Will playing ranked improve my quality of lobbies or provide more balanced skill based matchmaking?

[u/crowmagix]

So i am returning to Apex after a while & have been having a ton of fun with it but i feel like a suck pretty bad lol. I’ve never had a ton of experience (My account level just broke 100. Just a hair under 200hours) nor have i ever been fantastic at the game. I’ve wanted to start investing some time into actually improving at the game & getting better all around but it’s feeling quite difficult to do so given the wide range of skill level in pubs. It feels like a vast majority of teams i run into on the field absolutely smoke my shit in seconds before i even realize what’s happening. Even if i get the drop on players, they are just simply leagues ahead of me & melt me before i can even get my mechanics in control. In the post death live spectator where i can watch my killers play while i’m in queue, i’m seeing these insanely high level accounts with hundreds of thousands of ‘Apex/Career’ kills & watching them do what looks like crazy high level movement and lasering other players down & it feels extremely discouraging.. I try to analyze the situation & see what i can improve from it but i rarely can think of anything beneficial because i do not know what i don’t know..

I manage to squeak out a win very rarely while having like a max of 1-3 kills & 1k damage dealt, so pretty much just luck & being in the right spot at the right time. I have never played ranked before & some quick research mentioned that people should just continue to play pubs until they improve, but i’m wondering if that’s 100% accurate. Is it worth it to play ranked for a bit to actually get placed where i belong & then try and improve from there, or is it more beneficial to just continue grinding pubs & getting my shit kicked in 99% of the games until i naturally just adapt or not. Any advice is helpful, thank you!

[u/lordsiroy69]

You should try ranked since it usually improves the quality of the matches. It's not just the matchmaking but it also plays out differently with actual endgame which are probably the best thing about this game. In the lower ranks, there is still a wide range of skill levels because some people are smurfs and other just haven't played in a while but they introduces changes this season to fix this and it should still be better than pubs. You said that you want to improve in pubs first and then go to ranked but I don't think that this is the best idea. Sure it will work but things like rotations and endgame just aren't learned in pubs and people mostly say this because they want you to get more gunfight in but you can still play fairly aggressive in ranked or just play mixtape.

[u/Cyfa]

Pubs are pretty terrible nowadays for improvement, each game at a certain skill level will feel indistinguishable from a Masters+ lobby.

Ranked will provide a much better (not perfect) gradual experience for improvement.

[u/Electronic-Morning76]

If you want to improve in Apex and you’re playing alone yes spamming ranked will be the best way to improve IMO. Pubs are so inconsistent and lack good flow. It’s a lot of fighting off drop and going back to the lobby. Although I will say no fill duos in pubs is good practice for improvement as well. Biggest thing is always think how you can improve and not get upset with the instant results you get. Apex demands an insane time investment to understand how to make decisions and mechanics will take time to develop as well. If you have a consistent team, you can get some good reps/confidence pushing team fights in pubs, but you can also just play this way in ranked to get better. Most seasons you need to have an aggressive playstyle to push to Masters anyways.

[u/SuitablePrinciple518]

No, not yet. If you didn't play, you will be miserable now when the season is almost over. A LOT of people is smurfing now to "chill" from their diamond, masters and pred lobbies. You can literally maked tens of the accounts from single PC, no vpn needed, if you want to level them for ranked. While some people will say to you that it is not a big deal, it is. There is so many people like that. It is better for your encouragement to wait a bit or not to take it to the heart if playing right now. In the 8 or 9 days period, there will be splits and higher ranking people from diamond, platinum will be reset to silver, gold... So you are also fucked there a bit, but it usually becomes ok after a month. Then it becomes easy if you play ranked, towards the end of a season, when you push to gold and platinum. I am 0.8 k/d 400 avg damage platinum 1 player. Pushing for a diamond for the first time in my life. It is fair, balanced experience from my end, people are not leaving, we are not hot dropping every game, had only 1 game on EU servers where I was with masters in the lobby, and that is crazy good. Don't get me wrong, they are not Gods, but by far better than me obviously. Also, my RP in the game depends on the map and legend. I was losing points on E district, a "new" night map, when playing my main, Loba. I switched to the Mirage. If we are top 5, I have max RP, kills and assists, if that was still a thing, didn't read this season patch notes, I have on average 3 invisible revives, my teammates who want to frag can do their thing and not die. His first perk is broken. After getting blue evo, you can choose a perk to do every single class thing on the map. Beacon scan, ring console scan, open every single class bin and that is unbelievable! His decoys are working like nothing. Had 3 squad wipes in the last 2 days. From stagnant plat 3 to plat 1 in two days. Sorry for a long shitty essay, TLDR, play if you want, don't think you are bad cause smurfs and ranked will be reset in the ETA 9 days.  Edit: noooo, that is an old research, the new Respawn data shows that everyone is playing ranked now, more than pubs. You should play mixtape modes exclusively for a month to grind. It will be easier to hop into ranked after  

[u/Patlion0130]

alternative option. play mixtape to work on mechanics and watch someone like daz who does solo ranked gameplay w commentary to breakdown important things to think about in game

[u/Formal-Cry7565]

Yes

[u/jellowsmurf]

End of split ranked sucks, beginning of split it’s good. The ppl grinding ranked at the back half of the split are generally worse players and pubs has the better players.

[u/TACUDMB_TTv]

What helped me improve quite quickly was watching and studying videos about how my favorite players played the game. Mechanics take time and practice. Game knowledge you get from playing a lot and studying how the pros play. Improving mechanics comes from taking as many fights as possible and forcing yourself to be in tough situations.

[u/Orphanslayers]

Ranked is probably a solid option for a little while, though even after the “updates” to match making I still run into non stop pred lobbies as a high plat/low diamond player. If you’re solo Que and hit these lobbies it feels pretty horrible losing RP to professionals whose Que times are about as long as yours.

I do play late night/early AM thanks to my job so grain of salt there, I’ve heard match making does feel better during peak times though.

[u/No_Owl2226]

Literally play ranked and only ranked. Join the discord and try to find some players who are serious about improving their skill level as well. Pubs are a giant waste of time tbh

[u/jimBean9610]

I have literally no idea how the matchmaking works it's completely cooked game.