Apex Legends is an enjoyable battle royale game with its own twists that make it unique in a fairly bloated genre. High-skill players are served by the game’s Ranked Mode, where they can put themselves against some of the best competitors in the world. However, Ranked Mode has been curtailed in Season 17, making the achievement of hitting the highs of Diamond feel cheap.
Ranked Mode in Apex Legends is designed to be where players go if they want a true challenge. In this game mode, players don’t rat, they play to fight and win and punish those that don’t to earn the ultimate ranks and rewards for the season. Lately, though, all players agree that it just doesn’t feel worth it.
Players See Ranked Mode Rewards Like Diamond, Master, and Apex Predator in Apex Legends Season 17 as Cheap
Respawn Entertainment built Ranked Mode in Apex Legends for the best of the best in its game. To even compete, players must hit account level 50, a tall ask for any casual. The top three ranks of Diamond, Master, and Apex Predator, respectively, are the most coveted in a season. For Season 17 though, something has been changed to make hitting those ranks much easier, and nobody appreciates it.
User BallinXFox recently posted on the Apex Legends Subreddit about this subject asking, “Do you see your rank as less than it is for this season?” Fans have been responding with their views on how Ranked Mode feels in the game this season, and all of them agree that it’s cheapened the experience.
One fan put the general day-to-day of Ranked Mode into perspective when they said, “A short day of early L after early L and then a win to end the session and I’m pretty much right where I started that day.” Put simply, it doesn’t really matter how much a player loses in Ranked Mode because one win can recover their rank from every loss that came before.
In Apex Legends Ranked Mode, the thrill comes from the potential to lose rank progress with a loss. Players need to fight to finish in the highest spot possible or they’ll lose a chunk of progress built up from past wins. In Season 17 though, multiple losses mean nothing, resulting in an influx of more players than usual hitting Diamond Rank in a short time.
While this might seem like it makes it more approachable to the wider fan base, overall, it’s harming the high-skilled scene. “Yep, I hit Masters 3 weeks ago and been playing FF16 ever since, I’ll check back in when season 18 drops.”
We spoke to many players at the ALGS Split 2 Playoffs earlier this month and they all told us something similar. Players jumped into Ranked Mode, hit Masters, and left the game alone. If they don’t play, then they can’t lose any rank points, so they’ll hold Masters until Season 18 starts. This is more beneficial than jumping back into Ranked Mode to lose points and rank and earn fewer rewards.
The fan base wants Ranked Mode to be more challenging. Just like it was before Season 17. If changes aren’t made in Season 18 to address these issues, then Respawn Entertainment risks a similar situation for that entire period, where players will binge the game for a week and drop off until Season 19 comes along.
