Dear SE. fix your garbage matchmaking.

[Aviars]

I wouldn't consider FFXIV a "serious competitive game". The whole idea of ranked was pretty much like:"Yo dawgs, I herd you liek rankz and competitive shite.", without much thought behind whether or how it would work out. It was a mistake to dump it into a playerbase as small as this in the first place, because now people take it serious and expect things SE cannot deliver.

I dare them to implement a proper matchmaking algorithm as it is found in the most sophisticated PvP games and see just how quickly the queues die completely.

There was interest in Feast early on. Especially the Pre-Season. Exodus is a pretty small server and yet the Wolves Den Pier was looking like Idllyshire. It's just that after people got their Feast mount and/or Fenrir pup they never played again. It's like how people hate Shatter, but they play it for the mount and never play again. There is nothing in it for people to exclusively play Feast on a weekly/daily basis like Lore tomes does to keep people playing dungeons.

There really needs to be something that makes people want to PVP reward wise.

[NargaHuntress]

they said they are adding unranked 4v4 matches that can be spectated. when that comes into play. i hope the vets will take time to teach the new players how to pvp as in what and what not to do. but i do believe there should be at least a warning saying that you must have at least a small understanding of pvp mechanics befor attempting ranked matches. as of right now there is only one way to learn or practice and its going to mess with your "quality" matches.

[Zojha]

There was interest in Feast early on.

Oh, most definitely. Even 8vs8 had very short queue times, which I rather miss since I much prefer more chaotic matches (I still put it in the queue when I feel like PvPing, but it doesn't pop). However, that was just people flocking to the new and shiny content - the people I got to give it a try left before they even got any sort of reward. And honestly, the only reason I keep trying (and failing) to really get into PvP is because I generally like PvP - I have thousands of League of Legends matches, WoW battlegrounds (Pre-resilience), Smash brothers, Bloody Roar, Ninja Storm, Soul Calibur and Tekken matches as well as Unreal Tournament, Counter Strike and WC3 maps under my belt, all of which I gladly played without a reward because they were plain and simply fun to do over and over, which is the best reward you can get.

But here? PvP just makes me want to strangle healers when I'm not playing one myself. And the times my skills animate without actually going through (including limit breaks, which still keep me locked in place during the animation for good measure) are more numerous than I care to count. Playing a healer myself isn't exactly a blast either, even if I do appreciate not being another DPS with a regen spell for a change. It's one of the most frustrating PvP experiences ever and consequently, I can't take more than a few games every now and again without it negatively affecting my mood, so I often tend to just play a different game altogether when I feel like PvP. I'd really like to PvP, because it's not scripted and thus, has potential to be an oasis in our script-heavy PvE endgame, which is why I keep haunting this forum and still do occasional matches, but it's just plain miserable.

But, this leads off topic.
The main issue on topic is that the ranking system requires a large playerbase to function and for whatever reasons (every person has their own), we do not have that playerbase. Right now, each and every effort into PvP on the side of SE should be dedicated to finding ways to fix that, because it's the only way they can actually increase quality of matches without queues dying. They can try rewards as you say, but I doubt it'll have any long-term effect - the top 100 rewards definitely don't seem to have any significant one.

[Yoruno]

I agree. It's not fair on old players, and it's not fair on new players. Feast in the 2nd season has all round become a way more toxic environment. Victories are based upon how well you can focus a new healer. For the veteran players who are trying their utmost to get a good ranking this can be frustrating, and the biggest problem is new players to the feast seem like they have a religion against listening. I've seen the most passive players lose their cool at other players just for neglecting to do the most basic of things. Spamming please stand in prism, or please pick up medals just to get ignored. Players have gone so far to make macros and mark enemies to make it easier for these players but this is still all neglected.

Ontop of that, players are then given warnings for spamming these macros to guide players in the heat of the battle but people who are clearly wintrading are blatantly ignored. The message quite frankly to me seems that fair gameplay is no longer rewarded.