The Thing That Fortnite MUST ADD! Fortnite Battle Royale Ranked Game Mode

Hey what is going on guys, in this article today we're gonna be going over the #1 thing that Fortnite needs right now, and that, is a ranked playlist. Dedicated ranked playlist's are a staple of a ton of the most successful and popular video games of our era. Just to name a few of the most notable examples: Halo, Call of Duty, Overwatch, League of Legends, and Counter Strike have all successfully implemented some form of a permanent ranked game mode into their games. 

A mode where you can play with and against other players with your same skill level while continually ranking up or down based on your performance. Although Fortnite has been around for about a year and a half now, and Epic games is clearly very dedicated to the competitive potential of their game, there's still no real sign of a ranked mode on the horizon. 

Don't get me wrong, this wouldn't be as simple as just adding a new weapon or item into the game. It would take a lot of time, effort, and other resources from Epic to get this done. But, it would be worth it, and by the end of this video, I truly believe that I'll be able to convince you guys, that a ranked playlist would be one of the only possible additions to Fortnite, that would benefit literally EVERY single person who plays the game. So, without further ado let's get right into. 

So let's start this video off by going in-depth into why a permanent ranked mode would be beneficial for all fortnite players, no matter their skill level. Let's begin with the most obvious beneficiaries of a ranked mode, the really good fortnite players. And although I don't think it's too difficult to understand why the best of the best Fortnite players want a ranked mode, I wanna share a quote from nickmercs that really puts it all into perspective. After playing the winter royale qualifier a few weeks ago he made the following statement on stream. 

I'll tell you, I wish we could play in those qualifiers right now, People have been telling me about these ranked playlists that they want, and for a long time I've kind of been against it. I see what Epic is doing by keeping everybody in the same playlist, in the same lobby, you know, everybody in the same pot. I get it. I see what that's all about. But now, after playing that for 12 hours? (referring to the winter royale qualifiers) I don't want to play this (referring to public matches). I don't want to do this. This sucks. 

It's slow, it's full of a bunch of pop-tarts, nobody is about it." And just the way he said it, you could tell that was how he really felt it about it. And this is a common feeling amongst most of the top fortnite player like nickmercs and all of the other pros you see competing in the top-level competitive events. And it's probably the biggest reason why the pop-up cups in Fortnite have been so well-received by the pros specifically. But, you gotta understand that although those pop-up cups are nice, they aren't the same thing as a dedicated ranked playlist/game mode. 

Each cup only runs for a few hours during pre-determined times, and whatever point amount you reached in the cup ends up being erased as soon as it ends. While a legitimate ranked mode is available to be played 24/7, always gives you the ability to progress your ranking, and maybe does a seasonal reset of ranks every few months. But, I don't think it's too hard to understand why a ranked playlist would be awesome for pros, and, nobody really debates that fact. However, what a lot of people don't understand when it comes to ranked, is that it would honestly probably benefit bad and even average players more than the pros. 

It's an absolute fact that Epic Games is for the most part, always trying to make their game as new player-friendly as possible. They basically want guys who are just playing the game for the first time in their lives, to be able to get a victory royale ASAP. If the game becomes too difficult for new players to succeed in, then they'll stop playing, then the player base begins to diminish, and that ends with Epic making less and less money. And a lot of people see that as "scummy" or "greedy", but, the fact of the matter is, it's the same way with pretty much every video game that makes a large chunk of their money from in-game purchases. That's why you're always seeing Epic try to tip-toe this very thin line of adding items, adding weapons, and making changes which reward bad players while also trying to not ruin the game for their most dedicated players. Sometimes it works and other times it ends in a disaster like you saw with the infinity blade. So, let me explain to you how a ranked playlist would help new players more than any possible noob-friendly weapon or item that Epic could ever design. I'm recording this video right now at about 4 PM on a Saturday. 

Lets pretend that I'm Tfue for a second. If I wanted to hop on and play some Fortnite against enemies I would have 2 options and only 2 options. I could play whatever LTM is out right now, or, I could play a regular game mode (solos/duos/squads). Now most of the time these LTMs are just silly game modes that honestly aren't all that fun, so, I choose to play public matches. And since I'm Tfue, I'm going to go into each public match I play and just absolutely dominate every thing in my path. I mean, I bet that tfue has singlehandidly made at least a few newer Fortnite players quit the game all together just because of how easily he killed them. Now, let's do this scenario again, it's still 4 PM on a Saturday, I'm still tfue, but, this time there are 3 options instead of 2. Whatever LTM is out, public matches, and a permanent ranked mode. 

Since I'm tfue and I love playing against other competitive players I'm going to pick ranked, and now public matches are safe from my reign of terror. And you may say, "oh that's just 1 guy, who cares?" but trust me, so many really good Fortnite players would do the exact same thing as tfue and play ranked over pubs 9/10 times. This would plain and simple cause a MASSIVE dropoff in the overall skill level of public match lobbies: solos, duos, and squads, all of them. That may sound like a negative thing at first, but, for Epic that probably sounds like music to their ears. And even though I'm about 99% sure this would happen, it is still just a theory. However, I think you can already see somewhat tangible proof of this, just on a smaller scale. 

Try to pay attention to the skill level of the the lobbies you play in when there isn't a pop-up cup going on vs. when their is a pop-up cup going on. And you also gotta make sure the game modes match-up, so like a solo-pop up cup will obviously have the biggest effect on public match solos. It may just be confirmation bias on my part, but, I seriously believe you can see the drop-off in the skill of a lobby first hand in that scenario, because all the best players are playing the solo pop-up cup instead of just normal solos. So, if a ranked mode would be beneficial for every fortnite player, why isn't it in the game yet? It's a fair question to ask of Epic, and it's a question that a lot of people have already asked and continue to ask. Fortnite may be the most successful video game of all time and Epic has proved time and time again that they will go above and beyond to make Fortnite a more enjoyable experience. So, I don't really buy into the common answer of "Oh, Epic is just lazy that's why they haven't done this yet." 

I believe that the reason we don't have ranked yet, is because it will be very challenged to find a scoring system for ranking up/ranking down that works in Fortnite. At the very beginning of this video I mentioned about 5 different games that have had or still have a successful ranked mode. Those games were halo, call of duty, overwatch, league of legends, and counter strike. Well, all 5 of those games are team vs. team based games, while Fortnite is a battle royale game. Using overwatch as an example, since that's the game I had the most ranked experience with, it was a simple as this: After playing a few placement matches at the beginning of each season you would be assigned a skill rating. And in every game every player in the lobby would have very near the same skill rating. Therefore, if your team won the game you'd gain skill rating points and if your team lost the game you would lose skill rating points.

On top of that, your personal performance would be factored into how many points you either won or lot. This system simply wouldn't work in Fortnite because there is only 1 winner in a match which contains 80-100 players. So that is hands down the biggest question mark when it comes to a permanent ranked mode in Fortnite. Because if Epic screws this up, it could absolutely ruin the ranked experience in general. I believe that the scoring and ranking up/down system would kinda have to work like a pop-up cup. Let's say each kill is valued at 1 point and certain placement thresholds are also valued at 1 point. It would have to be something like: Anything under 2 points in a game you lose skill rating, 2 points exactly your skill rating stays the same, anything over 2 you gain skill rating, and obviously the higher over 2 you get the more rating you gain. 

And those are just arbitrary numbers, and just one example of a possible scoring system that could work. The truth is, this is something that Epic would really have to spend some time to get down perfectly, because it is very challenging in a battle royale game. So, I hope you guys enjoyed this video and if you watched the entire thing be sure to let me know with a comment down in the comment section below. What are you thought on a permanent ranked mode/playlist in Fortnite? Is it something you wanted? Do you think it would work in the game? Would you play it if it came out?