Recently, Marvel Rivals has changed their decision to reset competitive Ranks halfway through Season 1. Originally, the halfway mark through the game's first season was scheduled to drop every player's Rank by four divisions, resetting their placement to refresh their experience. Through constructive , however, the developers of the game have reverted this choice, allowing players to keep their Rank for longer.

The backlash to the Rank reset caused developer NetEase to erase the possibility of ranks declining in as little as one day​​​. This is a huge surprise, as most competitive hero FPS titles take far more time to roll back design choices. The reverse of the half-season rank drop may only last until the end of Season 1, but it does give players more time to achieve higher milestones.

Marvel Rivals Changed Course Quickly On Rank Resets

Fast Response To Means Devs Are Listening

The first announcement of the mid-season Rank reset was on February 11th, 2025 through a Dev Talk posted on the Dev Diaries page of the official Marvel Rivals website. The Seasonal Rank Adjustment discussed in this post talked about the halfway point of Season 1 arriving on February 21st, 2025. At this point, Ranks were to lock in and reset the following day after each player dropped by four divisions.

Many other players, including myself, were confused about this reset, as it had only been a few weeks since a similar reset took place at the start of Season 1. Following this post, a large collection of players spoke about how the higher rank they earned at the beginning of Season 1 would no longer matter, as they would have to grind for it again so soon.

Another announcement in the first rank reset post was that players would only receive an exclusive Invisible Woman costume in Marvel Rivals if they had gotten to Gold Rank or higher by the time the halfway point of Season 1 had come along.

Thankfully, the abundance of seems to have reached the developers fast, as NetEase reversed the decision to reset Ranks on February 12th, 2025. This decision came less than 24 hours after the 10th Dev Talk, shifting the atmosphere surrounding rank resets almost instantly. The post is shown below, which outlines Dev Talk Vol.11, which is the message the development team sent players regarding the rollback of rank resets:

As you can see, the development team cites community about the pressure to reach higher ranks before the reset as a primary cause for the change back. Now, there is no rank reset at the halfway mark, allowing players to earn rewards and reach new ranks over a much longer period. While seemingly the obvious choice to make, the speed at which this decision was made is nothing sort of astounding.

Balance Patches Aren’t The Most Important Responses

Marvel Rivals Prioritizes Game Feel Over Balance

Other titles like Overwatch 2 have taken years to slowly revert changes that alienated their communities, while Marvel Rivals has kept good favor extremely quickly with the reverting of the rank reset. This reinforces what I, and many other players, have felt - that the team behind Marvel Rivals has opted to prioritize game feel over balance patches to make the overall experience fun.

The only major balance patch for the game took place at the beginning of Season 1. Even so, the amount of buffs and nerfs in Season 1 for some characters did not make characters too strong or underpowered, only more adjusted alongside everyone else.

Ever since the game's launch, Marvel Rivals has only made very slight adjustments to characters, allowing many to be strong. Under the right circumstances, a majority of the game's roster can feel overpowered, especially with good teammates. For example, Duelists can score eliminations incredibly fast, while some Vanguards can feel like immovable walls that form the cornerstone of a team.

Although Marvel Rivals still has no role queue (and frankly doesn't need one), the fewer balance patches allow characters to remain strong and consistently fun to play. The overall power fantasy of playing as your favorite Marvel heroes and villains is retained through the greater strength of specific characters.

While there will inevitably be fine-tuning for characters down the line, focusing less on balance patches allows the developers to prioritize other issues. Alongside reverting the rank reset, the development team will be able to respond faster to cheaters, fix bugs, or introduce new content rather than constantly worrying about balancing every character in the game.

Immediate Community Responses Can Keep Marvel Rivals On Top

Listening To Unified Will Keep Players Invested

What makes the fast response from the Marvel Rivals devs regarding the rank reset so important is how in tune the game's creators were with the community. While issues like role queue, balance, and many other aspects of the game have divisive opinions, knowing what everyone agrees on can help developers make more changes quickly​​.

For example, let's say down the line that there is a game-breaking bug involving a new map. Hopefully, after the developers have proven they are always listening to the community, they will recognize this issue, tell players they are working to fix the problem immediately, and have that map working in a short time following community .

As long as NetEase keeps paying attention to what issues people are unified on, they can fix problems before they become too aggravating to players. Immediate responses to the community will foster good, long-lasting relationships with players who feel they can trust NetEase with issues that come up in the future.

While the developers of Marvel Rivals will want to respond well to community to changes made to the game, such as the rank reset, they should also be careful not to be reactionary to complaints that misunderstand certain issues.

If anything, the swift response to the Season 1 midpoint rank reset change bodes well for the future. While it may seem like Marvel Rivals is shifting its decisions a little quickly, it proves that its development team wants to keep players happy with the best experience possible and is willing to roll back on changes that the community behind the game dislikes.

Source: Dev Talk Vol.10, Dev Talk Vol.11