As a dedicated Marvel Rivals player, I have to say, the state of the competitive mode right now feels... well, a bit of a mess. Honestly, it hasn't been smooth sailing for a while now—last season was rough with all the matchmaking and hero balance complaints floating around. And now, here we are in 2026 with Season 3.5, and NetEase's latest "fix" has the community buzzing, and not in a good way. It's like they tried to put out a small kitchen fire with a fire hose and ended up flooding the whole apartment.

The core of the controversy is this new restriction on how many friends you can queue up with in competitive play. The full team size is still six, but depending on your rank, your squad gets smaller. Let me break down what the patch notes actually mean for us players:

The New Competitive Queue Restrictions (Season 3.5):

Rank Tier	Maximum Party Size	Teammate Situation
Gold & Below	2, 3, 4, or 6	(Weirdly, no 5-stack allowed! 🤷)
Platinum to Grandmaster	3	You get 3 random teammates
Celestial & Above	2	You get 4 random teammates

So, if you and your crew love climbing the ranks together, you'd better not aim too high. Reaching Platinum basically means breaking up the band. It's a real gut punch for the social aspect of the game.

Now, I can sorta see what NetEase was trying to do here. They're aiming to stop a coordinated six-stack from absolutely steamrolling through solo queue teams. It's also probably an attempt to curb "boosting," where less-skilled players get carried to high ranks by their superstar friends. If you're only duoing, you really have to bring your own skills to the fight—no hiding in a full premade. That part makes sense on paper.

But here's the thing... this solution feels so extreme. It's like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Were six-stacks really the biggest problem in competitive? From my experience, and from chatting with others in the community, the issues run deeper—unbalanced heroes, wonky matchmaking, the lack of placement matches we've been begging for... you know, the usual suspects.

This change has some nasty side effects, too. What's going to happen to all those high-ranked six-stack teams (Celestial and above) who can't play together in comp anymore? My friend Josh, a fellow Rivals enthusiast, pointed out the obvious: they'll likely just take their coordinated chaos to Quick Play. So now, the casual mode where folks go to relax, try new heroes like experimenting with a tricky Doctor Strange portal play, or just have fun, might become a nightmare of getting stomped by top-tier stacks. Talk about missing the mark!

Let's weigh the pros and cons, shall we?

Potential Pros:

• Maybe reduces solo queue vs. full stack stomps.

• Could make individual skill more impactful in higher ranks.

Glaring Cons:

• 😠 Severely limits playing with friends at higher levels.

• 😟 Pushes coordinated high-rank teams into Quick Play, ruining its casual vibe.

• 🤔 Doesn't address core issues like matchmaking or hero balance.

• 😞 Feels like a punishment for players who are social and enjoy team play.

So, to sum it all up from my perspective: we're getting fewer chances to play competitively with our friends, and our casual play space might become a sweatfest. It's a lose-lose for the community vibe. Instead of these heavy-handed restrictions, maybe it's finally time for NetEase to listen and implement features the community has been asking for, like proper placement matches. That would help sort players by skill from the get-go, which seems like a more elegant solution to the ranking problem. For now, though, the future of playing Marvel Rivals with my full friend group looks... uncertain. We'll just have to wait and see how this plays out on the battlefield.