Marvel Rivals Reverses Plans to Deliver Mid-Season Rank Reset Following Player Backlash

NetEase Games is walking back plans to issue a mid-season rank reset for Marvel Rivals Competitive players less than 24 hours after the move was announced.

The studio revealed the reversal with a new Dev Diary blog post on its website today. Its message says that, following “a wealth of feedback from the community,” there will no longer be a four-division hit to players’ Competitive rank when the Season 1 mid-season update arrives on its previously announced release date of February 21. Instead, NetEase says “players will retain their ranks and scores from the end of the first half.” It appears the change will carry over to future seasons as well, and it seems the six-division rank drop is still set to arrive at the end of full seasons.

Thank you for all your passionate discussions and feedback. There wil be NO RANK RESET when the second half of the season begins! Check out the details here! https://t.co/zM4IWsVRw0 #marvelrivals pic.twitter.com/7Cpn3aiwUx

— Marvel Rivals (@MarvelRivals) February 11, 2025

“We strive to make Marvel Rivals the best game it can be, and the community is the driving force behind this mission,” NetEase’s post says. “Please stay tuned to our official channels for more updates on the second half of the season. Your engagement and support mean the world to us, and we’re excited to continue this journey together!”

It’s surprising news that comes with the promise that Gold rank players will still receive the previously promised costume reward and Crests of Honor rewards. For players of all ranks to earn the new rewards, they only need to complete 10 Competitive matches and then meet the conditions before the season comes to an end. In other words, NetEase is gutting the issue players were upset about and keeping everything else.

Marvel Rivals’ rank reset was announced yesterday and was immediately met with concern and criticism from fans. As NetEase explained, the main complaint saw players worried that ranked mode would be less enjoyable if they needed to work to keep up with continuous rank resets every month and a half or so. That idea has now been killed less than one day after the mid-season Competitive change was announced, resulting in shock from those who aren’t used to seeing developers address fan feedback so quickly.

This is actually insane. They announced a rank reset and there was instant negative backlash from the community. THEN THEY LISTENED AND REVERSED THEIR DECISION??????

HELLO THIS IS UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS OF LISTENING TO THE COMMUNITY HELLO https://t.co/qe0tgyeyz0

— eggwick (@eggwickgg) February 11, 2025

Major W

— Flats (@Flats_OW) February 11, 2025

Devs that listen to the community? Yall are amazing pic.twitter.com/gIHdftSBMI

— NightmareDetective 🦑 🔍 (@Nightmare_Det) February 11, 2025

Competitive changes aren’t the only thing coming with Marvel Rivals’ mid-season update next week. Long-awaited hero additions The Thing and Human Torch will finally bring the Fantastic 4 together when they release as playable characters, too. NetEase has also told players to expect “major balance adjustments” as well, though it’s unclear how exactly things will be tweaked. For more on Marvel Rivals, you can read our deep dive into why some players thought NetEase was planting fake hero leaks. You can also learn more about Marvel Rivals’ alleged bot issue.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).