It’s easy to point to balance issues, or a lack of new content for Apex Legends’ declining player count. iiTzTimmy and ImperialHal had their fair share of gripes with those topics, but they also pointed out that one of the biggest problems with the game is just below the surface: Ranked.
We spoke to Hal and Timmy regarding the state of Apex, and how balancing could be improved, but ranked is also a crucial problem area for them.
For those who have friends to queue with and can three-stack their way through the ranks, things may not be too bad. This is not true for solo queue, especially in a support meta. It’s at the point where fans of Apex are glad the game hasn’t been nominated for anything at the Game Awards just to show the type of state the game is in.
Even ImperialHal, whose job is playing Apex Legends, avoids playing ranked without friends when possible. And the solution to this issue may be a surprisingly simple one.
Creating a true solo queue in Apex Legends
Hal: “Yeah, [solo queue] is not fun at all. Like, I always do 3 stacks so I’m chillin’ no problem. I feel like there needs to be a way for solo queuers to be able to play the game without dealing with the downside of running into, like, a 3-stack pro team.
“One idea is to just separate solo queuers, duo queuers and 3 stacks somehow. So like, if someone’s solo, you’d just have an entire lobby of people who are playing solo. You’d need more servers, but people don’t like to get on the game and have literally zero chance.
“Like, I’m a pro player, I’ve solo queued before, and I ran into 3 stack pro teams. I don’t even have a chance, and I’m a pro player going against these guys. As soon as I see them in my lobby, it’s like, ‘Alright, I’m just gonna try to hide until I run into them.'”
Dexerto: Let alone some poor Plat player.
Hal: Yeah, exactly. That’s a huge problem. Other games don’t have that problem I feel like.
Timmy: “That’s because they have restrictions.”
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Hal: “Like, League is only two players max when you queue?”
Timmy: “Once you reach a certain rank, you’re no longer allowed to stack anymore and you have to play either solo or duo.”
Hal: “Something like that should be implemented in Apex. Once you get to a certain like Diamond or Masters, you can’t 3 stack or you can only solo queue. I think that’d be cooler.”
Timmy: “I think they should just have two queues, one for 3 stacks and one for solo/duos.”
Hal: “Yeah, the biggest issue is that, if you separated it so much, the queues would be so bad.”
Timmy: “The main issue right now is definitely the player base. They can’t separate it because the player base is so small,” he explained. “I think that comes later, where they split the queues. Right now, they just need to worry about actual content.”
Timmy and Hal both had strong feelings about the content in Apex Legends (or lack thereof), claiming that the game’s inability to capture a new audience or give players a reason to come back is an even bigger issue.
However, no matter how much Apex levels up its content, the underlying issues with ranked will be there until the devs find a way to improve the solo queue experience. And creating a true solo queue may be the solution.
