@ajsTV-Pokemon
I was excited for Ranked, Got into Master ball and didn't play a single game after that. The grind was brutal
@toastytom10
I liked the win streak bonuses in lower ranks and thought Ultra was too grindy without them. I made it to Ultra 4
@aceofaces0007
Totally agree with everything said here. Once I hit Ultra Ball, the experience became miserable. Ultra Ball was way too punishing and grindy, and the Giratina meta reared its ugly head. When I first reached Ultra Ball, I had a win rate of about 67%, only to watch that plummet to 55% because people figured out Giratina was THE deck to play, and I was trying in vain to find a counter to Giratina, but no such counter existed in this set. I definitely hit that wall of "Nah, I'm good" when I got to Ultra Ball 2 because of how sick I was of seeing Giratina everywhere, and also because of how pathetic the rewards are for a month of mind-numbing grinding. He's absolutely right that this game's ranked mode does not reward skill, or even luck. It rewards time spent grinding the sweatiest decks in the meta, which is contrary to the game being friendly to casual players who just wanna collect cards and maybe battle every once in a while when they have a few spare minutes in their day. This isn't League of Legends, but this ranked mode certainly wanted to be as unforgiving and grindy as League. I seriously hope Season 2 has better rewards, is more forgiving by removing rank demotion and making the win streak bonus available in Ultra Ball, and I also hope they consider banning certain cards (or setting deck restrictions to prevent these 16-18 trainer decks that have so few Pokemon, like Darkrai/Giratina, and load up on trainer cards) in Season 2 of Ranked in order to promote a different meta in ranked play. Sweaty, problematic cards/decks can remain untouched in casual queues, but the Dev team should be taking some serious notes about how much this ranked format discourages people from playing once they reach a certain tier and discourages branching out from the most meta deck. Chalk this one up to a learning experience, but Season 2 needs to implement some amount of change. Doing nothing risks tanking the game's long-term success.
@Yoshi_Orta
Before Ranked started, I was super excited! I've never really gotten into any sort of Pokémon Competitive Meta (or any other sort of game, really), so I thought this would be a really fun first-try for me! And it was in the beginning! I had a 12 win streak and I was super excited to keep playing; I genuinely thought I could make it to Master Rank if I tried. But then I reached Ultra Ball rank. I played 24 matched in total, lost 10 but won 14, so like 58% win rate. And seeing all that hard work only translating to like a small percentage for what I needed to get to the next Ultra rank (let alone Masters) really cut off all of my excitement. I decided to stay on that first Ultra Rank; never advanced to the next, nor did I want to keep trying. I don't really know how it is in other games but, realizing I'd have to be playing days and days non-stop to reach my objective made me realize this sort of thing isn't for me. Specially knowing the rewards where the equivalent of me logging into the game for around three days, since I have the Premium Pass. I love this game a lot, but if the next season is the exact same, I'd rather keep having fun experimenting with fun decks and collecting new cards rather that get frustated that two hours of gaming only amount to so, so little, specially against neverending Giratinas and Darkrais Hahahaha Sorry for the ramble here! But that'd be my personal experience! I know it's different for everyone, but I hope I answered the questions in the video nicely! Keep being awesome!
@johncarlosanchez7841
As someone who’s casually into rank systems in other games, Pocket’s version definitely felt way more grindy than others I’ve played in. I had little expectations going in, honestly I thought it was gonna be like those tournaments they did before, and it was. For my final rank though, I got to Ultra 4. Definitely set a mission for myself to rank up only with Clodsire decks, so I’m really proud of where I ended up being especially with all the meta Giratina, Darkrai, and Gyaradoses out there.
@MrQu1ncy
1. Were you excited about rank? more yes than no, gives the game a good reason to play outside of collecting 2. How do you feel now? I hated rank, way too much grind. 25hrs of my life i'll never get back. 3. Where did you end your season? Masters, after hitting masters, i just didn't play rank again. needed a break.
@matthewpullara7176
Firstly, thank you for all of your videos, they’re always insightful, fair and fun. 1. I was not really excited about ranked. 2. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The thing I liked the most was not dropping too many points for losing games in the earlier matches. 3. I played Meow-Beedrill then Meow-Magnazone the latter being much more consistent without relying on coin flips at certain points. I ended up at Ultra 1 and stopped playing. It felt like losing 7 points was too much, given how much luck can be a factor in the cards you draw. Especially given the meta. I would’ve kept playing if you only would’ve only lost 5 points for losses in Ultra Ball and/or you didn’t drop down in rank once you’d got there. The only reason I kept playing meow decks was to counter the meta, I didn’t want to play Giratina Darkrai myself. I would’ve used a much wider variety of decks if I thought it was feasible.
@kripz7023
honestly as a casual player reaching ultra ball was sufficient enough for me in terms of rewards-time ratio. if changes are made next season then i would definitely reconsider struggling through the constant meta repetition match ups
@robertm5110
Got to Ultra Ball Rank, saw that I went back to Great Ball, got back to Ultra Ball, and called it a day. 75 hourglasses is good enough for me.
@tylerliebel6080
I think if they add ranked floors it would benefit everyone. Hit your goal and then play some fun decks without fear of falling out
@zts693
15:50 yep - about halfway through the season I was straddling between GB4 and UB1. Kept getting to Ultra and then bouncing out. Just the grind at that point was so aggravating I decided to quit ranked in Ultra Ball to collect the emblem/rewards and keep my sanity.
@Teurogo
Was excited for ranked and ended Masterball. Was kind of disappointed as I felt as if the rewards were more representative of how many games you put in rather than how skilled you were at the game. It's never gonna happen but an ELO/MMR system similar to MOBAs would be more fun for me personally.
@jimboUnite
1) before ranked came out I was mildly looking forward to it 2) after it came out I actually enjoyed the higher quality games where 1 misplay would cost you the entire game, and I really felt like it was forcing me to improve as a player in a way the casual queue wasn't prior 3) I ended at 1688 after a loss streak from 1768, this happened about a week and a half before ranked ended, where a new game came out that i got into so i decided to just stop there since it was still above the max reset threshold and would likely still get the top 10k badge. Really enjoy ranked and am looking forward to playing the next season. As for the decks I played, I got to masters with a 60% winrate playing mostly snorlax, after hitting masters I started to play a variety of meta decks but never touched darkrai gira
@Arcane0085
Ranked ❌ Darktina vs everyone ✅
@neri1220
I feel like due to having split levels of each rank (i.e. Ultra Rank 1, Ultra Rank 2, etc) the system where you cannot drop below your rank would make a lot of sense. Plus the safety of not dropping from certain rank ONCE YOU REACH it would encourage people to play, so i agree with you 100%. Having said that if we wouldn't drop from Master Rank i belive a lot of players would enjoy continuing to play in Master Rank. See, there's no such thing as Master Rank 1, Master Rank 2, etc. No. Wich means people would have to work hard for top 10.000 as usual but the experience before that would be healthier and would give better impression to the players. Right now the way the system is implemented many people started hating this game and that is not good for the developers. I was even thinking that win streak should continue in ultra rank, but with less points given: 2 points for 2 wins in a row, 3 points for 3 wins, 4 points for 4, etc. And in Master Ball you'd get no win streaks and no safety net of reaching master rank 2 (since it doesn't exist). Those changes would make ranked system in Pokemon Pocket amazing imo.
@sppp
I was excited for people who wanted ranked to have a new way to play. I still feel the same way. However, I have no actual interest in partaking in ranked so I ended the season at the bottom of the barrel lol
@jasonackerman9065
As a Dad with a young kid I don't have the time to grind for hours a day. I did make it to Ultra 1 and almost Ultra 2. I've found that the deck that gets you through a rank can only get you so far if you're playing off meta. I really enjoyed playing Wugtrio/ Palkia EX and later Dragonite. Once Gyrados EX and Meowscarada became so popular I got really bored because they are not fun to play against. I did play a little darktina but it was a different makeup that while less consistent was more fun and flexible by running psychic energy and baby psychic Tina (which I used as a wall that could also attack) and 1 giratina EX, rather than 2.
@viniciuspaiva8932
i liked ranked, actually felt like a nice incentive to battle. finished in great ball 2, but it felt grindy so i stopped to maintain my rank lol. i hope the wins gave you more xp (15 is a joke) and each rank up you achieve could give a couple of hourglasses too.
@maxclarke5163
I really enjoyed the ranked journey this season. As a card game veteran, I believe reaching the top rank should feel like a real achievement, not something easily done every season. Dropping ranks can feel a bit harsh, and the limited tiers make progression seem grindy, but that’s part of the TCG grind — learning the meta and improving. If hitting Master Ball was easy, the game would get boring. Reaching it this season felt genuinely rewarding
@kennyborn202