I’ve called for ranked demotion in competitive video games and ranked modes for months. Literally months. Admittedly I’ve thought it for much longer, but I never put it into words before this instance. Thankfully, Apex Legends Season 13 finally looks to be adding demotion in ranked, but the mode needs a much bigger rework to be a successful reboot.
“Rise and fall through the Ranks together in a reworked Ranked system that rewards teamwork and skill,” reads the Apex Legends website. It’s the “fall” that people have focused on, for obvious reasons.
I’ve gone into the details of why ranked demotion is important before, but basically it hinders both good players and bad players. It’s no fun shitting on n00bs who are stuck at the bottom of Diamond when you’re an Apex Predator, and the same goes for players who rank up to Diamond – or basically any other rank – and find they’re suddenly outclassed. You might eventually improve just by pure grinding and determination, but it won’t be fun while you do. However, Apex Legends needs to change more than just demotion if it wants its ranked mode to be a success.
The first and most important change is to Kill Points. This is how you progress up and down the ranks, and the current system rewards you for getting kills and assists by assigning points based on the rank of your defeated opponent. This is fine, but it arguably discourages teamwork, and actively encourages running straight into fights without thinking of wider positioning or looking to win the match. Kills or gtfo.
For me, the point of a battle royale is winning. Beating 57 opponents to see the ‘Champions’ screen, getting a Victory Royale, chowing down on a Chicken Dinner, you name it. Winning is the goal, and ranked needs to reflect this. There’s a reason the esport has the Match Point rule: winning is everything.
Kills need to play a part in your rewards for each ranked match, but the focus should be on placement. Perhaps this would make ranked overly ratty and everyone would cower in buildings, but that’s preferable to the ape-fest it currently is. I think. There’s a balance to be found, but currently that balance is tipped too much towards kills, and that needs to change.
The focus on solo kills also negates teamwork. This isn’t a problem if you’re three-stacking with friends, but if you’re solo-queuing, your teammates will likely steal kills and try to take inane solo fights to get the most points on the board. You can’t blame them, points get your rank up. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Or hate the ranked system. You get the picture.
How do you fix this? Well, you could award for team kills rather than individual. This could lead to players getting carried up the ranks by superior teammates, but let’s be honest that happens anyway. If each player can add a maximum of six KP to the team’s total, however, and the team’s combined total – to a maximum of 18 KP – gives everyone points. That way, two bad players getting carried by a smurf would only be awarded 6 KP in most matches, whereas a team working together would be more likely to achieve the full 18. I’ve just thought of this off the top of my head, but something similar could work.
As well as adding rank demotion and putting an emphasis on teamwork with team KP (which players suspect may be coming due to the phrase “rewards teamwork”), what else does ranked need to be a success? I’d like the ability to choose my first, second, and third choice Legends ahead of the character selection screen so I can go AFK during the menus. I also think that Respawn needs to entice players away from the most popular POIs. World’s Edge is a great map, but half the lobby landing in Fragment makes it a lottery if you hot drop and boring if you don’t.
I still think that two dropships would make a difference here, especially on Storm Point, but incentives to land at different locations would be great. What would these incentives look like? I don’t know. I don’t want more challenges for everyone to ignore, and I don’t want the loot to be more thinly spread over the map. Perhaps an extra hot zone per map with improved loot would encourage people to diversify their landing spots. Maybe it would just result in too many players getting overpowered weapons. I don’t know, I’m not a game designer, I’m just a man who hates dying in Fragment East.
I’m looking forward to trying the reworked Apex Legends ranked mode – it might be the first time in a long while that I seriously dive into it. Just don’t get me started on ranked Arenas.
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