Marvel Rivals seems to have a serious issue with ranked play. Despite NetEase refuting it, players claim that the game utilizes engagement-optimized matchmaking (EOMM). The problem is that many players, especially those who play in a solo queue, get consistently matched up with below-average teammates. Due to this, they end up going on a losing streak and being demoted.
The community believes that adding placement matches to Marvel Rivals would make it much better. Interestingly, the game developer is flirting with this idea and might make this huge ranked change very soon.
Will placement matches come to Marvel Rivals?
On Thursday, NetEase released a detailed video explaining how the matchmaking in the game works. In 18 minutes, Zhiyong, the lead combat designer of Marvel Rivals, shared plenty of details regarding the system. Unfortunately, many players are still unhappy and are imploring NetEase to do something about the ranked issue.
One potential solution is placement matches every player would have to go through before being assigned a competitive rank. Ideally, there would be 10 such matches, and the player’s performance in them would determine the starting rank. Danny Koo, executive producer at Marvel Games, recently revealed that adding placement matches is an “ongoing debate.” Furthermore, the exec agrees that placement matches would be a good idea for Marvel Rivals.
With Marvel Rivals Season 4 launching on September 12, NetEase may implement big changes to the ranked mode. While placement matches wouldn’t magically fix the game, they would allow high-skilled players to separate themselves from the rest of the pack quickly. Furthermore, adding these matches would discourage smurfing, which is another major issue the developer has to deal with.
The next season will demote players in the competitive mode again, as everyone’s rank will drop by seven divisions. This reset is quite controversial, as it puts players of different skill levels together. However, it appears that NetEase is aware of these issues, and we can expect major changes within a few weeks.
