The new season of Apex Legends is forcing the best players to finally learn teamplay

Apex Legends is currently one of the most popular shooters on the market. As a Battle Royale, however, the competitive aspect is frustrating for many players. With the new season, the ranked system has been heavily revised, and the best players in particular have major problems with it. MeinMMO author Marko Jevtic tells you more.

Apex Legends has been on the rise for quite some time, after 3 years it has more players on Steam than ever before. This is partly due to excellent gameplay, weakening competition and constant updates.

With the start of the latest Season 13, Apex Legends brings comparatively few changes:

• The new hero Newcastle.
• Minor adjustments to the latest map, Storm Point.
• Abolition of the two-hour map rotation.
• There are no new weapons.
• The ranked system has been revised.

The last point in particular turns out to be a real game changer. The best players in particular will notice in the new ranked mode that old braggart strategies no longer work. Team play is more important now than ever.

Here you can see gameplay of the new hero in Apex Legends:

Apex Legends is now more battle royale, less grand deathmatch

What has changed in Ranked? The changes to the ranked system can seem insignificant to outsiders and are also difficult to explain. But the competitive players notice immediately how much has been fundamentally changed.

These are the key points:

• Kills and assists are now effectively worthless unless you get in the top 10.
• Top 3 finishes with a few kills and assists for yourself and the entire team (thanks to the new “participation” points) are more lucrative than they used to be.
• The entry cost for each rank has been revised.
• Players have lost more ranks between seasons than usual, which is why many high-ranking players are now starting around bronze or silver.

You can find more detailed explanations in this tweet, for example:

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What do these changes mean? PC Gamer’s Natalie Clayton writes that Apex Legends’ new ranked system is a kind of “ego check” for competitive players (via pcgamer).

So far, in Apex Legends ranked mode, it has been the be-all and end-all to get so many kills early on as a loner that you can reach the maximum number of points per match yourself. Because the final performance in the match was secondary. If you have collected enough kill points, you can quickly climb up the rank ladder – from Bronze rank at the bottom to Master rank or even the Top 500 – the so-called Apex Predators.

Under the new system, this strategy no longer works at all. Instead, it’s more important than ever to work as a team, be strategic, and approach combat judiciously. This also means that solo players will have a much more difficult time in ranked mode.

For Natalie Clayton, the changes mean “Apex will be played less like a 20-team deathmatch and more like a battle royale.”

On reddit, players summarized the changes like this:

• “The new ranked system rewards team play and good positioning, and is an accurate representation of your overall game skills.” (via reddit)
• “The new ranking system has shown that many people don’t realize that there’s a gray area between cowardly full-game hiding and non-stop aggression.” (via reddit)
• “I love the changes. Actually feels like a true ranked play mode now.” (via reddit)

“That’s exactly what we wanted, why is everyone upset?”

Overall, the changes are well received, but not every player is happy. Because with the profound revisions come conversion difficulties for the most loyal hardcore players.

In particular, players who have previously scored with aggressive gameplay and direct hot drops and landed high in the rankings are complaining about the new rules. Ranked was too easy in the past, but now many end up in lower ranks than before.

Again, this fits with the “ego check” that Natalie Clayton described. But one player responds to those complaints with a question: “That’s exactly what we wanted, why is everyone upset?” (via reddit)

I asked an old teammate who plays multiple accounts at Master rank and has also been a ranked coach for a while: What do you think of the changes?

His answer:

I think the changes are good because too many were masters. That should be harder. But I have the feeling that the grind just takes longer with the new system and the skill is less differentiated as a result.

Also surprising that I’m thrown into the same lobby with Ex-Masters and Diamonds, where I’m just starting again at Bronze 4… There seems to have been a bit of a matchmaking twist as well. I had really sweaty endgames, even in bronze.

But he also sees that low-rank players have bigger problems than ever:

[Meine Freundin] For example, playing at Gold level doesn’t have fun in Ranked. I think the low ranks could have been left as they are and made everything more difficult later in the high ELO range (from Diamond) – just like they have done now.

In summary, he says, “It’s more reminiscent of Overwatch’s ranked system, and it’s definitely more skill-based. So that feels like a step in the right direction.”

What are your thoughts on the changes to the Apex Legends ranked system? Do you think it’s good or do you want the old tempo back? Tell us in the comments.

Not only in ranked mode do the best Apex Legends players have adjustment difficulties. Just recently, professionals in an official tournament had to play on weaker PCs than they are used to at home.