There is no reward for playing well.

[Valence]

I mean, I think it's clear that Square-Enix didn't really approach ranked mode from a true "competitive game" standpoint - I refuse to believe that there's no one on the team that actually understands the basics of a competitive ladder system. I think they just tried to provide a Diet Coke solution to the problem, because XIV is a game that tends to go out of its way to avoid putting its players in any kind of "you failed cuz you suck" situation unless they more or less explicitly ask for it (ultimates.) That's mutually exclusive with proper ladder systems for obvious reasons. There may also be concerns about breeding toxicity? But you can just look at your average Frontlines game chat and see that they aren't exactly avoiding that kind of thing with the game's PvP, to say nothing of chatwheel spammers present even in unranked CC games.

My firm belief is that they should have hit the ground running with two options: unranked mode, where you may queue with one friend; and formal ranked PvP Teams mode, which would launch a one or two weeks after the initial debut of the mode, so that players have time to get used to things first. I, personally, also would not have released the new PvP mode at the same time as a new savage tier - to me, PvP (particularly "serious" PvP) is something that should be held back for "in-between" patches, since a new savage tier tends to bogart the majority of "hardcore" players for weeks at a time anyway. And the ranked mode would use a typical Elo- or TrueSkill-derived system like everyone else uses.

If that would have resulted in ranked queue "dying"... then that's fine, it's proving that there isn't enough of a "hardcore PvPer" playerbase to support such a thing. At that point, split the queue into "solo" and "play with up to a full team of friends" and be done with it.

I kinda agree on the principle but I just think that if a mode is already barely meeting the number requirements for basic solo ranked, I have no idea how a team ranked or any other mode requiring people to actually get together and set up times would even work tbh. Honestly at this point, ranked and casual are already competing for numbers and queues...

And team ranked is legit my biggest wish and has always been. I could also settle for a team casual to play with my casual friendos.