Ranked VS Challenge

[Fulcrum.Armulus]

Hi all, I want to collect some feedback on ranked and challenge mode.

Specifically, what are the main reasons why you play challenge as opposed to playing ranked?

And, if you mostly play ranked, what part of it do you like the most?

[Waryth]

I play Challenge more because it has more rewards (7 rewards in each tier) than anything while Rank has just 1 reward and some collection of medals of the rank you've earned. It's not really worth it compared to the 7 rewards.

Surrendering in rank requires 5 FULL votes of your team. Anyone can just sabotage and decline a surrender by a SINGLE person who is a troll and make everyone suffer on the team compared to CHALLENGE.

Rank became a terrible experience since you lowered the RANK LEVEL requirement. Terrible players who suck at the game just plays rank despite not knowing EVERY single mechanics. Challenge is more fun because the veterans just plays it while the new players just goes rank for the ELO balanced at all while not being competitive at all and expecting to get carried.

Majority just premade a match in rank just to get their desired rank. This is the only way to progress to the top while going SOLO takes forever to climb.

The worse part is the ones at challenge know more about the game compared to RANK like reviving and actual teamwork.

[THONK]

challenge i dont lose anything

ranked i lose my whole soul and time looking for a match

[Seawynn]

I mostly play ranked due to it providing an overall greater challenge, as it has more experienced players when compared to the Challenge modes. Unfortunately, in many matches the teams are unbalanced, having multiple unranked/low ranked players matchmaked against higher ranked players, leading to a frustrating or boring experience for both sides.

The surrender option definitively needs to be 4/5 at the very least, as 5/5 causes contempt within the team. If 4/5 players don't want to play anymore, they shouldn't have to. In a few occasions I've witnessed players leaving the match or going afk after the voting failed, mainly due to the fact that the matches were extremely one-sided. Ultimately this makes the matches even more one-sided, resulting in the feeling of "I'm just wasting my time here."

I also play Challenge mode, but only when I feel like trying out new characters or just want to play for a very short amount of time.

Ultimately I believe that if players' ranked were more spread out, matchmaking would allow for better Ranked experiences. Currently the majority of players are between Substance, Molecule and Atom, which means that the majority of players are mixed within each other despite of their skill differences. If ranking was easier, or if the initial placement matches allowed for higher starting ranks, the population of players would spread out, leading to fairer matchmaking, and possibly affecting matchmaking times.

Ok back to the question: I mostly play ranked because the people there are usually more skilled than the ones in casual. communicate more, and work better as a team, which provides a better challenge and ultimately a much more fulfilling experience for all involved.

[glenn3e]

The only thing ranked has going for it is more exp. Its a horrible experience with lopsided matchmaking

[Aimee]

I play Challenge because the servers somehow are much better in Challenge as opposed to Ranked. Ranked always lags, there are lagspikes and packageloss.

On top of that it feels like Challenge has a purpose, progression wise. I can get a game quickly and regardless if i win or lose i get progression towards my overall level in Exp and also towards events and the like based on how much effort i put in.
For Ranked dont see any progression, since i get put into the same ''substance 3'' matches as players who never touched a shooter and also with realy good players alike with no chance of gaining ranks. Its all about matchmaking luck rather than skill. No matter how much effort i put into a losing game with very bad players, i cant win against a premade of 5 players who use discord and the result is no gain regardless of damage, kills etc.
So it feels like i have to give 120% for a loss that takes ages, gives no progression in exp or events, and does not let me climb the ranks.
In the same way when i do get ''lucky'' with the matchmaking and i have one or more good players on my team, the enemy team is full of new players who cant even get a single kill, and im just wasting my time bullying people who are new to the game.
No matter what the result is, Ranked never seems fair or have a point. And the result always feels bad, regardless if i win or lose.

[James Tatsumi]

I mostly play challenge because I'm not very competitive. While the players are less skilled, I very much prefer a chill experience where is less likely some try hard is going to be spewing hate in chat over some teammate not playing "optimaly" or whatever.

[Yukito For Ever]

I prefer Challenge (I proudly have 0 matches in ranked) because I hate competitiveness and toxicity of Ranked players. I don't see the reason to play Ranked if I'm no part of a esports team. I can try the best to win with my team in a friendly match where doesn't matter if we win or lose.

I only want to have fun, not to be in a pro esports team

[0nly1ken0bi]

Ranked takes waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy too long!! Having to wait 12-20min is beyond ridiculous.

Queue times are really bad!!

I play Frankfurt on 220+ ping as that's the best latency. I'm not about too change server locations just to play ranked.

[Malamasala]

I am an old Overwatch player so I enjoy escort, and escort is challenge only. As such I also play Demolition on challenge as I can queue for both at the same time. Sometimes I opt out of 3v3 and 7v7 as those are so bare bones with next to no abilities and grenades.

I tried some ranked for placements, and it is just not that good of an experience. First game was 16 rounds long draw (good sign of balance in matchmaker, but way too long game for a single placement match). Demolition is also terrible as a ranked activity as usually attackers win, and when attackers have won 5 games, the defenders always want to quit because "Defending is harder and we already lost so lets ignore that we'll get to attack in the future and just wallow in despair in the present".

Personally I would change ranked so that you get infinite "money" to upgrade your character at the start of the round, and you constantly get to swap side and character each round. I would also lower the win condition to like 4 rounds won. That would speed up the game, prevent people from giving up, and allow people to be more flexible with picks if a game goes poorly.

I would also obviously add escort to ranked where you get to play as 1 round as attacker and 1 round as defender, and whoever get furthest wins (or a draw if both get the whole way). Ironically escort is better balanced for ranked than demolition. Yet it is not included in ranked.

[Zedu]

I mostly play ranked because of the competetive aspect, although at least in lower ranks (Molecule) matches tend to be one-sided.

Challenges for me are either to check gun beheivour of new characters or to finish quests.

[Crescent]

i have been stuck in in ranked match and barely won any matches so the points are still 0 so i lost hope in ranked whereas Challenge is fun to play and is short and i can show my full potential in it.

[Tackle]

Play currently only Challenge. I fear that iam not good enough for rank and i even fear more to get reported as bad player (and maybe getting banned for like 3 days)
Maybe once i assemble a team of friends/friendly players i give rank a try. Or if the rumors of the report/bann system are gone

[Kiyoshiro]

I figured that as someone who's both new to this game and shooters in general, I have no place playing ranked. I considered trying one ranked match someday when I get better at the game, but with the rumors I've heard about the reporting system and the recent drama going on, I now know what to expect if I ever play a ranked match. Safe to say I'll never touch ranked because of these reasons.

[Afangun]

I'm playing a challenge
demolition and tdm (I don’t like tdm in absolutely all games, but it’s a good mod for completing daily quests or warming up)
I want to play ranked, but because it’s very difficult to play ranked solo with random people, I have to play the challenge
also sometimes it takes a very long time to find a game in ranked because most of the people play the challenge

[Yoisaki Kanaaaaaa]

I'm not a good player at all, but I enjoy the game. I only play challenge (escort) since it allows me to play a lot without fear of dying and sitting the rest of the round out.

I still play seriously though, it's just that skill-wise I'll never reach the skill level of those in ranked. The headshot stats and KDA alone show a lot of difference. So I just do my best in escort to push/stop the payload while killing as much as much as I can.