Apex Legends Ranked has 54k Masters and Predators in 2 Weeks
In Two Weeks 54,000 Players Reach Master & Predator in Season 17 Apex Legends Ranked Mode
- Over 54,000 players have attained Masters\Predator ranked in Apex Legends in just under 2 weeks.
- Most previous seasons have had around the same amount of players at the highest rank, but it took twice as long for them to get there.
- If Apex Legends doesn’t step in, their new matchmaking system could be off to a very bad start and need additional course correction later on.
In online competitive games like Apex Legends, the biggest flex is to rise to the top of the leaderboards. Players who attain the highest rank can let all those around them know they’re the best of the best. But that Masters and Predator badge may be depreciating in value thanks to Season 17 Arsenal in the Apex Legends battle royale.
Season 17 Ranked is Broken
When Season 17 Arsenal launched on May 9th, fans of Apex Legends were beyond excited. This was one of the biggest seasons to date with massive changes like a Firing Range Overhaul, a brand new Legend, a new weapon mastery progression system and a complete rework of the competitive ranked system.
For the most part, all of these were welcomed with big fanfare except for the ranked system. It’s only been two weeks but the players are already calling on Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment to do something about it.
With all players being reset back to Rookie Rank, there have been all kinds of issues with matchmaking. Some low level lobbies in Silver and Gold report that they’ve had Predator players, the absolute best of the best, in their lobbies.
The new scoring system makes it so easy to climb that professional player Christopher "sweetdreams" Sexton of NRG made it to predator without firing a single bullet. Some players were hopeful that the new system just needed time to work itself out since it matches and awards in a different way than players are used to.
But can Apex Legends afford to wait that long?
25k Masters\Predators in Two Weeks
On Twitter, Apex Legends Status, reports that in just under two weeks since the launch of Season 17 Arsenal, there are 25,000 Masters\Predators on PC and a combined 54,000 across all platforms. There are still over 70 days left in the ranked season with no mid-season split to reset.
How big of a deal is it that 25,000 people reached Master and Predator? Honestly, the number isn’t necessarily the biggest deal here. At the end of Season 16 Split 1 there was a combined total of 30,619 according to Apex Legends Status. Season 16 Split 1 lasted 48 days, so that seems like a pretty big discrepancy between the two.
What if we go back to Season 15 Split 1? There were 66,635 Masters\Predators in a 76 day period. If you go all the way back to Season 12 Split 1, there was a combined total of 341,754 Masters\Predators across all consoles.
Of course, following Season 12 was the Rank Reloaded update that introduced rank demotion. The issue right now, isn’t the number of players who attained the rank but the speed at which they did.
Ranked Is All Reward, No Risk
If Apex Legends developers don’t step in now and make changes to ranked, they’re going to be looking at another Season 12. With the new changes to Rank that allows players to gain Ladder Points just by surviving until 10th place, and losing less than 35 points if you don’t, ranked demotions don’t post any risks.
Professional player and streamer Phillip "ImperialHal" Dosen recommended on Twitter that everyone should just be dropping hot and practicing early fights because you don’t get punished if you go out in bottom 10.
The real risk here is that if Apex Legends is trying to fix ranked issues of the past like proper matchmaking and more competitive matches they need to step in now. Starting a new MMR system with inflated ranks and players making it to ranks they never should be at will taint the early results and lead to more issues with MMR down the road.
