Season 14 ofApex Legends, known as Hunted, is almost here, and Respawn Entertainment has already unveiled lots of new content and changes coming to the battle royale. For instance, thenew Legend Vantageis being added to the game, and alterations are being made to Kings Canyon. In addition to this new content, some players hope the developers will make changes to address issues with smurfs in Ranked matches.
Smurfing is nothing new in video games; a number of competitive online games have had to deal with the issue in one way or another. Unfortunately,Apex Legendsis no different, as, over the seasons, high-leveled players have made new accounts to play and often crush less experienced gamers. Ahead of the release of Season 14, some players are calling on Respawn Entertainment to make adjustments to the Ranked mode to combat these types of smurfing issues.
RELATED:Impressive Apex Legends Bloodhound Art Made in Rice Paddy Field in Japan
Taking to Reddit, numerous members of the community have started discussing potential changes to Ranked to improve the experience for players. Specifically, one user known as Mayors_Son began a thread in which they proposed thatRespawn Entertainmentshould raise the level requirement for the competitive mode. According to the Reddit user, they suggested new accounts should be required to reach level 50 before playing Ranked, making it more difficult for potential smurfs to join low-ranked lobbies. Furthermore, this would require newer players to get more acclimated with the game before jumping into the competitive environment.
In addition to this idea, others on Reddit suggested that players should be required to link their cellphone to their accounts in order to play Ranked. A number of users even pointed out that several other competitive online games already force players to do this, such asOverwatchandDota. This would add another step players would have to go through in order to begin smurfing, which Reddit users argued would minimize the problem inApex Legends.
Unsurprisingly, smurfing is a troubling issue to many users, as smurfs can often compromise the integrity of Ranked mode. With higher skilled gamers playing on low-level accounts, it defeats many of the purposes of a Ranked system by pitting players of unequal skill levels against each other. This is largely due to how easy it is for low-ranked lobbies to be occupied by high-ranked players since they only need to make a new account and play several games to reach level 10 to compete in Ranked matches at the lower ranks.
It will be interesting to see what the future holds forRanked mode inApex Legends. With the launch of Season 14 only a couple more days away, there is the possibility that Respawn Entertainment could look to change things up in the coming days. However, players will have to wait and see if the changes suggested by community members eventually happen.
Apex Legendsis available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
