NICKMERCS Explains What Needs to Change in Apex Legends Ranked

Content creator NICKMERCS recently sounded off on what he thinks needs to be done to "save" Ranked Battle Royale in Apex Legends Season 14.

Early on in Apex Legends: Hunted, there has been plenty of topics to discuss, from the ring adjustments and questionable matchmaking system to certain weapon bugs. Perhaps at the forefront of it all yet again, however, is the state of ranked — something that NICKMERCS believes is in need of some major shakeups.

"You have a variety of players in these ranked lobbies, right," NICKMERCS said during his Sept. 2 stream. "You have like Hals and sweetdreams and, you know, Gents. Players that are on the top of the game. The best of the game. And then you also have the rest of the community.

"They don't care. Hal doesn't care, sweet doesn't care, I don't care, Gent don't care. None of these guys care. They haven't cared about ranked in forever. It's a grind to get top-1 pred but other than that, it's just you full send, you try to get as many kills as you can."

Compared to more traditional multiplayer ranked experiences like Valorant and Call of Duty, it is arguably a bit tougher to figure out how to get everyone to "play the right way" in ranked battle royale modes.

After all, ranked games in Apex take as long as players are willing and able to play.

As such, while Respawn Entertainment has previously worked to rework its Kill Points system, it seems a majority of players still aren't playing in a productive, sensible way in hopes of ranking up.

According to NICKMERCS, the answer is simple: "incentivize it enough for them to give a fuck."

"There's so many things you can do," NICKMERCS said. "You can have a tournament at the end of every split with the top players in ranked. Is it going to be true to skill? No. It's going to be about people who have the time to play, right? But if you did that, a lot of pros would definitely care and grind it out.

"A little Heirloom could be cool. And then on top of that, there's just so many options, man. So many options. Skins, Heirlooms, cash, tournaments."

NICKMERCS also went on to mention that there should be an in-game ranked leaderboard, rather than having players rely on third-party tools.

Ultimately, with Apex Legends arguably still having the best ranked mode in the battle royale genre, as explained even by NICKMERCS himself, it will be interesting to see if Respawn does eventually take him up on any of his ideas.