NICKMERCS wants one big Apex Legends ranked change, but it could lead to “boosting”

Nick ‘NICKMERCS’ Kolcheff is calling for one major Apex Legends ranked change ⁠— inspired by the title’s pro tour ⁠— that he believes could solve the battle royale’s competitive grind, but admits the bold idea could lead to new “boosting” issues.

“RP” has been a hot topic in Apex Legends for a while now.

The battle royale’s competitive currency has been part of the title since 2019 and, for the most part, has been relatively well-received. The way the points work means you don’t have to score a hard-earned victory to climb; instead, kills, assists, and placements help that goal too.

There is one issue that arises from the “RP” ⁠— Ranked Points, that is ⁠— is that survival hands Apex Legends big boosts, multiplying any kill or assist points a player may have raked in across the competitive lobby.

That means ranked players will “rat” (hide until the end), often kill-stealing from teammates in an effort to climb faster, and NICKMERCS has had enough.

The Twitch star’s call for new Apex Legends ranked changes came after fellow streaming star Jack ‘CouRageJD’ Dunlop raised the topic on Twitter.

The 100 Thieves co-owner is another streamer fed up with the way the “KP” system works and believes there should be a change. According to Dunlop and Kolcheff, there seems to be an easy solution: make points a team-based bonus.

NICKMERCS threw out the suggestion after seeing a similar system being used in the battle royale’s pro ALGS scene, where they share points around the three-man squad.

The Twitch star claimed Apex queues should have the same, and brought up an example of why. “I had a team fight the other day, right? I did 400 damage, went down, my teammates cleaned it up. W. 100 damage for each.

“Then, they both got three KP, I got zero. L. That’s 400 for zero, 100 for three, 100 for three.”

“That’s f**ked,” he added, “and it shouldn’t be a thing.”

There is one big issue with NICKMERCS’ idea, however.

That big problem, as many may have guessed, is boosting. Allowing a full Apex Legends squad to share their points means a high-level player could log on to a lower-ranked account, dominate a lobby with kills and assists, and hand those points to the two other players they were boosting, whether the RP was actually earned or not.

NICKMERCS concedes his idea isn’t perfect, and warns if Respawn did decide to implement it, they’d have to think long and hard about how they would manage that “boosting” issue so that it wasn’t used and abused.

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“My main concern for this in Apex Legends ranked would be that it could lead to players boosting,” the Twitch star admitted. “I just don’t really know how ya fix it.”

Since making the move from Warzone to Apex Legends, NICKMERCS has been quite outspoken about the game’s balance and ranked experience, and hasn’t been afraid to drop suggestions on how he thinks the battle royale can improve.

This isn’t the first time he’s gone after ranked either.

Earlier this month, the Twitch streamer took aim at Apex Legends ranked protection. He claimed it “artificially” boosts each player’s ranks, and often keeps “poor” competitors stuck in tiers they don’t actually deserve.

“I think this game has one of the best ranked modes ever created,” he said, but had more to add. “Aside from one thing: I don’t believe in the ranked protection, at all. You should be able to lose and drop out of ranks. It promotes careless gameplay, because, no matter what, you have this net at the bottom.”

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He also weighed in on the aim assist debate in late August, saying “It’s funny. All these keyboard and mouse guys say aim assist is broken. Why do you care?”