I've been playing this game since day 1, but never have I experienced such a bad experience trying to play ranked in this game.
- Kings Canyon is too small for proper ranked play. As soon as you engage you can expect 5 other squads to converge on you. It doesn't matter if you win 4 of those fights because one of them will get you when you can't shield swap or heal in time.
- Skill discrepancy is HUGE. I hit Diamond every season without any issues, but right now Platinum is a wash of anyone between Gold III to Diamond IV. There are a lot of predators who didn't play pre-split and so I'm either being teamed up with or against mostly players with 4k damage, 20 kill and Predator badges. This is literally happening every single match. There are more predators in Platinum than there are actual Plat players because they can't climb up. It doesn't help either that Diamond IV players are placed in Platinum lobbies most of the time because there aren't enough Diamond players
- This brings us to the next point: the game is losing its userbase quickly. Most pros have moved away, the game is riddled with bugs and the matchmaking is back to being terrible. King's Canyon, while a good map for pubs, is terrible for ranked play (see point 1). I often see the same names in the lobby over the past week and I'm often being teamed up with the same people. Like, I can actually recognize people in the kill list.
- Normally this late into the season most people have found their rank and it's usually a good experience. We're currently more than halfway through the split and most people are still not in the ranks they should be. Why? Because 99% of the people actually have other stuff to do than to play ranked 24/7. It doesn't mean their skill is bad (eg: I often 1vs2 Predators with 4k and 20 kill badges), it just means they don't have the time to grind to get to where they actually belong because it's all being reset midway through.
- The rewards this season don't match up with the frustration players have to put up with. This is why everyone is leaving the game. I'm currently ranked in the top 2% as Plat 1 with 6891 points according to Apex Tracker. That's usually where Diamond players are. Your trails are not permanent, you get a dumb badge and a charm and that's it. Hardly anything worth grinding towards
- Cheaters, doesn't need an explanation.
I'm only playing to finish my Battle Pass, but after that I'm done with the game until these issues are actually addressed. I haven't even talked about the countless bugs that have been plaguing the game the past few weeks either. That's a whole other can of worms.