For all the info about the S3.5 patch, Marvel Rivals has dropped a bombshell, and the community has not been pleased, to say the least. But officially, it used to be a regular update with a maintenance on the 8th of August starting at 9 AM UTC, with 2-3 hours of downtime expected. However, the key topic shared new party size restrictions for ranked games; and oh, boy, the backlash has been really real.
The situation goes like: As soon as S3.5 drops, there will be a maximum queue of three players in Platinum, Diamond, and Grandmaster ranks. No more stomping in ranked bigger parties. The devs say it is for “competitive integrity balance,” whilst straightforwardly being called a betrayal by the community.
Longtime player TheCallofDutyDJ summed this up: “My friend group is 4 people, and I won’t play without them. We hardly get to play, and we hover around D1-GM3. Bought every battle pass, event pass, and many skins. Big RIP đź’€”. Oof. That’s a whole mood. There are more: Sticks Gaming said this change is “really bad” for casual stacks in GM and below and perhaps even foresaw a mass exodus if it goes through.
Zuse_OW continued: “This party size change is horrendous for the community, what an insane middle finger to 40% of the players.” Honestly? Maybe they were right. Another fear is that this might just push high-ranked stacks to quick play (where they will abuse it) or, even worse—smurfing. P1geon_YT expressed it perfectly: “All this is going to do is inflate Bronze/Silver and Gold as people will create more smurf accounts so they can play with friends.”
And there was resentment for matchmaking as well. At this point, i_dontknow07 threw some shade: “Doing anything and everything but fix the matchmaking……” while ImBrometheus straight-up replied: “Get rid of EOMM, this game is dead until then.” YIKES.
Some players like schlattius defended the change by pointing out that high ranks should demand better coordination. But the majority agreed? None of them agreed. Parker West called it “actually fucking insane,” and ya_number1_oreo felt the devs were “out of touch.” Even normally laid-back Dajeero was calling for an “asap” revert.
What now? If the backlash gets loud enough, they might have to walk it back, or else they risk losing a chunk of their player base. Regardless, August 8 is definitely going to be… something. Server maintenance; that’s one thing. But a community revolt? Quite a different patch note.
In summation: Ranked play is being changed by Marvel Rivals, and the players are NOT having it. Will the devs listen to the players, or find themselves in a tighter spot? Popcorn raining from all sides. This will be messy.
