There has been no shortage of criticism for Marvel Rivals’ ranked competitive system since the game’s launch in December. Players earn far more rank points from a win than they lose from a loss, leading players with sub-50% win rates to climb the ladder to Diamond or Grandmaster — and in some people’s eyes, the rank distribution has lost much of its meaning and prestige.
Now, Marvel Rivals’ latest event risks further muddling the skill divisions of the competitive mode when it launches on May 15. The Galacta’s Gift event pass will include eight consumable Chrono Shield Cards, which will prevent players from losing rank points after a competitive match loss.
Read More: Marvel Rivals Season 2: The 6 Best Heroes to Start Learning Now
The decision to add further safeguards to the Marvel Rivals’ ranked experience is puzzling. But it might be another way to retain high player engagement, especially as support players have gone on strike during Season 2.
Steam player counts are a flawed metric to measure a game’s success, as player count naturally picks up and drops depending on what is going on in-game, and these charts account only for a subset of PC players among the broad console-inclusive playerbase. Even so, Marvel Rivals reportedly had more players at the end of Season 1 than at the beginning of Season 2. This event could be a quick way to scrape back some of those lapsed players, even if it harms the game’s competitive integrity.
Whether the Chrono Shield Cards will be detrimental to the game’s competitive environment, they’re here to stay. Here’s how to get them — among the other rewards included in the new Galacta’s Gift event.
Chrono Shield Cards are the new consumable items that protect your ranked points.
Chrono Shield Cards will protect your rank points
Completing event challenges during the Galacta’s Gift event will level up a free event pass, containing seven tiers with different rewards.
At tiers two and four, players will earn separate bundles of four Chrono Shield Cards. That means you’re able to earn eight total Chrono Shield Cards during the item’s debut.
Once you activate a Chrono Shield Card, it will remain active until you lose a competitive match. Upon that loss, your Chrono Shield Card will be consumed — but you won’t lose any rank points for that defeat.
You can have up to 20 Chrono Shield Cards at a time, and they are cleared from your inventory at the end of the season. This seems to suggest that the consumables will be plentiful enough for you to stack up on, though we don’t yet know how players will be able to earn more outside of this event. Regardless, it’s healthy to be skeptical about the new addition to the game — especially if these items are moved into paid bundles sometime in the future.
Chrono Shield Cards will not remove the existing Chrono Shield system for Bronze, Silver and Gold players, which charges as they lose ranked games. After enough losses, lower-ranked players gain a Chrono Shield — protecting them from a rank demotion for a single game. Since this system protects ranked points in the lowest ranks, I’d recommend saving your Chrono Shield Cards until you reach at least Platinum rank on the competitive ladder.
