Marvel Rivals has quickly established itself as a strong contender in the hero shooter space, toppling the player count of its rival Overwatch 2, but its ranked mode is now coming under fire from high-level players.
While issues like balancing and performance have been hot topics in the community, a growing number of competitive players believe that the game’s ranking system is far too lenient, allowing undeserving players to reach high ranks.
Ranked System Is Making It Too Easy To Climb
Unlike other competitive shooters such as Valorant, Overwatch 2, or Counter-Strike 2, Marvel Rivals employs a ranking system that makes it significantly easier for players to progress. Many argue that this has led to an influx of players in higher ranks who don’t necessarily belong there.
A major issue lies in how League Points are distributed. Players generally earn more LP for a win than they lose for a defeat, meaning even those with a mediocre win rate can steadily climb. Additionally, the game has an extremely forgiving demotion system – losing a few games at 0 LP won’t immediately cause a rank drop.
Adding to the frustration is the Chrono Shield mechanic. This feature charges up as players lose games, and once fully charged, it prevents them from losing LP on a subsequent defeat. Worse still, it doesn’t reset when a player wins, allowing them to maintain the shield indefinitely.
Sick of playing with the stupidest players on marvel rivals ranked. Like the most brain dead people without any game sense or just using someone they don't know at all Someone chose Iron Fist and went 4 and 16 in my rank up match pic.twitter.com/rVIpe7uJkK
— naps (@quarrellnapss) March 4, 2025
These mechanics, when combined, make ranked more of a time investment rather than a true test of skill. Even players who struggle to maintain a 50% win rate are reaching high ranks, causing imbalance in matchmaking.
High-Ranked Players Express Frustration
Top players in Marvel Rivals are voicing their concerns about the ranked system’s flaws. One well-known streamer, Eskay, criticized how unpredictable matches have become:
marvel rivals ranked is genuinely horrible coinflip every single game. its way too easy to climb. imposters in every rank with sub 50% winrate and climbing really high because they played a lot. you lose if you get one or more of these players. rank reset wont fix it
— eskay (@EskayOW) March 5, 2025
Many players who initially opposed midseason ranked resets are now reconsidering their stance. Some believe that periodic resets could have helped combat the problem of inflated ranks.
Marvel Rivals Ranked Season 0 vs Season 1 pic.twitter.com/vjtvZU9YcE
— Big Boss (@LordBalvin) January 14, 2025
Another common criticism is the lack of placement matches when a new season begins. In most competitive games, placement matches help reset the ranked ladder and ensure that players are sorted into an appropriate skill level. Without them, Marvel Rivals allows players to continue climbing from where they left off, exacerbating the inflation issue.
How Marvel Rivals’ Ranked System Compares To Other Shooters
The ranked systems in other shooters are far from perfect, but they at least try to enforce skill-based progression. For example, Counter-Strike has a notoriously unpredictable ranking system, where some players can go on a 10-game win streak without ranking up, while others get promoted multiple times in just a few wins. However, at its core, the CS2 ranking system prevents players with negative win rates from climbing too easily.
Marvel Rivals needs to fix it so people can't climb with a negative win rate ASAP otherwise the game is actually going to die. It's so annoying that in every rank there's people who don't belong just because they played a lot. A rank reset won't fix it.
— StoneColdest (@StoneColderest) March 5, 2025
Meanwhile, Valorant and Overwatch 2 implement ranking systems that do, to some degree, factor in individual performance, meaning that players who consistently underperform will struggle to maintain high ranks. In Marvel Rivals, no such safeguard exists, leading to a ranked experience that feels more like a grind than a true test of skill.
Will NetEase Address These Concerns?
Despite growing frustration among high-ranked players, Marvel Rivals developer NetEase has yet to make any significant changes to the ranked system. However, the company has shown a willingness to listen to community feedback in the past, so there is hope that adjustments will be made in future updates.
For now, though, ranked play in Marvel Rivals continues to feel more like a matter of persistence than performance. Until NetEase takes action, high-ranked players will likely continue to face frustratingly unbalanced matches—where climbing isn’t necessarily about being the best, but simply about playing more than everyone else.