As Season 1 ends, Marvel Rivals has shown that it has a significant rank inflation problem. Season 1 has been as good of a start for the new hero shooter as could be desired. Though it was stated to be a larger season than what will be seen going forward, the four heroes, two maps, numerous events, and engaging battle have been amazing. Future seasons have always been teased to have outside collaborations if the team can arrange them.

The one downside of Rivals so far has been its ranked system. Season 0 saw various issues that were largely corrected in Season 1, but now Season 1 has new issues. This has not killed the ranked ecosystem but has put a damper on what is otherwise a perfect game. Luckily, there are numerous solutions to this, and Rivals' developers have already shown they are open to listening to community .

What Rank Inflation Is

An Unfair Test Of Skill

In Marvel Rivals, rank inflation is players being at a higher rank than what they are supposed to be. This has recently been ed by stuck in Silver and Bronze.

The reason this is an issue is that healthy games have a balance that peaks in the middle ranks and is lowest at the low and high ends. This is not the case with Rivals, where the rank distribution is rather equal across all ranks. The only exception to this is Bronze, where all players who haven't played ranked are put, which can be a lot for a free game.

How Marvel Rivals Got Rank Inflation

A System Meant To Cause Issues

The main reason that Rivals has rank inflation is due to how hard it is to drop rank, which comes from many angles. The most obvious of which is wins granting more points than losses take away. This means that even if one were to play five matches, winning two and losing three, they would still likely have a net positive rating or, at worst, a minimal loss from where they started. This has led to many players in Grandmaster having a negative win rate but still being in that tier.

Another feature that hasn't helped is the Chrono Shields. Though this system that occasionally prevents point loss is limited to the lower ranks, it has made it easier for s to climb. Thus, the only way to lose rank would be to chain together long loss streaks with little to no wins.

The final aspect of inflation that needs to be taken into is the lack of rank resets. The developers initially wanted a reset at the halfway mark of a season, and the beginning of each new one. However, the halfway reset was taken out after an outcry from the community. This has proven to be a mistake, as the system, which may be purposeful in encouraging player retention, has led to the situation Rivals sits in.

How Marvel Rivals Can Fix Its Ranked Issue

Reworking The System

There are numerous ways Rivals can fix its rank inflation, but each would take a different amount of effort. The easiest solution if the team wanted to keep the system the same would be reinserting the halfway reset. This wouldn't solve the issue, but it would only be a decent band-aid. The alternate easy option would be to remove Chrono Shields and increase the amount of points lost from a defeat. This would be the better long-term solution but would feel harsher on the players in the short term.

The extensive option would be to completely rework the ranked system while keeping the harsher loss penalties. The way to do this would be to implement a placement system that more accurately places someone when they step into ranked for the first time each season. This could be similar to what Overwatch 2 has and would provide a fairer experience than everyone climbing from Bronze.

Ladder systems like Marvel Rivals' encourage more of a grind, but are generally thought to satisfy players with steady progress, as opposed to a system that uses placement matches to more accurately disperse players among the ranks.

This ranked issue will need to be addressed soon. It is unlikely to kill the game, as long as the content updates like Marvel Rivals' rumored characters continue to be fun, but it will harm the competitive scene. This scene may not be the majority of the game, but it is still a critical foundation it must have to last as long as it desires. Until these changes are made, this is the current situation regarding Marvel Rivals and its rank inflation.

Source: RivalsTracker