The official page of the Marvel Rivals Account has made a huge announcement, revealing a fantastic Ice Phoenix skin for Jean Grey, which will be available for purchase in the Season 5 permanent shop starting January 8. The legendary skin transforms the fiery superhero into a cold mythical creature, but the announcement did not go unnoticed and a velvet glove hid a stream of complaints from players about the free-to-play shooter’s continuous issues with matchmaking and balancing.
Marvel Rivals’ social media team showcased the seasonal headliner skin and it is, simply put, frozen. Jean Grey, also known as Phoenix, will have an Ice Phoenix outfit that certainly looks like a combination of Elsa’s wardrobe and her (Elsa’s) makeup attempt. The description really sounds great – “Frost and fire meet at my wings” – and, though it is lovely, the fact is that everybody just ran towards the picture right away. And the picture is… quite a lot. It is detailed, shiny, and… high thigh to put it in one word. The player with the nickname ‘Soft Sock’ announced “first time thigh reveal” and, honestly? They are not wrong. It is a declaration.
The comments flow indicates so much confusion in terms of players that it was seen in the days past when the skins came out. Some of the players who are with the skin pick are totally on the side of the new skin. User ‘Rex – JB7 IS OUT’ called the ultimate look “sick,” while ‘Somili_’ said it is “yuiful we will be buying.” One more player even compared her to Bloom from Winx Club, which is an obscure reference but I can see it? The blue hair, the magical vibes… yes. The art team is indeed appreciated a lot, user ‘Z A R A N A M I’ is rather forcefully asking what blackmail materials the skin designers have, because every new release is “so god-tier”. Unbelievable praise!
However, oh boy, the other half of comments does not even talk about the skin. It seems like a wave of game-related discontent has flooded the forum. The developers are as if they had made a call saying “look at this shiny new thing” and the entire player base has at once replied “CAN YOU FIX YOUR GAME PLEASE?” User ‘BauDistance’ has literally asked that! ‘Super Evil Panda’ speaks of being trapped in the hell of competition, saying “I literally cannot advance… because you keep pairing me with the same weak team time and again.” Ouch. That is a real mood killer.
And it is not just one person. ‘EngineerMeBBY’ has been playing for ten months and says the game has “never had a good answer to matchmaking and balance problems.” ‘AlonsoGT’ was quite fiery with his comment in Spanish, asking if they don’t have the budget for decent matchmaking (no need to translate, of course, Pinches chinos pendejos). There are calls to get rid of the slow Venom map, requests for Black Widow and Psylocke to get reworks or new skins, and just a general sense that, although the cosmetics are fire (or ice), the core gameplay experience is leaving players cold.
A few players are getting very deep into it. User ‘varrojalo’ suspects that they secretly buffed Phoenix’s right-click in the video, which brings up the whole other matter of balancing. And ‘vieuxnail’ pointed out that this is Phoenix’s second legendary skin while original characters like Widow have none, asking why this one isn’t limited-time. A debate even arises in the thread regarding a recent change to Phoenix’s melee spark ability with ‘chillgamer2077’ saying that its removal was a bad move since it was a unique part of her kit. So even the character-specific talk is about gameplay changes, not just the new look!
It is this strange duality that predominantly characterizes live service games these days. The content pipeline is bringing forth absolutely stunning visual works – who can argue that the Ice Phoenix design is anything less than skillfully created and very eye-catching? But on the other hand, the basic systems that the players use in every match are causing friction. Making Jean Grey wear the most beautiful crystal armor will not be worth it if the match in which you are wearing it is slow, unfair, and a stomp due to poor matchmaking, what is the use? Players like ‘Rah_Targaryen’ even mentioned that they do not like the hair and stockings of the skin, but this sounds like a very minor nitpick compared to the game-breaking issues that others are raising.
This whole saga shows a developing conflict in the rivalry games. The season’s stunning content and cosmetics are essential to the game’s novelty and revenue, but they do not do much if the primary assurance of a fair and functional match is missing. The players demand better core systems, a sentiment echoed across platforms like PlayStation and Xbox.
