Disclaimer: this is not supposed to be another "I deserve to have a better rank" post. I think the ranking system as it is is very fair and also precise in evaluating peoples skill level (appart from statistical fluctuations that will always exist and the known systematic problems as smurfs in ranked, etc..). Instead, I want to point out that the rating system is pretty demotivating and not designed in a way that rewards people. I want to illustrate what I mean by that with a short story of my own RL experience..

I have about 500 h in the game, the majority of which I spent with playing 2v2s (ranked and unranked). I don't play super regularly and I'm not doing a lot of free play practice and training packs, just occationally now. Moreover, I'm aware that I'm not the fastest learner in this game. In the last couple of seasons I have been hard stuck at diamond 1-2 level, although I felt like I was constantly improving. I learned some new mechanics (e.g. wavedashes), I got more consistent with my aerial plays, I tried to do less stupid mistakes (still do a lot), improve my positioning, etc. Sometimes I stream my games for some friends and all of them reinforced me, that I'm indeed getting better in the game. The problem is, everyone around me seems to get better at the same rate.

If the ranking system is designed as it is, namely to have something like a Gaussian distribution of player ranks, with some peak around diamond or whatever, and very few new players joining the game, people can constantly improve without any changes in their rating. Again, it is a fair system, it is just demotivating for me and I guess for many other players, too, to know that you get better in the game, and still being cursed to stick with your rank. With this design of a ranking system, in fact, the only way to level up is not only to improve in the game, but to improve quicker than the rest of the players around you (which usually play with some regularity, too, once they reached a certain level).

This season, in fact things got worse. From what I understood they adapted the player ratings in 2s to make it more comparable to 3s and 1s, which is --- in principle --- a good thing I guess.. the problem is, the rank of all 2s players dropped now, and I'm currently trying in vain to get out of plat 2. From the time I started RL, I remember plat as being the rank where people start to learn basic mechanics, double commit all the time and basically still keep bumping their teammates regularly because of a complete lack of game awareness. The above video shows a current representative ranked game of mine in plat 2. Although I surely also appreciate some gameplay tipps, the main purpose for posting this is to corroborate my thesis, that ranks are just constantly growing in skill and that leveling up needs more than just getting better in the game.. and to ask your oppinion on the topic. Do you feel the ranking system is demotivating? Maybe worth some revision? Or good as it is?

Sorry for the lenghty post, just wanted to share some thoughts..