Season 17 Arsenal for Apex Legends is getting out of control as more players achieve the highest rank of Masters in the shortest amount of time.
Oops All Masters!
- 8.952% of all players in Apex Legends Ranked are Masters.
- Season 17 of Apex Legends has the highest number of Masters players in any season.
- Players continue to use the Rat Strategy to climb to Masters rank as a challenge on social media and streaming platforms.
Apex Legends current Season 17 Arsenal has been out for over a month since its May 9th launch and it’s on track to be remembered as the worst season for ranked play. Leading up to the season launch, players of all skill levels were excited for the ranked changes. These changes were some of the most ambitious yet and would include a full overhaul to the matchmaking rating system.
Everyone Is a Master Now
The problem with this season's ranked mode is very clear when you take a look at the ranked distribution statistics on ApexLegendsStatus.com. As of June 13th, 8.952% of all players have achieved Masters. If there wasn’t a cap on the number of Predators, they’d be the inflated rank.
That many Masters means it is the highest single division in the game. Dwarfing even the single low-rank divisions within tiers. The next closest is Rookie 3 at 5.4%. There are more players in Masters rank than in Diamond rank put together.
With the season only halfway over, it’s only going to get worse from here. Prior to Season 17, the season with the most Masters and Predators was Season 12, which came in at 341,754 across all four platforms (PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch). Season 17 has just passed that number with an estimated 356,000 players at Masters and above.
What Happened to Apex Legends Ranked?
The change in Matchmaking Rating (MMR) and the changes from Ranked Points (RP) to Ladder Points (LP) all play a role in the snowballing effect of ranked mode. But the biggest issue is that the developers at Respawn Entertainment made a specific change to how players earn LP.
If you place 11th through 20th in ranked play, you lose at most -35 points. If you place between 1st and 10th you’ll gain at least 20 LP for 10th place, 200 LP for first place and when bonuses are calculated it can easily be over 500 LP.
This has caused a lot of players to start using the Rat Strategy. When you Rat in Apex you avoid conflict at all cost, instead trying to hide as long as possible and place as high as possible without a fight.
Professional Apex Legends players SweetDreams was able to hit the highest rank possible, Apex Predator, using this strategy in just 50 games, in the first few days of ranked play when the season launched. He even did so without dealing a single point of damage.
So far, there have been no substantial fixes or communication from the Apex Legends Developers. They did employ one hotfix that was supposed to punish players who used the Rat Strategy, but instead, it seems to have affected how elimination, skill and rating bonuses work. This has further broken rank because taking fights and winning doesn’t guarantee you’ll get more points. This, in turn, has made the Rat Strategy even more attractive to those looking to climb the ladders.
