Quote Originally Posted by nickx View Post
Not necessarily disagreeing with your gear point, however, I think most true hardcore PvPers aren't interested as much in the rank-less gear decision and will not be leaving PvP. If anything, the real hardcore PvPers are more about the competition and are impatiently waiting for the Feast.
This is true, however you're not seeing competition the same way hardcore PvP'ers do. The removal of ranks is actually a bad sign for the future competition in PvP.

A lot of hardcore PvP'ers advocate for the re-establishment of Morale in PvP (at the very least in the upcoming ranked game modes) to encourage more competition. Further, given that SE has openly been pushing an E-sports agenda with Feast, raked rewards for gear, customization, and stat/skill allocation would make a HUGE difference in pre-made competitive teams, especially in tournaments (which SE has said, in an interview, that they are planning as a future goal if Feast is successful). All of these little things seems small, but real competitors would actually go the extra mile to make sure they are optimizing their load-outs.

The development of Feast, the way the game mode is set up, and the establishment of leagues and seasonal rankings, are a big leap forward in showing the community that they are taking a vested interest in making a viable, competitive, PvP environment. Removing ranks from PvP, on the other hand, is a huge leap backwards, and makes its seem like SE doesn't actually care about fostering a competitive PvP following, because there is nothing competitive about watering down the playing field and taking away long term goals from the players.