Sweetdreams was thrilled to learn Apex Legends players will need Level 50 accounts in order to queue ranked in season 17 and beyond during his stream on May 8. It was one of the first things that caught his eye while reading the patch notes, and his initial reaction was: “About fucking time.”
The NRG pro described it as the best change Respawn made because it’s going to make things a lot harder for cheaters and smurfs to wreak havoc in ranked lobbies.
Rather than being able to queue ranked instantly on fresh accounts, they now need to put in a lot of time to level them up. It also means bans will frustrate them more than ever. “Do you know how much longer it’s going to take people to get to level 50 to cheat now? Literally weeks,” he said. “Do you know what that does? It reduces the amount of smurfing. Not only does Level 50 negate the amount of smurfs, but it also negates cheaters.”
Sweetdreams also spoke fondly of the changes to the scoring system, another highlight of the patch notes. It rewards placement more than kills and assists, although the latter bears more weight when competing against teams with a higher matchmaking rating.
HisWattson seemed fond of the changes too, although he was concerned about the fact the entry cost is being changed to static rather than scaling, describing it as a “huge step back.” That didn’t seem to bother Sweetdreams, though. His reaction to the changes was more positive.
The Weapons Mastery feature also piqued his interest. He said it finally gave players something else to do in the game other than “brainlessly playing.” It isn’t perfect, in his view. But it’s a step in the right direction.
He was fond of all the other bits and pieces, too, describing them as “beautiful game changes” that make his excitement for the new Apex ranked system even better.
