ImperialHal claims Apex Legends “f**ked” itself by making Ranked changes too late

TSM star Philip ‘ImperialHal’ Dosen believes Respawn “f*cked” Apex Legends by making the Ranked mode so easy for so long, and that’s why players are leaving now. 

Pretty much since Apex Legends first launched back in February 2019, there have been tonnes of complaints about Ranked Play. The mode is designed to let players test themselves against the best of the best, but it’s not always been that way. 

Early on in Ranked’s lifecycle, players were able to qualify for top levels and then give up on the game for a while, essentially hogging the top spots and keeping them locked from other players. 

In Season 13, Respawn eventually addressed this issue with a change to how Ranked points work. It’s now viewed as being much more difficult to achieve the Apex Predator and Master levels, and that has driven some players away. 

ImperialHal believes Apex Legends “f*cked” itself with Ranked changes

According to Hal, it has all been self-inflicted by Respawn, and had they made a change sooner, they wouldn’t be seeing players walk away now. 

“Apex has completely fucked themselves with the ranked system because they made it so easy for so long,” he said during a recent stream. “They basically built a player foundation on an easy ranked system and if you ever want to backpedal out of that it’s going to be very hard because you’re dealing with a lot of players. 

“If they started the way they did with Season 13 in the beginning, they wouldn’t be losing players.”

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Hal’s reference to players walking away from the battle royale is backed up by SteamChart’s data, which says the average player count has dropped by over 35,000 in the last month. 

Apex is still in a pretty healthy position, though, with an average of around 200,000 players. Though, he might not be completely off base with his take.