Apex Legends streamer and former pro player Brandon ‘aceu’ Winn has reversed his stance on the battle royale’s recent Ranked changes, describing them as beneficial and lauding Respawn for introducing demotions.
Despite large portions of the community asking for Ranked changes, the Ranked Reloaded overhaul was surprisingly controversial when it dropped with Season 13.
The system rework brought demotion, a new Rookie tier, and improvements to the way RP is rewarded. However, early reactions were mixed.
ImperialHal was among the players to praise it, but others – like aceu – argued that it encouraged slower playstyles and camping to stay alive into late-game scenarios. However, Winn has now altered his stance, and praised Respawn for the Ranked Reloaded changes.
While looking over the Ranked category breakdowns, aceu noticed how much more balanced player numbers are across the board.
Previously, because of the absence of demotions, plenty of players found their way into a high Rank (Gold/Platinum) only to get stuck in IV because they could not get relegated.
“This is how you know something was finally done right,” he said. “Dude look how stupid this [old system] looks… 4% [of players] were in Master. This is what happens when you don’t have demotions. That’s why all these people that were here are all here now. This is so fire.”
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He finished: “Yeah 4% of people were in the top rank, isn’t that so dumb? I’m so happy bro.”
In short, the changes have ensured players must maintain their rank through playing well, rather than because they simply cannot fall back down the rankings.
As a result, fewer players populate the higher Ranks like Gold, Platinum, and Diamond, but it more accurately reflects their skill level.
With aceu changing stance and praising the change, it looks set to stick around for the long haul in Apex Legends.
