someone or think much how to rotate, they just do what you see these days in streams = go from one fight to another as fast as possible and have 0 concerns about rotations or end game positioning as they can win from any position unless facing as "stacked" team where those funny hackers vs hackers fights break out where you see totally brain-dead plays IQ wise but amazing precision in shots made.

Let me say that first of all getting to Diamond is way harder than you think. So congrats on that no joke. I wouldn't call myself a GREAT gamer but I am decent in most online games I play. I solo queued to Diamond last season in Apex my first time.  Any online game I have played in the past seriously so to speak I have been in the top 10% for ranked mode and in a couple cases top 1-2%.  Was Duelist on WoW arenas, GC on Rocket League (played several pros and semis pros and usually got smoked but i would give them a game and once in a blue moon win) . PUBG I solo queued when the game was peaking 7 wins in a row which I know isn't ranked but still there are 98-100 people in the lobby and only 1 of me which I think isn't to shabby. 

Back to my point, Apex is hard. You're playing a game where in ranked you only make up 33% of your team against the best players in the game minus Masters/Preds which are less than 2% of the player base on average.  Also throw in the fact that another ~1% or so of those players are cheating so that also doesn't help. Now take in to account that a good chunk of those teams at Diamond and above are either 2 or 3 people partied up on comms and they play with a strategy. They use their abilities well, they know how to survive, position, and generally are good at shooting. 

Finally if you want to push in Masters level play or high Diamond you need a full team and a lot of time unless you're some freak of talent and even then it probably would still be hard.