Apex Legends‘ ranked system overhaul has caused a “ratting” problem, promoting a strategy where players stall and hide instead of fighting, and a team has found a radical fix. In a Reddit thread from June 3, a player shared a clip showing the eradication method of their team in a Masters ranked game.
One teammate can be heard spotting an enemy who left his team to land alone somewhere else. The team instantly followed them and focused them down.
They all threw everything at the enemy and punched them around. When they fell to the ground, they taunted them for a while before getting the kill, showing the full hate they’ve got against “rats.”
The play disadvantaged the team since they couldn’t get decent loot to start the game, but it seems it was worth the sacrifice. “They should have titled this season ‘the big rat hunt’,” said the top-voted comment under the video.
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In Season 17, the ranked system’s point reward system was overhauled, which favored survival rather than getting kills in Apex, among other things.
As a result, many players have adjusted their strategy to hide on the map and survive as long as possible without doing anything, a controversial strategy that was dubbed “ratting.”
The season saw an unusual peak in the number of users ranked in Masters and Predator. Some fed-up players decided to complete “no-damage” challenges on the ladder to protest changes and point out how unfair the system had become.
Respawn Entertainment has yet to adjust the system to discourage this kind of strategy. It’s no wonder that some desperate players decided to take matters into their own hands, as shown in this clip.
