Splatoon 2 Rank X is here!: Discussion Thread

[LiX]

As of yesterday, rank X is here! And well... this is the sequel to the thread I opened to discuss rank X before it came live!

In this thread, I'd like to gather all the information and opinions about rank X that you rank X players care to share with the community. Have any questions about it? Ask them here.

I'll start with a report on the experience I have gathered in the few games I've played as of now:

So I've been playing Tower Control and Rainmaker and whoah, it is really much different than S+. Everyone knows what they are doing. Everyone takes a part, be it if they do their job as a killer or push the objective forward heavily. You can feel the tension at any second of the game, everyone is doing all they can. Very seldomly is there a player who does heavy missplays or gives up. I have only seen a single DC in 25 games now. So to summarize it: It's gameplay at a very high level and I like it a lot.

What are your experiences so far?

Also, I'd like to put in a question: Has anyone found out the thereshold for this month that deranks you to S+9 immediately? Fortunately having achieved relatively solid scores myself up until now, I went to do some research asking other players and I was surprised when I found out that there were a few people with a power of 1900-something that were not deranked yet. I expected the red line to be 2000 at the very least...

 

[Mar$el]

My rank X experience so far, to say the least, has been quite awful. I do feel that the games seem a little more challenging, however for me, having charger be my best weapon, I need good slayers to put in some work on the front-lines so we can be successful, and I haven't had very many games like this. I hit my shots, but as the game progresses, the amount of shots I'm even able to hit decreases as my team fails to kill their way back in. I have had some very bad rainmaker carriers and people who can't kill anyone at all. Had a roller go 2-13, actually... Tower went much worse than expected landing me around 2100. HOWEVER. THE WORST RAINMAKER SESSION OF MY LIFE - NO THE WORST SESSION OF MY LIFE - HAPPENED. I LOST ALL 10 DECIDING MATCHES. Yup. Whether it be the inability to kill, or incompetence of carriers who pick it up before I can (and when I do I wish I hadn't because I could be picking off the rapids and crap camping to kill the rain), and top tier slayers being pitted against our team. Everything imaginable except for DCs were thrown against me and that landed me in the oh so wonderful power level of 1799. I saw a screenshot where someone was down to like 1900 and they had a danger sign, so I think if you lose under 1900 you're booted so it looks like the goal I never expected to have to worry about - falling back to S+ - is on the horizon. I've literally never been so livid at this game. I am always so calm and collected playing this game, but when garbage like this happened, I lost it. I'm appalled at how bad people can be in X. May as well just take the L and get back up to try again and hopefully avoid those players again. What a terrible, terrible session. How can you be so bad? Slayers who can't slay and flexes who just let everything happen. If you're gonna play a slaying weapon - slay. Please just do your job so I can do mine.

 

[Dessgeega]

My rank X experience so far, to say the least, has been quite awful. I do feel that the games seem a little more challenging, however for me, having charger be my best weapon, I need good slayers to put in some work on the front-lines so we can be successful, and I haven't had very many games like this. I hit my shots, but as the game progresses, the amount of shots I'm even able to hit decreases as my team fails to kill their way back in. I have had some very bad rainmaker carriers and people who can't kill anyone at all. Had a roller go 2-13, actually... Tower went much worse than expected landing me around 2100. HOWEVER. THE WORST RAINMAKER SESSION OF MY LIFE - NO THE WORST SESSION OF MY LIFE - HAPPENED. I LOST ALL 10 DECIDING MATCHES. Yup. Whether it be the inability to kill, or incompetence of carriers who pick it up before I can (and when I do I wish I hadn't because I could be picking off the rapids and crap camping to kill the rain), and top tier slayers being pitted against our team. Everything imaginable except for DCs were thrown against me and that landed me in the oh so wonderful power level of 1799. I saw a screenshot where someone was down to like 1900 and they had a danger sign, so I think if you lose under 1900 you're booted so it looks like the goal I never expected to have to worry about - falling back to S+ - is on the horizon. I've literally never been so livid at this game. I am always so calm and collected playing this game, but when garbage like this happened, I lost it. I'm appalled at how bad people can be in X. May as well just take the L and get back up to try again and hopefully avoid those players again. What a terrible, terrible session. How can you be so bad? Slayers who can't slay and flexes who just let everything happen. If you're gonna play a slaying weapon - slay. Please just do your job so I can do mine.

Rank skipping. People got kicked upstairs. I'm intentionally avoiding ranked until next week to let things sort themselves out. Even with that in mind, I doubt much of anything's going to be different with X since literally nothing else about ranked has changed. I do hope I'm wrong.

 

[Lonely_Dolphin]

Currently at 2300 in all modes mostly using both Slosher variants. The frequency of stronger players definitely seems higher. Encourages me to wanna play well too, perhaps even to git gud at sub strafing... perhaps! I'm still a bit worried about the wait times once the 3.0 hype dies down, but so far matchmaking has been just as fast as before.

My rank X experience so far, to say the least, has been quite awful. I do feel that the games seem a little more challenging, however for me, having charger be my best weapon, I need good slayers to put in some work on the front-lines so we can be successful, and I haven't had very many games like this. I hit my shots, but as the game progresses, the amount of shots I'm even able to hit decreases as my team fails to kill their way back in. I have had some very bad rainmaker carriers and people who can't kill anyone at all. Had a roller go 2-13, actually... Tower went much worse than expected landing me around 2100. HOWEVER. THE WORST RAINMAKER SESSION OF MY LIFE - NO THE WORST SESSION OF MY LIFE - HAPPENED. I LOST ALL 10 DECIDING MATCHES. Yup. Whether it be the inability to kill, or incompetence of carriers who pick it up before I can (and when I do I wish I hadn't because I could be picking off the rapids and crap camping to kill the rain), and top tier slayers being pitted against our team. Everything imaginable except for DCs were thrown against me and that landed me in the oh so wonderful power level of 1799. I saw a screenshot where someone was down to like 1900 and they had a danger sign, so I think if you lose under 1900 you're booted so it looks like the goal I never expected to have to worry about - falling back to S+ - is on the horizon. I've literally never been so livid at this game. I am always so calm and collected playing this game, but when garbage like this happened, I lost it. I'm appalled at how bad people can be in X. May as well just take the L and get back up to try again and hopefully avoid those players again. What a terrible, terrible session. How can you be so bad? Slayers who can't slay and flexes who just let everything happen. If you're gonna play a slaying weapon - slay. Please just do your job so I can do mine.

Damn that's rough, but hopefully just bad luck akin to having a disconnect. I do feel most players know what they're doing, keyword being most!

 

[Mar$el]

Currently at 2300 in all modes mostly using both Slosher variants. The frequency of stronger players definitely seems higher. Encourages me to wanna play well too, perhaps even to git gud at sub strafing... perhaps! I'm still a bit worried about the wait times once the 3.0 hype dies down, but so far matchmaking has been just as fast as before.



Damn that's rough, but hopefully just bad luck akin to having a disconnect. I do feel most players know what they're doing, keyword being most!

Yeah my first batch of games were just unlucky having to go against a lot of top tier slayers and just general tough games. Also some stupid overtime losses but that's alright I suppose. Then it was just downhill from there. I think I gave myself the boost I needed to see those games with a knockout and a W on my first two matches in tower, but then in RM it was just loss after loss. Gonna have to start over back at S+9 unless I can pull through 100+ points without losing. I've heard S+ is a lot easier since 3.0 so I'm hoping I can grab X back in a rotation or two.

But it does make me want to play better and it feels more competitive in ranked. So I decided I would just take on chargers in ranked instead of playing the lineup of 6 different weapons I had. I found out I can contend with high level players on charger but I don't have the slaying skill to do that so I'm best at charger I feel. Also never gonna go into ranked without warming up fully doing my drills. I tend to miss some easy shots if I don't and my hands feel shakier than usual lately so I might bump down my sens below 0 (where it is now) and readjust. Also have to practice more high level charger things like when not to shoot and targeting certain enemies or areas based on team positioning. Being a better team player (which basically is just being a consistent killer but also applies to moving forward faster or whatever it may be and being confident up close which is something I feel I've lost since splatfest). I realize some of the blame falls on me for not hitting those shots in the beginning or to protect and area and going down, or fumbling my way to mid for those crucial start of the match shots that put as at an immediate advantage. Things tend to go south if I don't hit all my shots in the beginning. Just have to have other people watching flanks and getting spots I can't see or reach then I can move up to mid or closer to pick off more people. But that's all ideal and the way my RM session went definitely proves that. I have improving to do but I also got an immense amount of bad luck. Oh well I just have to have a good attitude about it and get back to my calm state of mind that I've always had. I realize I'd have a better time winning if I put my energy into ttek but I've already come pretty far with chargers and they're my favorite weapon class. I'm better at them. If I were as good at slaying as I am with chargers I think I'd have a much easier time. I'm no top tier competitive charger main but according to Callie I'm pretty good at them so...

ALSO one more edit. @Lonely_Dolphin I think I saw you in Pika's stream the night Rank X came out. He changed his name to Rei for the time being but I thought I saw your name in the lobby. I can't check rn but his twitch is Pika_3k if you wanna look.

 

[Lonely_Dolphin]

Yeah my first batch of games were just unlucky having to go against a lot of top tier slayers and just general tough games. Also some stupid overtime losses but that's alright I suppose. Then it was just downhill from there. I think I gave myself the boost I needed to see those games with a knockout and a W on my first two matches in tower, but then in RM it was just loss after loss. Gonna have to start over back at S+9 unless I can pull through 100+ points without losing. I've heard S+ is a lot easier since 3.0 so I'm hoping I can grab X back in a rotation or two.

But it does make me want to play better and it feels more competitive in ranked. So I decided I would just take on chargers in ranked instead of playing the lineup of 6 different weapons I had. I found out I can contend with high level players on charger but I don't have the slaying skill to do that so I'm best at charger I feel. Also never gonna go into ranked without warming up fully doing my drills. I tend to miss some easy shots if I don't and my hands feel shakier than usual lately so I might bump down my sens below 0 (where it is now) and readjust. Also have to practice more high level charger things like when not to shoot and targeting certain enemies or areas based on team positioning. Being a better team player (which basically is just being a consistent killer but also applies to moving forward faster or whatever it may be and being confident up close which is something I feel I've lost since splatfest). I realize some of the blame falls on me for not hitting those shots in the beginning or to protect and area and going down, or fumbling my way to mid for those crucial start of the match shots that put as at an immediate advantage. Things tend to go south if I don't hit all my shots in the beginning. Just have to have other people watching flanks and getting spots I can't see or reach then I can move up to mid or closer to pick off more people. But that's all ideal and the way my RM session went definitely proves that. I have improving to do but I also got an immense amount of bad luck. Oh well I just have to have a good attitude about it and get back to my calm state of mind that I've always had. I realize I'd have a better time winning if I put my energy into ttek but I've already come pretty far with chargers and they're my favorite weapon class. I'm better at them. If I were as good at slaying as I am with chargers I think I'd have a much easier time. I'm no top tier competitive charger main but according to Callie I'm pretty good at them so...

ALSO one more edit. @Lonely_Dolphin I think I saw you in Pika's stream the night Rank X came out. He changed his name to Rei for the time being but I thought I saw your name in the lobby. I can't check rn but his twitch is Pika_3k if you wanna look.

Oh rly? I hope that was a game where I didn't suck!

I wouldn't force yourself to only use Chargers, variety is the spice of life, but it's your choice of course. At the same time you do gotta play them regularly otherwise your skills will fall off like mine did. Best of luck reaching X in all modes, especially Clam Blitz. That mode can be such a toss up sometimes as we all know.

 

[Flopps]

All of this makes me scared to play X rank in Rainmaker. I got scared of Dessgeega's post because what if I'm that rank skipper? I skipped from S+ 7 to 10 when I got 3 lucky KO's with the Tenta Brella, but I seem to to well with it outside of ranked. Maybe I should go in with Sorella and try it?

 

[Mar$el]

Oh rly? I hope that was a game where I didn't suck!

I wouldn't force yourself to only use Chargers, variety is the spice of life, but it's your choice of course. At the same time you do gotta play them regularly otherwise your skills will fall off like mine did. Best of luck reaching X in all modes, especially Clam Blitz. That mode can be such a toss up sometimes as we all know.

Yeah I know but I've been switching around weapons for 9 months now and I think it's time to buckle down on a main. And with ranked becoming more competitive I think now is a good time to do so. I really want to be an amazing charger player and I'm not gonna get there playing ttek and custom blaster and zimi and bucket deco all the time. Most people have their main and I think I'm ready to finally establish mine. However knowing me I'll probably end up playing some other weapon within the next week but I hope I can maintain this attitude to improve on a single weapon class. I've played every role in the game and for the most part I want to play chargers.

 

[J'Wiz]

I'm afraid rank X won't be any different than S+ was. It seems the danger bar appears when you hit 1800 points. That's way too low. It should be 2000 at the very least. I was actually expecting 2200.

There's also the fact that you lose only one rank from deranking in S+ now.

I know all this means it'll be easier for me to get into X....except I don't want it to be easy! I don't want to just stumble into the highest rank when I'm not ready.

 

[NBSink]

From what I know: I hope that the higher threshold is way higher at aroung 2100 or something. Im not able to actually get top-tier players our but I don't feel completely lost to them.

8 Player power levels of 2100+ Sometimes even 2200+ is a normal thing. Im struggeling to get to above 2150 but Im pretty solid above 2100.

If the seconds threshold is high enoug then even S+ is getting harder. Once the first month is over we can expect people being pushed out of X and back into S+. The worse part of those players might not be able to reach X again.

But personally I enjoyd being in X in Splatzones as it's just hard. You won't come in touch with the bad S+ players anymore atleast..

Tho. Learning new weapons can now become really hard now. Since I don't like playing ranked I only play enough with a new weapon that I feel confortable enough to play in ranked. And that feeling confortable is now harder to archiv, possibly to a point where I almost completely learned it.

One thing is sure: I don't think it's possible that X becomes another S+ in the long run. And for how I fell yesterday it's way harder for. I felt like everyone know what they are doing.

 

[MotorGamer]

I haven’t played Ranx X for two main reasons:
1.I haven’t played in a few days
2.I am not quite a high enough rank
But standing in the back I feel like people are ignoring the fact that people can get kicked out at anytime if they have a low power level! It isn’t possible to cheese it where you just win two game and lose the rest, rinse and repeat. Here you have to keep winning to stay in. It might not feel different from people because, well, it’s soloq, you don’t have voice chat, some people not have a good game, maybe we have been facing the best of the community this whole time(although I doubt that seriously)
Honestly I don’t see a better way Nintendo could have done this. It is still possible to sort of cheese, but really it only happens if you have really good team mates who carry you.

 

[LiX]

Thanks for all the replies so far. Read all of them and found them very interesting. I'd like to comment on some things that have been said.

First, I'm sorry to hear what happened there @Mar$el. That sounds like super bad luck. Ten losses in a row? Gah... But atleast we know one thing for sure now: It is not possible to immediately derank after your first initial 10 games. If you had seen a screenshot of a guy with a danger sign at 1900, that's very interesting. Could you find that screenshot and post it? The red line may very well be 1900 then. Fingers crossed that you get a winning streak going and can cross that line.

Second, I wonder if rank skipping is even a thing on S+ in 3.0. Has anyone managed to skip yet? However, even if it was before, I kind of had the feeling it was very luck related for sure. And I do agree that it should be gotten rid of as players should work their way up to X and use those ten numbers as actual practise. But on the other hand, nobody skipped "accidentally". I've never seen a player who I knew and thought was not really deserving of S+ yet skip. It only happened to people who had been there a while and could pull off consistent wins.

Third, I'm unsure about that mysterious second thereshold that we'll hear at the end of the month. By the looks, it seemed like it would be flexible. Maybe Nintendo will not make a certain number the thereshold forever, but rather let the top 3000 players stay in and cut out everyone else. The thereshold would be the score then that the player ranked No. 3000 had at the end of the month.
But maybe Nintendo won't be so creative. Then I hope they make it 2000/2100 atleast to ensure quality in X.

 

[MotorGamer]

Thanks for all the replies so far. Read all of them and found them very interesting. I'd like to comment on some things that have been said.

First, I'm sorry to hear what happened there @Mar$el. That sounds like super bad luck. Ten losses in a row? Gah... But atleast we know one thing for sure now: It is not possible to immediately derank after your first initial 10 games. If you had seen a screenshot of a guy with a danger sign at 1900, that's very interesting. Could you find that screenshot and post it? The red line may very well be 1900 then. Fingers crossed that you get a winning streak going and can cross that line.

Second, I wonder if rank skipping is even a thing on S+ in 3.0. Has anyone managed to skip yet? However, even if it was before, I kind of had the feeling it was very luck related for sure. And I do agree that it should be gotten rid of as players should work their way up to X and use those ten numbers as actual practise. But on the other hand, nobody skipped "accidentally". I've never seen a player who I knew and thought was not really deserving of S+ yet skip. It only happened to people who had been there a while and could pull off consistent wins.

Third, I'm unsure about that mysterious second thereshold that we'll hear at the end of the month. By the looks, it seemed like it would be flexible. Maybe Nintendo will not make a certain number the thereshold forever, but rather let the top 3000 players stay in and cut out everyone else. The thereshold would be the score then that the player ranked No. 3000 had at the end of the month.
But maybe Nintendo won't be so creative. Then I hope they make it 2000/2100 atleast to ensure quality in X.

I don’t think it will be a certain number, rather you have to stay above average power level to stay in Rank X...want to make sure who are having pretty consistent numbers in Rank X. If they wanted to make it better, have the entry point be a certain power level, not your actual rank...

 

[Dessgeega]

Lix, a friend of mine jumped from S+4 to S+9 in CB yesterday with a crack after several 4v3 matches with ragequitting enemies. Nothing has changed, rank skips still exist and they're still arbitrary and chaotic.

 

[Mightysplat]

Lix, a friend of mine jumped from S+4 to S+9 in CB yesterday with a crack after several 4v3 matches with ragequitting enemies. Nothing has changed, rank skips still exist and they're still arbitrary and chaotic.

Yes I had a similar experience jumping from s+2 to s+7 with two cracks in CB today after never having skipped in S+.

 

[Mar$el]

I lost my RM X rank and can confirm that S+ is not what it was. I didn't get any lobbies above 2060 and I ranked back up to X in about 40 minutes going 7-1 (granted I was playing hero charger on port and mako RM so I already had that going for me). Interesting to see how much different it was. I don't really have anything else to note besides that. Time for a second shot at this power level with hopefully some better matches.

 

[Flammie]

I'm not a rank X player, but with Rank X established into Splat2, i can definitely say that S+ is now a lot more fair, and that team balance is a lot better than before.

Rank X fixed a lot of S+ lobby issues.

 

[Enperry]

I'm not a rank X player, but with Rank X established into Splat2, i can definitely say that S+ is now a lot more fair, and that team balance is a lot better than before.

Rank X fixed a lot of S+ lobby issues.

Not for me. No matter how supportive I play, my teammates are trash.

 

[Flammie]

Not for me. No matter how supportive I play, my teammates are trash.

If one strategy doesn't work, you'll have to fall onto another.
If support doesn't work, try more aggressive approach.

You can't be overly reliant on people better than you, sometime you have to rise up for the challenge.
Otherwise, what's the point of ranking up?

 

[Sifu]

If you are consistently losing games, the only constant factor is you. Instead of saying your teammates are trash, look to see what you can do better, and that is how you become a player more worthy of a high rank