Communication and coordination are crucial to succeed in Marvel Rivals’ competitive mode, so playing with your friends is not a crime.
Marvel Rivals‘ competitive mode operates similarly to other titles. There are eight ranks, and you earn promotions by racking up wins. However, it’s also possible to get demoted after going on a losing streak.
NetEase Games uses skill-based matchmaking in this game mode to put you up against even opposition. As such, players don’t get punished for queuing up for a match with friends, but there are restrictions about who can play together.
Players in adjacent ranks can only team up or match together. For example, bronze-ranked players can team up and compete with other bronze, silver, or gold players. However, there is a slight loophole that does make this matchmaking easier.
Marvels Rival matchmaking drama explained
If you queue up for a competitive match with lower-ranked players, matchmaking will be less strict, but that is far from cheating.
Jake Lucky reported that a streamer was accused of queuing up for matches with five other players to get easier lobbies, but it turns out he was just teaming up with friends.
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Marvel Rivals drama this week as a streamer accused another of 6 stacking at night to "abuse ranked" and get easier lobbiesExcept the streamer he accused just plays… a lot of Marvel Rivals with his boys pic.twitter.com/5zej0Ldy8H
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) January 1, 2025
“Full stacking during off hours of a game doesn’t mean you’re abusing a system. Sometimes, that’s the only time all the lads can play,” Lucky explained. “I feel like many games have this ‘issue,’ but this was all a little embellished and mistitled to do better on TikTok.”
Other players questioned why this was ever even a controversy in the first place. “Being mad someone has friends is crazy,” one commenter argued.
To even the playing field, some games make it so you earn fewer skill points when you matchmake with teammates, so Marvel Rivals could always go a similar route but that might not even be necessary.
“It’s easy enough to climb while solo as is. Unless you’re complete a**, you can climb straight up with under 50% win rate.”
So, players should feel no shame if they have some friends to play with, even if does make matchmaking in competitive games a little easier.
