Yesterday, Marvel Rivals devs announced in a blog post plans to drop the rank of all players in the middle of each season by four divisions and the start of each season by six. The playerbase did not receive this news well, and the backlash was immediate.
Ranks will be reset when the second half of Season 1 starts on February 21, 2025. Based on your standing at the end of the first half of Season 1, prepare for a drop of four divisions. For example, if you ended the first half of Season 1 at Diamond I, you'll start the second half at Platinum II.
I can understand the frustration with this drastic of a rank reset mid-season. Not every player has a ton of time to invest in the game, but may still want to play ranked. This decision would make them feel like they're constantly struggling to climb back up.
Fortunately for the playerbase, NetEase released an updated blogpost 12 hours later reverting the controversial rank reset while keeping the cosmetic rewards intact.
Thank you for all your passionate discussions and feedback. There wil be NO RANK RESET when the second half of the season begins! Check out the details here! https://t.co/zM4IWsVRw0 #marvelrivals pic.twitter.com/7Cpn3aiwUx
— Marvel Rivals (@MarvelRivals) February 11, 2025
Despite the fan backlash, mid-season rank resets are a common practice in competitive multiplayer games. Apex Legends is an example that has two ranked splits - however, I would prefer the ranked reset to happen at the start of each season. It was also short notice to drop something like this on a playerbase that didn't expect a rank reset to happen so soon.
The speed of this change highlights NetEase's commitment to community feedback, which is a promising sign for the future of the game. It's great that they're willing to admit mistakes and immediately rectify them, but it does open up questions about whether or not the community knows what's best for the game. NetEase likely believed these ranked changes would benefit the game - otherwise, they wouldn't have implemented them to begin with. Fortunately, there's always room to make adjustments in the future if this doesn't work out for them.
Matthew Sutton
I write about video games for consoles and PC. I tend to gravitate to RPG's, looter shooters, hero shooters, and the occasional 4x or card game. I'm a big fan of the Witcher Series (but not the netflix series) and the Destiny franchise, but I play nearly every big release that comes out with indie games sprinkled into the mix.