I've navigated Marvel Rivals' chaotic ranked play and dragged myself out of Plat hell, which means it's time to start preparing to do it all over again next season

At the beginning of every season in Marvel Rivals, each player will get a rank reset and will be demoted around seven tiers (unless they're already floating around the bottom), meaning they'll all just get grouped in Bronze 3. This reset has meant that the first half of Season 1 has—what I can only imagine—felt like a free-for-all fistfight inside a house that's on fire, and every so often, one of your teammates pours gasoline everywhere—so, yeah, it's been fun.

After climbing up to Diamond in Season 0, I started this season off in Silver 1. I actually wasn't aware of just how severe this rank reset was going to be, and I was unpleasantly surprised to realise I would be back fighting in Silver and Gold lobbies.

For those of you who don't know what it's like to play in these lobbies, first off, count yourself lucky. Secondly, they can be pretty hit-and-miss when it comes to skill and your teammates actually having brain cells—I've played alongside a Spider-Man who was just as helpful as a pineapple with a mouse and keyboard.

As per usual, the quality of your teammates can vary—as can the amount of sweat you need to put into pulling out a W. Most of the games were an easy win, but every now and then, I'd come across a team from hell; at this point, we'd get humbled and easily crushed by the opposition.

There's nothing more soul-destroying than seeing a Grand Master on the other team as you're loading into a ranked game. Players who finished at GM or Eternity last season get a silver crest of honour (this will also apply to those who finish in Celestial going forward), so you can always tell when you're in for a hard time. Players that have this crest aren't necessarily going to win 100% of the time, but they are responsible for some of the hardest matches I've come across.

A couple of nights ago, I came across a team in which four out of the six players had this icon. The match was on Yggdrasill Path, and we were on attack first. Getting those goats through the first game was like trying to wade through wet cement. Despite my entire team putting up a decent fight, we weren't able to win.

It was a close game, mind, which soothes my pride—but my team definitely had a harder time trying to keep up with the opposition. They were impressively coordinated to the point where they were synchronising point pushes and flanks on our strategists, staggering their ults, and tracking ours without fail.

But that's just part of the game of trying to rank up in Marvel Rivals. It seems to be pretty commonplace that after a few good wins, players will then come up against a crushing loss. I've seen tons of players discuss just how tough Marvel Rivals' competitive losing streak can be and how sometimes it just doesn't feel like a fair fight at all.

"I am not upset about losing; what upsets me the most is that there was zero shot of winning the match," one player says. "When I get to rank 1 in a tier, and I'm close to ranking up, the party matchmaker gives me the most heinous group of people to play with. Instalocking dps, getting zero kills, and spreading out to the four corners of the map for no reason. That one random guy who loads in five minutes after the match starts. Getting straight stomped, to the point the other team is confused as to why they got a bot match in competitive."

I've had my fair share of loss streaks, but as long as you perform well in each match, your last season's rating will cushion the blow somewhat until the game is around long enough for MMR to properly kick in. I've lost six games in a row before and only fell two tiers; then, after winning two games, I rose back to Plat 1. It is a bit messy, but until you start losing the same amount of competitive points for a loss as you gain for a win, it means the SBMM doesn't think you've found your forever rank.

Speaking from experience

Even still, sometimes it's not enough to rely on the obscure and sometimes cruel gods of ranked matchmaking to help you rank up. There are a few variables that you can control, which will help you climb up the ranks.

The easy one is to start early. While the first few weeks of a new season, after a rank reset, are pretty chaotic, I've seen that it can be harder to rank up if you leave it too late and get stuck with players who should actually be placed in the lower tiers. One of my mates left it too late to climb with us, and fought against some real characters to get within queuing distance of our squad. We'd hear horror stories every night, like the one time he came across a Spider-Man player who was adamant that he could act as a tank.

Apart from communicating with a team, learning to track ultimates (especially ones that can counter you), learning a wide range of heroes across the roles, and keeping on top of the current meta, the best, easiest way to climb is to just queue alongside a team.

Like every other team-based competitive shooter, the worst part of a match is always the players. Unlike games like CS2 or Valorant, where an individual player can really make a difference in the outcome of a match, Marvel Rivals relies on teamwork to win matches. That's not to say an individual can't make a game-saving play, but there is a limit as to how much one person can carry an entire team.

So, the easiest way to circumvent the frustration of having sporadic teammates is to queue with the same people. Having a recurring team takes some of the coin flip out of your climbing, plus it's easier to coordinate attacks when you're playing with people you know and have practiced with.

But probably the best tip I've heard when it comes to playing competitive queue in Marvel Rivals is to try not to take it too seriously. I understand that this is easier said than done, but having gone from being too invested and competitive in Overwatch 2 to not actually caring if I rank up or down has not just helped my mental, but also meant that I actually enjoy most of the competitive games I play. At the end of the day, it's all just pixels, and the most important part is that you actually have a fun time, not just a successful one—on the other hand, both. Both is good.