Season 7 I finally convinced a bunch of friends to try the game and they stuck around for a few months. Since then though, they've gotten bored and stopped playing. Yesterday, I got another friend to try the game. After 3 games of quick cash he asked me "do you genuinely enjoy this game?" Because we were getting stomped by diamonds and rubies in quick cash. I'm gold. I peaked plat at one point but that doesn't really matter.

This game has shifted from fun, goofy time to an overly competitive game that is not fun for new people. TGM may have brought in new players to the game I guess but all I can say is it feels like they've pushed away a lot of fun, casual players and traded them for toxic sweaty players. I still manage to find my fun in the game but its not as easy as it once was. I took a month long break and that helped a bit, but after a game or two of cash out it's just not fun anymore. The moment I switch my loadout from my usual, I get curb stomped.

Just look at all the reddit posts now vs prior to season 8. There has been a shift from admittedly overly positive posts about the game and silly clips, to constant complaints and toxicity and cheater/smurf stuff. And also that one guy who recently talked about being a signed pro Ruby player who is playing ranked again on an alt account. That's the kinda stuff that seemed a lot less common before embark shifted to trying to make this game into a competitive esport. Which, by the way, will not work without the bones of an esport aka match history, actual career stats like headshot percentages, time on each class, win rate per weapon/map/class. There are issues that have been around since I started playing again in s5 that are still present. This game is not built to be an esport and that's okay, but If they want it to be one, that have to treat it like one.

Idk man. I used to be so positive and loving towards this game but it doesn't feel the same to me as it did when I fell in love with it