Say what you will about Marvel Rivals, but boy, is NetEase being responsive when it comes to player feedback.
Barely half a day since announcing ranked changes for the mid-season Marvel Rivals changeover, a mass protest by players led NetEase to ditch the idea entirely, while keeping the cosmetic rewards in place they had originally planned. It’s kind of stunned the community which wasn’t expecting this kind of result, and certainly not this quickly.
The original plan was to drop every player’s rank 4 divisions at mid-season, which would be less than 6 at the start of a season, but still significant. Costume and Crest rewards would refresh every half-season instead of a full season.
Now, the drop is not happening. In a follow-up blog barely 12 hours later, NetEase announced that no, they would not do the mid-season rank reset due to everyone seeming to hate it. Part of the post:
- The first half of the season will still conclude on February 21, 2025, at 8:00 AM (UTC+0). Players at Gold rank will receive the costume reward, as well as Crests of Honors for those in Grandmaster and above, and the Crest of Honor for the top 500 (One Above All).
- When the second half of the season begins, there will be no rank reset. Players will retain their ranks and scores from the end of the first half. To earn new rewards, players simply need to complete 10 matches in Competitive mode and meet the relevant conditions by the end of the season. Rewards will include a new Gold rank costume and a variety of Crests of Honor, featuring distinct designs for Grandmaster, Celestial, Eternity, and One Above All.
The bottom line here is that you will not reset your rank and if you just play in any ten matches in competitive, you will be eligible for the cosmetic rewards that were originally planned for the rank reset, despite the fact that they will now be much easier to get.
“We strive to make Marvel Rivals the best game it can be, and the community is the driving force behind this mission” the statement ends. Though there are some that seem to wish that Rivals had stuck to their guns, despite widespread pushback, citing the ability of players to “sit on their rank” during a whole season which can prevent others from moving up as much, or some who just enjoyed the process of ranking up, which can slow to a crawl eventually. Still, the majority of the community seems on board with the decision that NetEase made extremely quickly in the face of criticism. Will fans always know best, though?
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
