Apex Legends dev shuts down Ranked change ideas to improve solo queue

Apex Legends’ new ranked designer has shut down suggestions for changes to the ranked system that would benefit solo queue players, fearing it would “punish” players who play with friends.

The Apex Legends community has been waiting for an overhaul to the ranked system for some time.

Recently, players have requested an in-game leaderboard to help track the best in the world, as well as calling for ranked demotion to be implemented.

Furthermore, some ranked players are now requesting changes that would make solo queue more bearable, however, the suggestions have been dismissed by the devs as it would “punish” playing with friends.

In their January 2 Reddit thread, Apex Legends player juicedrool suggested changes that would make solo queue more tolerable. The player proposed that RP entry costs to play should be higher for a full party, and lower for solo queueing.

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“I believe a big part that makes Apex ranked feel unfair is that solo players are lumped together against three stacks,” the player said. “My solution is to have decreased entry costs for solo and duo players. Entry costs could be -60 for a full party, -55 for duo queue, and -50 for solo queue.”

While some were onboard with the idea, Respawn’s ranked designer Aaron L shut down the suggestion. “I actually had this discussion a while back, among the many other reasons, I didn’t want to punish players for playing with friends,” said the dev.

The ranked designer explained how it would be a punishment to players that want to play with friends: “When you play with friends, your climb will be harder because the entry cost will be higher. Why play with friends when I could play solo instead?”

One Apex Legends player questioned if the Loss Aversion mentality – where players prefer to avoid losing by not playing – would convince more people to solo queue so they have a lower RP entry cost. “I think most people will read the change as ‘it is better to play solo’,” Exgenier explained.

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The dev continued by assuring players that the proposed changes to RP entry costs aren’t a solution: “I pitched this internally and was convinced pretty quickly this isn’t the right solution after I deep dove into the problem. I convinced myself out of my own idea.”

“If a game is matched fully with 3 stacks, everyone would be on equal footing, and it invalidates the need to increase the entry cost – and we already try to do this matching first,” Aaron revealed.  “I’m fairly certain there is no easy solution for this by adjusting RP.”

While devs have confirmed this suggestion won’t be implemented, Apex Legends players will still be anticipating some long overdue ranked changes despite claims that there’s no easy solution.