The State of Ranked Play

I actually think solo queuing is better than before. We have a better chance to find an ideal loadout and resources before leaving the POI and before engaging in fights. That alone is a better "solo queue experience" than the previous setup. 

Playing with randoms is frustrating. Hopefully we'll get a "stay with team" feature next season to assist with matchmaking.

The partial removal of the "rat strategy" is one of the most important improvements to Ranked. Fighting hard with your team should be the only way to rank up. I call it "Do or Die fights".

How to play with randoms 101:

Ranked Solo Queue Gameplay

I don't play Ballistic typically and I forgot to equip a third gun. When I play with randoms I "soft loot". I prioritize staying with my team over everything. If I were leading my team, we would have done a lot of things differently. I got upset with my Pathfinder for not creating an aggressive zipline when there were 4 teams left, and a fight was occurring. 

Overall, fun match. Unfortunately, ranking up takes consistency and randoms just don't play the right way in order to rank up more.  

Getting good start? Yeah, it is a pros of season, but it is not related to Solo Q. Some teammates going on the other side of the map alone and getting down, then they cry like babies and curse, it is about Solo Q. Some of them rush ahead without looting properly. I don't have ammo and this dude says ''let's fight'', It is about Solo Q. I come accross a lot of Iron and Gold ranked guy who has Plat rank now, they do 0 or low damage everytime. Do you know 70-80% of the time teammates can't even do a simple thing? They go to the same landing place, go different place to loot. Why would you stick close at the beginning of the game? Loba players using their ult after we loot the place. Recon players scan the area mid-looting, not while we leave the area. The moment they do something like these, I mute them and forget gaining points. The most of the time when my 2 teammates get instantly knockdown, I run rimmediately becuase It is not my first time and I know it is the game where I would lose points If I don't get higher placement. Do you know how many times I get teammates that forget using their abilities? I have to tell them to use them. They put their shiny badges, but when it comes to skill they are the worst. I was enjoying the game previous seasons when 50% of the time good diamond teammates, when I feel like It was really a team game, but not anymore.

How to play with randoms 102:

Ranked Solo Queue Gameplay

My randoms played so well this game. I wish everyone played like this. If there was a "stay with team" button, I'm sure we would've stayed together. Fun game, but I could've played a little better. 

tbh for me the new spawn feels quite broken, not the early game but the moment you want to go somewhere it's super hard because there are squads everywhere, not even mentioning that i consantly spawn on the other end of the map from where the ring is and my entire game is just about running into the ring.

I have quit grinding ranked like 3 or 4 times now in past 3? seasons mainly because:

a) soloqing and 90%+ people playing ranked like pubs experience is just not fun for me aka choice to hotdrop and insta die or rat being last one on the squad alive for 15+ min

b) cheaters

Came back this week to take a look and was hooked back up:

1. new system of drops is amazing in my experience:
   - you get actually very good loot from each POI (95% of them and if not there will be a free POI next to yours = you just need to loot a bit longer)
   - no more "Fragment" drops (bless you Respawn for that)
   - it almost feels like those "mental" players who would otherwise hotdrop and instadie start to actually use their brains given that option is off the table
2. frequency of fights are well spaced out = few neighboring squads would get into 1-2 fights -> rotate -> fight again. And you have a choice to do that and take a risk or e.g. Phatfinder zipline / Valk ult over part of the map and have a good positioning play
3. I can read rotations even better, because of no need to guess how many teams e.g. survived crazy hotdrop which used to be between 1 and 10 :D, now with clear drop points + brain + ears you can hear who is going where, fighting whom and figure out the rest easily, much less surprises of getting yourself into impossible crossfire

Only sad thing is that cheating seems to be even worse - low level and/or clearly walling, aimbotting players already in Gold lobbies. I think this was the hardest Gold grind ever = usually it took me like 4-6h to go through G4->P4, now it took like a good 15+h. Situation in P4+ lobbies unfortunately is getting even worse = getting hunted down by clearly brainless and skilless hackers across the map as soon as my teammates die / I break a bit apart from the team and they (cheaters) at this state are actually really bad at hiding it aka looking through walls, perfectly Alter protaling through terrain onto you etc.

My internal challenge is now to get to D4+ and see how things are in my usual lobbies, I can only imagine :D ready to be ragehacked in 2 out of 3 games when reaching that level :P