The new drop system in ranked sucks
It's just bad, sometimes I run around for 10 minutes not finding any squads to fight. Nobody asked for this and nobody wants it, give us the old system back.
Forum Discussion
To determine rather the new changes are better or not the best source to use is the "Apex Ranked Distribution Chart" for this season compared to others. In all the previous seasons we saw spikes at Tier 4 ranks, specifically Platinum and Diamond. The random POI draft in Ranked has resulted in a "bell curve".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution
https://apexlegendsstatus.com/game-stats/ranked-distribution
According to the data this Ranked season has seen a major improvement in competitive integrity. Platinum rank is the new Diamond rank regarding "difficulty". Players can't "easily" solo queue to Diamond 4 anymore because it's much harder to rat. I've personally solo queued to Diamond 4 several times before. Some players who solo queued to Diamond 4 previously would stop playing at that point. This situation "might be" occurring with Platinum 3 now. I think for this reason players are having a hard time accepting the competitive gameplay and their "true" rank. Along with the lack of freewill to choose your own POI.
I disagree that the Ranked changes should be reverted based on the factual evidence above. If players still want to solo queue and play "erratically" there are other options within the game itself, such as Unranked or Wildcard. A Ranked mode with no competitive direction is not what we should be asking for. This leads to sabotaging and toxicity, in some cases.
I've read some recent posts and I'm seeing the same suggestions. Players continue to ask for a solo queue only Ranked, duo queue only Ranked, and now to revert the POI draft so they can land their solo queue teammates "anywhere" with no communication most times. I just don't think these are the correct solutions.
In my humble opinion, the only thing that can help Ranked now is a "Stay with Team" feature similar to Fortnite and Warzone. I played public matches in Warzone to unlock their Ranked mode. Unfortunately, the devs over there decided not to include the "Stay with Team" feature for Ranked and some players are disgruntled about that.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CODWarzone/comments/1c83fo0/why_can_we_not_find_a_party_or_choose_to_stay/
The players who are enjoying the "Stay with Team" feature in Warzone were ecstatic when it was added 4 years ago.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CODWarzone/comments/o1axnu/suggestion_add_a_play_again_with_team_option_to/
I think this solution is worth exploring. It could really help with "securing" teammates before the next match. I played a couple days ago and won two matches back-to-back with different solo queue teams. It would have been nice to lock-in with one of those teams. I'm personally not interested in being friends, micing up, etc., but I'll "run it back with you", even if we didn't place high. Similar to when you go to a park for recreation and play basketball or something.
The current "bell curve" is too inflated in Platinum tier. I think the "Stay with Team" feature can fix this and also help players to fluctuate more within Platinum and give more solo queue players a path to Diamond, or higher (without ratting or being a one-man army). This solution can potentially help populate higher tier lobbies more and reduce queue times. Additionally, since Warzone doesn't have the "Stay with Team" feature for their Ranked mode this still leaves the door open for Respawn to make the right decision. I'm not sure why we want noncompetitive teams in Ranked to compete against stacked (competitive) teams, especially in higher ranks.
I come in peace. :-) I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I honestly don't care about this stuff deeply. Sometimes I just notice some glaring issues with the game. I'm just a millennial trying to help the young people. I've literally been gaming since Nintendo. I just don't understand the current state of gaming. We don't care about the "wow factor" and "synergy" enough. I love BR. I've played every BR to release since 2018. It's my favorite game mode of all times, thus far. On Playstation we didn't have PUBG back in 2017 and I didn't take to Fortnite. In 2018 H1Z1 came out. Then Blackout came out behind a paywall. Blackout unfortunately had "friendly fire" which made playing the game more difficult than it needed to be. The devs defended their decision, at the time, and basically told the community not to solo queue. Obviously, this was the wrong direction, and the friendly fire mechanic was not reintroduced in Warzone. One day, I got on Blackout to play with some friends I had met, and they immediately told me "Go Download Apex Legends Right Now". The game had only been out a couple of hours, or less. I was stuck like chuck with this game the moment I played. Plus, I loved TF2, OMG. Played the beta as soon as it was available. We didn't have TF1 on PS, and that hurt the franchise. Let's get better about how games should operate for "everybody", because in today's world we're choosing to be divided for petty reasons.
First, very good post.
BUT:
"In all the previous seasons we saw spikes at Tier 4 ranks, specifically Platinum and Diamond. The random POI draft in Ranked has resulted in a "bell curve"."
I'm not completely convinced that the fixed drops are the cause of the more uniform curve. Correlation, not causation, as they say. I might be more amenable to the idea if it stays this way throughout the entire season. But maybe not even then. Have to wait and see.
Not to mention that a mis-shaped curve is not necessarily the result of the way players play the game. It's more likely the result of the way the developer measures players playing the game. Two entirely different things.
"I think for this reason players are having a hard time accepting the competitive gameplay and their "true" rank. Along with the lack of freewill to choose your own POI. "
I agree wholeheartedly that most players do not want to hear that their true rank is not as high as they thought it was. Or as high as they think they "deserve" or however it is they think the game has challenged their entitlement. On the other hand, hard stuck at platinum or hard stuck at diamond - who really cares? You're not going to ALGS either way. And you're not gonna get a raise at work or a hotter girlfriend or a faster car or whatever else it is that children think is important. But what IS important, imo, and no surprise if you've heard me rant on this before... is Free Will. I give that up so that other players can allow the developer to herd them like sheep from one two-team engagement to the next as if this game isn't really multi-team at all. It's as if they want it to be bracketed. "Guardrails for morons" is what I'd call it no matter whether it's producing the desired behaviors or not. Which brings us to the question of "desirable to who?"
What this all ultimately boils down to is that "serious" solo queue players want "erratic" solo queue players to stop being erratic and start getting serious. And they are more than willing to allow the developer to lobotomize the erratics in order to get what they want in a teammate. Rather than expecting them to get a friend list and use it. We can certainly agree that the dev has a long way to go on the subject of player engagement tools, most notably "stay with team." But forcing conformity on specific behaviors isn't just a weak substitute for team-building, it's actively corrosive to the experience for a lot of players. That said, you are 100% right that these players can find relief in pubs or Wildcard. But for how long? Mark my words (September 14th, 2025), a year from now, possibly less, this entire game will have shifted to preset drops and unlimited respawns until the entire squad is wiped.
More dumbing down the game for players who need their hand held at all times. If that's how we get a smooth curve and a higher "fun" quotient then so be it, but I reserve the right to denigrate players for their laziness and the developer for indulging them.
FYI - I hit reply to early and didn't finish the post. It's finished now.
Thank you and I appreciate the reply.
I'm not a guru on this stuff so I'm just stating what it looks like. Thordan Smash, a popular Apex content creator, mentioned the "bell curve" in one of his videos regarding Ranked. Ranked is setup in splits and Split 1 will be over in 2 days. So those are the results for Split 1.
I'm glad we agree on some things. Where we differ is about "free will" within competitive game modes. I remember playing an older COD game that had Ranked. In the Ranked mode certain guns and perks were removed. The mode also had different rules. I remember playing a couple of games and getting stomped "hard". Instead of continuing to play Ranked I went back to Pubs. I wasn't going to attempt to change things for the Ranked players who enjoy that. I just moved on to another game mode that better suited my needs. It's that simple. I had the "freedom" to play another game mode. This scenario also applies to Ranked players who play Pubs. It's just as wrong for a Ranked player to want "every" game mode to be competitive.
In regards to using the friends list. This argument is overused and overstated. I've been playing since Day 1. The notion that I can keep up (or try to keep up) with anybody outside of my family for extended periods of time is not realistic. Additionally, it's been times where I'm actively utilizing my friends list, but people are already in-game, already have a team, may not be on at the same time, etc. We are ALL solo queuers in some way or at some point. The only people I've observed who don't solo queue are the top tier players in our community.
Lastly, I agree with your points as well. Let's all just do what we want, right? That's just not reality. We need guardrails in every aspect of society because humanity enjoys being unpredictable, at times. But we can't live and progress with so much uncertainty. For example, since I've been on the forum I've had several of my posts removed and I've been checked by the mods, more than once. Should I be mad because I can't type what I want on the forum? Maybe. At the end of the day EA has TOS and we have to follow that or risk being banned. I don't like guardrails either, but we have to have them so we can be and do better individually, which helps us collectively.
That was a good read.
"I don't like guardrails either, but we have to have them so we can be and do better individually, which helps us collectively."
There are political philosophies which correspond to your train of thought and I'm very sorry to say that I subscribe to most of them... just not in the case of this game! What that says about my character or the coherence and consistency of my politics, or my gaming, I can't really say, and am not too sure I want to find out!
But seriously, there's not a lot above that I can't disagree with. Except to say this: The CoD reference wasn't lost on me. It wasn't the first title to have the game play one way in ranked and differently in pubs, and it won't be the last any more than will Apex. But it's another thing I dislike about this game, probably mostly on aesthetic grounds, but also on some practical points. Aesthetically, I'm a big believer in "the game is the game." In other words, I have enough to learn, to remember, to think about, and to do in this game without having to learn two similar but different modes. It's tedious and to be honest, yet another feature of ranked that drives me away from the mode. Which, as we've both said, is fine. Horses for courses, is the expression I think. But then I find myself asking whether the developer should be making decisions that divide the player base to that degree. And this is the practical issue I have with these changes: Is it really good for any player to feel "unwelcome" (for lack of a better expression) in some particular mode? Is it good for the game overall if some players suddenly can't find enough ways to play to keep them entertained and then wander off to Fortnite or Warzone? And, my perennial favorite question, which I ask always because it's always a serious issue: If these changes make some players happier and others unhappy enough to leave, even if they don't leave the game and only leave the mode, then how far can the dev afford to let the population drop and still maintain the integrity of skill-based matchmaking? I say it's a serious issue because sbmm in this game is already compromised in a thousand different ways, and changing modes in ways that bleed players is never a good thing. I'm not saying we know that ranked is bleeding players. I don't know that at all. In fact this season's changes may be having quite the opposite effect and bring back players who previously gave up on ranked at one point or another. But it's still the kind of thing I think about a lot, because a lot of the time I'm in matches with enemies who move and shoot like they're playing some other game I never even heard of. Players who edge me out are one thing. Players who obliterate me in half a clip from an automatic from the other side of the map before I can even make their position... that's a sign of a lot of things, and one of them is very, very low-functioning sbmm. I guess I'm just saying I'd rather they didn't make a bad situation worse in an attempt to improve some other situation. Especially when I don't personally feel it needed improvement to begin with.
Anyhow, it's always nice to get your input. Keep up the good work.
Great points.
All I hope is that we allow the devs to try different things "sometimes". If it doesn't work, change it.
That's the beauty of Apex being a live-service game. Although, after 25 seasons of the same type of Ranked it's a little disappointing how some are overreacting to change.
What this all ultimately boils down to is that "serious" solo queue players want "erratic" solo queue players to stop being erratic and start getting serious. And they are more than willing to allow the developer to lobotomize the erratics in order to get what they want in a teammate.
I just reread this part and yes. That's exactly what's needed. That is the job of the developer. Respawn has made so many changes to the game and Ranked over the years I would have to create a new post about it. If you have been riding along this journey with the dev team for 6.5 years you could acknowledge all the parameters that have been put in place to protect the "integrity of gameplay".
For example, adding a timer on the replicator so that your teammates wouldn't steal your crafted item. That's just one funny example because players were trying to steal their teammates items "on purpose". After the change was made this removed the worry of losing what I crafted. Because if my teammate steals it because they think it's their "free will" it hurts the gaming experience for me. So, I'm against "free will" when it's disruptive to the devs vision for the game. We didn't create this game, they did. The community is a "village" whether we like it or not, and the Chief has to keep peace and prosperity in the village.
I think what we all need from EA/Respawn, at this point, is a renewed "Vision Statement" to clear up any confusion in the player base.
Allow all players to understand how Apex is supposed to operate and be played. They're not supposed to let us "control" their vision for the game. We can only provide constructive critic and share "real" solutions to problems. Then start to educate players "in-game" about the fundamentals of the game more, especially Ranked, than they're currently doing. There should be more emphasis there. When I play Apex it seems as if most players don't understand what BR is. Some players have no idea what IGL, Co IGL, (Entry) Fragger, Anchor even means. Right now, everybody is the IGL when solo queuing. When I'm in a party most times we decide our roles and then play. Because everybody can't IGL at the same time, which is a problem that's occurring with solo queue players. Some players have told me that they don't even look at the map. And when I'm playing most games, it feels that way. Everybody just plays "free willingly" and hopes for the best when solo queuing, for the most part.
