Thursday, November 9, 2023

Stuck in a Rut... or Rank

It's been a long time since I wrote about my progression in the Ranked mode of Pokémon Unite, and there may be several reasons for that. The biggest reason of them all, however, is as I've indicated in the title: I seem to be "stuck in a rut"... which in terms of the mode would of course mean one of the ranks. Even so, it's not technically "stuck" nor is it limited to one rank, but it still seems like both are happening. And that is what I currently perceive as the biggest problem.

For the past few seasons, I've been in "limbo" between the Expert and Veteran ranks. One of two things (or even both) happen in this regard. The first is that I advance somewhat far into one of the classes in Veteran (highest so far has been Class 3), but then I hit a losing streak due to the acts of some unscrupulous players, and as a result get bumped down to a lower class, even back to Expert. The second is that I can't muster up enough Ranked matches by the time a season ends, and inevitably get bumped down to Expert Class 1 anyhow. Thus, in this way, I become "stuck".

While it may be reasoned that I haven't played enough to get myself out of this "limbo" or "rut", the problem of "unscrupulous players" as above still rings true. Then, there is also the problem of not finding players who are roughly equivalent to my rank and seeking each other's assistance to bring up our ranks; most other players that I communicate (closely) with are already of the Master rank even just within days after a season starts, and even with the "nerf" at the start of a new season, they're still not where I can comfortably ask them for assistance to bring me up - and so the problem persists.

Even with the introduction of a new and supposedly helpful item, the Rank Protection Card, that doesn't seem to help matters much. This new item, when opted to be used, acts as a failsafe in the case of a loss and prevents rank markers from being lost, thereby avoiding a "nerf" in some cases. The problem is that I either use it too early or not at all, as the item expires at the end of a season (also since a few seasons ago), and the fact that I only get one  each new season as a free player does not help matters much. In the end, this also contributes to the "stuck" problem.

Ranked progression is obviously not supposed to be easy, nor is it always possible to avoid losses and continue to rack up wins. At the same time, I feel that I'm warranted to discuss my qualms with progression as I have done once in the past, and now this time for a different one yet something that's all the same and touching on those mentioned issues. With the name of the game being "Unite", I may have to make some other efforts to make a "union" of myself to get out of this "rut".

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