I know this topic has been hot for the past few weeks. I am giving my perspective.

I enjoyed competitive in beta. I can say, without a doubt, competitive has only gotten worse as this game has gone on and is currently at it's worse state.

I am currently Gold 3, peaked plat 1 this act so far. I top frag on my team usually with my obvious off games. I have been gold 3, pretty much since Launch. I peaked Diamond last act with getting an act rank of Plat 3. I have attempted to be convinced that rank doesn't matter (and it really doesn't) but I have been personally unable to get past the tilting factor that is I have been gold 3 for 6 months now with a break of 2 months, which were spent bouncing between plat 2 and diamond. As I see this as "I have not improved, at all". However, I have improved immensely. I have played this game for sometimes 6-10 hours a day over winter break and when my uni is in session, I play about 2 hours a day/ every other day (depending on when I can fit it in). I aim train at least 4 times a week for at least a half-hour.

Looking at footage from my Launch days, where I ranked up to plat, to my current days. I am well beyond what should be considered plat back then. Obviously, people improve in the game and the ranks become harder and harder, this isn't what that is. The current competitive matchmaking is draining to play. Emotionally, it is the worst competitive experience I have had since playing a small amount CS:GO a few months back. The quality of the games are suffering. I feel very unrewarded for how long I have been playing this game not only due to the fact that I have been in 1 rank for the past 6 months, but also the fact that this rank always seems to be where the games are difficult.

That wording probably was confusing, so here is it rewritten in TL:DR "How am I supposed to keep a positive attitude when competitive feels so unrewarding and irritating to play." I am not the only one who thinks this. There are obviously those who rose in rank post-act launch. But there are many who are stuck in one rank much below their previous and it is infuriating and tilting. One semi-pro posted a 0-13-1 game losing/tie streak. Despite being match MVP and team MVP for at least 4 of those matches, they claimed that they tried their best to stay positive and and keep a good attitude. But anyone would be tilted after losing 13 times.

This obviously looks like a hardstuck post and in essence, it kinda is. However, I am only using that point as a means to show how frustrating this system can be to the average player. Do I care what rank I am? Kinda, yeah, but I know I can kill previous act/episode diamonds easily based off of scrims I have played, so I am not too worried if for some reason people think I am bad. I also only have 500 hours in this game with no previous tac shooter experience so I like to think I'm doing pretty good.

I know it is very difficult to come up with a good system that will please everyone. In fact, that is impossible. But very few people are ever happy in my ranked games. Even if we are winning, even if they are doing well. The moment a team is down 4 rounds, comms go silent, people start getting tilted, start blaming the bottom fragger, start blaming cheating, start tking, start anything that usually ends up making the competitive experience far less enjoyable. This is obviously not Riots fault for these peoples actions but it also can't be ignored that the incredibly frustrating ranking system is killing moods of many people.

Soloq is truly a nightmare and the extreme factors of RNG in this current ranked matchmaking make it very tiring to play, at least emotionally.

TL:DR; IMO, this current ranked match making is at it's all time worst. It feels vastly unrewarding, the people in the system are at an all time high in toxicity, and the game quality of each match has vastly decreased. This all helps contribute to an (IMO) worse ranked experience.