When does the Season 20 hype start?

@saurerDropsXXL

"Why are players investing so much money if the game is getting worse and worse? Is the perception problem with us or them?"

It's probably a little bit of both. There are many players in this game who login once or twice a week, or once or twice a month. They're casual, they float from one title to the next depending on where their friends are, on what peaks their interest at any given time, on what their favorite streamers are playing. And that kind of player is probably unaware of a lot of the things that irritate a more consistent player. I'm also pretty sure age has a lot to do with it. Ten year old kids, of whom there are a lot in this game, don't really care about aim assist, or glitchy audio, or probably even about ranking systems. They care that there IS a ranking system, but probably don't much concern themselves with how it works, or if it's better or worse now than it was ten seasons ago. And I'd also be willing to bet that these same kids are the ones making up the lion's share of store sales. Every day that I play I get matched up with some level 15 player who has his Octane kitted out like his dad OWNS Respawn.

And then you have the older, more experienced, more regular players. Like you. Like me. But even with people like us there can be big differences in focus which cause big differences in the experience. As an example, I almost never play ranked and don't give a hoot whether they create a ranking system that people love or hate. It just doesn't matter to me. I've never experienced the audio issues people talk about. I definitely have experienced most of the nightmare scenarios that matchmaking can cook up, but usually not for long, and none of them are any worse than any other game I've played. Once in a while I come across an opponent who I'm 90% sure is cheating, but it seems pretty rare to me. I'm told I'd notice more if I played mixtape, but, like ranks, arena game modes hold no fascination for me.

So I see most of the problems, but I experience them less I think than most other players. And I don't ever pump money into the game so I'm never rage quitting a match and thinking, "I can't believe I paid money for this!" Because I didn't. I'm all for finding a game I like better, but so far I'm not seeing anything that would justify abandoning all the time and effort I've put into learning this game. Especially when I still have so much more to learn.