The competitive state of Apex Legends has been a mess for the past few years, and developers have been scrambling to keep changing the game — but nothing seems to be working. On February 12th, Respawn Entertainment shared an update on Dropships in Ranked that had everyone infuriated once again, especially higher-ranked players.
In the latest Apex Legends update, developers explained that controlled Drop Zones in Ranked initially created “polarizing discussions,” but data showed a decline in Ranked players after they were implemented. This caused the team to “revert” the Drop Zones to their original state for Season 28.
“We know it’s early, but since the launch of Season 28, we have seen encouraging data to suggest more players on their Ranked journey and more matches being played, resulting in a more healthy game experience,” the update read on X. “We know stats don’t fully capture how matches feel and play out. We’re actively monitoring gameplay and testing potential adjustments based on what we’re seeing in the game and hearing from you.”
The team added that it’s essentially impossible to appease the entire player base. However, this update didn’t seem to please anyone.
Apex Legends’ competitive players are tired
What has seemed to really emphasize this unpopular change is the continued improvements in other games the last two months. Overwatch has revealed five heroes and a massive overhaul for Season 1, bringing in a record player count on Steam. Deadlock is looking to be growing in popularity with each update.
It sorta feels like being that one Jewish kid in the classroom while everyone is talking about Santa, new puppies, and piles of gifts under a tree.
There seemed to be two types of reactions to Apex Legends’ recent update on Dropships:
- First Group: WHY DID YOU CHANGE THE DROPSHIPS?
- Second Group: THE DROPSHIPS WERE NOT THE PROBLEM!
Both groups of ranked players seemed to latch onto one part of the update in particular: Respawn mentioning that there are more matches being played as a result of the Dropship changes. The competitive playerbase was quick to say that there are more matches because “people die within five minutes” due to the game’s currently unbalanced meta, massive amount of cheaters, an unhealthy focus on movement-based legends, and really bad ping spikes.
Gamers also wondered why Respawn has been trying to make a one-size-fits-all update that pleases everyone, anyway. If it’s so impossible, why do it?
Said one civilized comment, which was echoed by a few other players: “What if we have Dropships for lower ranks then introduce fixed POI’s once players hit a higher rank? (Diamond and up). Could potentially please both sides.”
Live service games are hard for developers
It’s not totally clear why Respawn Entertainment has never tried to make the experience different for casual and competitive players.
When I went to the Highguard launch event, I spoke with a lot of the Wildlight Entertainment developers, many of which had worked on Apex Legends. There was an echoed sentiment that they wanted to learn from the mistakes that were made while working on Apex, which seemed to be related to implementing community feedback.
Highgaurd devs admitted that many of them had not been ready to deal with that kind of quick turnaround. It was a lesson they took with them to Highguard — the team was ready to implement changes at the ready. And they did.
When feedback and criticism came in, developers responded to the players and made fast changes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Live service shooters are a tough genre. It’s oversaturated with games and the players have high expectations. They’re opinionated. They are passionate. They know exactly what they want to play.
It seems that Apex Legends has still not really learned how to implement player feedback, and that may become the game’s downfall.
Last Updated On: Feb 13, 2026 2:34 am CET