Hello. I'm a long time SplitGate 1 player who's been a fan of the first game since it came out. I played it with my friends nearly every single night, enjoying the balance of the game and the mechanics, thrilled at the fast paced halo-like movement and gunplay, and enjoying the unique and tactical maps. Our absolute favorite thing to do was play ranked. We would log on every night and queue up for ranked matches on the epic simulation maps, planning new strategies and pathing, adapting to other teams' play styles, and knowing that if we lose a game it's not because of a balance issue, or lack of objective focus, or someone cheesing a win somehow... But simply because we needed to improve. Everyone had the same abilities and weapons, everything was balanced, simple and straightforward. Ranked was 3v3 takedown, and it was glorious. When SplitGate 2 was announced, and we discovered SplitGate 1 would get shut down, my friends and I were sad but hopeful. We spent many a night discussing what changes we thought would be made. We hoped that the new game would stay true to the original's simplicity, balance, and smoothness... We never anticipated what happened next. Fast forward to SplitGate 2's launch. Now please keep in mind, I want to preface this by saying I'm not a hater at all. I am very appreciative of all the hard work 1047 has put into SplitGate 2. But with that being said, especially with ranked now coming out (I watched the 1 minute explanation video and that was the final straw for me), I needed to speak up. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. SplitGate 2 is truly a completely different game than SplitGate 1. The only thing that are the same are the movement / feel, and the concept of portals. The first thing that irked me was the class system. The way it's built, it would require constant tweaks and create "metas" where certain classes are better than others since each class has specific weapons and abilities it can use, and offers unique advantages and disadvantages to the team. This is a far reach from the balance of SplitGate 1. I hopped into a game and the next thing I noticed was the time to kill. Wayyy too fast. I figured that's fine, I just needed to get good. So I got better... Still feels fast but I can live with it. Game has so many issues, and I get it but honestly this just happens when introducing so much complexity. 1047 thank you for all the communication and transparency. Battle pass is cool, cosmetics are nice. My friends and I tried launching the game together and bam... Next issues started coming up. One of my friends (i9 13900k, RTX 3070) can't even launch the game as it crashes instantly. Fine, I'll play on my own at least till ranked drops. Next thing that comes out is Battle Royale... Hmm. Not a fan but I guess it was meta 3-5 years ago. That's fine, played it and it's ok. Still would rather play takedown. Waiting for ranked and praying for the simple gameplay experience I loved from SplitGate 1. Fast forward to today... Ranked is released, and it's... Firecracker, splitball, and domination??? Arean / just for fun modes from SplitGate 1 are RANKED in SplitGate 2?? What happened to just playing some hardcore takedown? Where pathing and skill and portalling are key! The simulation maps? Nope. Why why why why why. I can't imagine why 1047 would change something beloved by so many. I have a hard time believing there was a ton of negative feedback about how ranked used to be. Man I don't know... I bought the battle pass and I'll play SplitGate 2 here and there, but honestly I'll be playing SplitGate 1 and other games more at least until SplitGate 2 hopefully comes to its senses and simplifies things by learning from its roots. SplitGate 1 was a phenomenal game. People loved it. And SplitGate 2 has the body of SplitGate 1, but without the soul. It feels soulless. It makes me sad. I apologize for the rant. I'm just a gamer and og SplitGate 1 lover. Hoping for a brighter future. Thanks.