Marvel Rivals players call for ranked overhaul due to rank inflation

Marvel Rivals players agree the ranked system needs a hard reset after seeing the not-so-surprising rank distribution—especially at the higher tiers.

There are significantly more players in Grandmaster Three (26,244) than in Platinum One (18,394) and Gold One (18,195), according to the Marvel Rivals Tracker’s recent Season 1.5 rank distribution (for almost 500,000 PC players). This goes against the norm because as you move up, the percentage of players in each rank considerably drops in any competitive game—with only around five percent of the player base achieving the last few ranks. However, the data confirm the popular belief among Marvel Rivals players that the ranks are massively inflated—leading many in the community to call for major ranked changes.

“The rank inflation compared to Season 0 is absolutely baffling,” a player shared their experience while climbing to the highest tier of Grandmaster in a March 16 Reddit thread. Several players suggested that a complete ranked reset could help fix the rank inflation; however, many quickly pointed out that the community forced the devs not to reset ranks during the mid-season update.

On top of this, some players recommend the addition of placement matches to accurately measure each player’s skill level once they hop into the Competitive mode. In its current state, the ranked system starts every player at Bronze Three after you reach level 10.

It’s not a surprise that if you play enough ranked matches in Marvel Rivals, you can climb to a relatively high rank despite maintaining a 50 percent or slightly lower win rate. If you have even the slightest bit of experience playing an FPS or Overwatch, it’s nearly impossible for you to stay in Gold or lower ranks. Additionally, the Chrono Shields (until you hit Platinum Three) guarantee you don’t lose as many points as you win. It’s only a matter of playing enough matches; you’re bound to become Platinum.

In my experience, even after hitting Platinum (and losing the Chrono Shields feature), I gained 30 to 40 ranked points for every win and lost only 15-20 for every ranked loss. This allowed me climb to Diamond in just a couple of hours thanks to a rare win streak with Magneto.

However, the rank inflation may not be such a bad thing after all considering achieving higher ranks makes the player base stick around and grind the game every day—and which developer doesn’t want that for their game?