Forget the ring: Apex pros warn Respawn’s ranked changes are targeting the wrong things

Respawn Entertainment is on the verge of changing Apex Legends‘ ranked system, but the impending changes have sparked an outcry from the battle royale’s professional player base, who warn the changes—which are focused around the title’s match-closing ring—won’t do anything to fundamentally change or fix the game.

Like many modern games, Apex’s ranked system is considered heavily flawed by players and has come under fire again thanks to Respawn unveiling these new changes.

The devs believe by changing the damage and speed of rings, ranked and ALGS players alike will no longer stay outside of the ring to delay teamfights and get points. While that’s an interesting solution to the ranked problem, it will cause another—landing POIs on the edges of maps will become so much worse.

After reading the July 19 changes, Apex pros have lifted in one voice, warning that Respawn is going to permanently change how people play.

On top of that, they say the “bandaid” ring changes won’t help either.

One pro player, Hakis, who competes for Alliance, listed several different ways he hopes Respawn changes things, including enhancing the ranked system and entry into ranked, balancing LP gains, and even incentivizing fights, which is what the Apex devs supposedly want to see with the ring changes.

Another, FURIA star Albralelie, said he also believes the problem with the battle royale’s ranked system isn’t too hard to understand; he said if hiding out in matches was such an issue, then the devs should instead address Kill Points (KPs) because it would incentivize people to fight more, and more so as the rings close in and their KP values increase.

While Respawn could have handled improving ranked in several ways, the sentiment of this be-all-end-all ring change can be summed up by TeQ, who admitted they’ll be “so sad if these changes are the approach they took to solving the ranked system.” He also suggested Respawn add a second, competitive queue.

Players are saying he’s right, especially because there are ways to solve the ranked issues without taking their “one ring to [fix it] all” approach.

And really, if it didn’t work for Sauron, is it going to work for Apex?