u/Latter-Victory3027

I've been playing Marvel Rivals since Season 0. I've always given it a chance, telling myself: "It's a new game, they'll improve it. They'll balance the heroes. They'll fix the community and matchmaking issues." I gave it so many chances, but things aren't getting better—they're getting worse. I actually uninstalled after Season 4.5 and skipped Seasons 5 and 6 entirely. I decided to come back for Season 7 to see if anything had changed, but it's actually in the worst state it's ever been. My peak was Diamond 3.

Here is why I'm officially done:

1. The Smurf & Boosting Plague (Platinum and below): The number of smurfs in mid-to-low ranks is staggering. It's almost impossible to find a game in Gold or Platinum (and below) without one or more level 20-40 players dominating the lobby. While every competitive game has these issues, in Rivals it's destroying the core experience. You're either playing with/against someone who doesn't belong in your rank because of smurfing, paid boosting services or boosted players carried by smurfs.
2. The Rank Porting & Cross-play Mess: The implementation of cross-play without rank porting from console to PC is a disaster. I understand the logic (gamepad vs m&k it's a different experience) and it's something every game does, but in a game already plagued by matchmaking issues, it's the last thing we needed. You find "One Above All" players from console starting fresh at Silver or Bronze on PC. They finally added a placement system some seasons ago, but in my opinion, it should have been there since Season 2 or 3. They waited too long, and now the competitive integrity of the game is already broken. No matter how much they tweak placements now, if you don't solve the root cause, nothing will change.
3. The "Diving" Bias & Skewed Balance: The community's perception of balance is incredibly frustrating. Whenever a Strategist gets a buff to improve their survivability or healing potential, everyone screams for nerfs. Meanwhile, Dive heroes are allowed to do whatever they want with almost-to-zero consequences. In mid-to-low ranks, Dive compositions are indisputably the strongest (when there are little to no smurfs in the game, and that's kinda rare). The game heavily rewards aggressive diving while leaving Strategists and non-dive DPS to suffer.
4. The Selfish "Long Queues" Excuse of smurfs: I'm tired of high-rank players justifying smurfing because "queues take 10-30 minutes because there are not enough players in this rank." That is a destructive, childish and selfish mindset. By smurfing, you prevent newer players from learning the game and cilmb the ranks in a fair environment. This stops the player base from climbing, which means fewer players at high ranks, keeping your queue times long. It's a toxic cycle, and it's disappointing to see this in a community of adults (because yea, there are kids too, but adults are the worst as for the smurfing problem).
5. The CC Paradox and the "Dive" Problem: Lately, everyone has been complaining about having too many CC (Crowd Control) abilities, leading the devs to implement systems to mitigate them. This is where the community shows it has no idea how game balance works. While I agree that excessive CC can be annoying, over-mitigating it is a massive mistake. CC is the primary tool to counter Dive compositions. It’s already incredibly hard to land a stun on a skilled Black Panther or Spider-Man; if you nerf CC into the ground, these divers will just run rampant with zero counter-play. By listening to the loudest whiners, the devs are making the Dive meta even more oppressive.

The fun has simply evaporated since season 2. I really wanted this game to succeed, but I can't keep giving chances to a project that seems to ignore its own fundamental flaws.