Apex Legendsseason 13 saw a ton of changes to Ranked, dubbed byRespawn as Ranked Reloaded. One of those corrected the ability for a third party to steal kills under a rare, specific circumstance where the killing team gets knocked out first. The rationale behind this was pretty clear: kills are earned, not given, inApex Legends.

Presumably, this applies to wins in the battle royale game as well, which is why Ranked was changed to better push teams and teamplay. One thing that wasn’t touched inRanked that manyApex Legendshave wanted before, however, is the Gold Knockdown shield. In casual or low-ranked play, these sometimes lead to surprise wins when the player gets up, hilarious moments in-between, and the occasional fisticuffs. At high-level play, it can become a serious problem.

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A recentApex Legendsclip highlights this perfectly. One player was in the top four of Diamond 4 gameplay in Ranked, but they had gone down. With their handy Knockdown shield and the final circle closing, they crawled their way to the middle and out of the way of the ring. As surviving players fought it out, they all eventually went down. This resulted in aGold Knockdown Shielddogpile, but the surprising part is that the player who went down first, won. For many, this victory seems to be given and not earned.

One could argue about the player’s 2 kills and 200 damage all day, but at the end of it, it’s the Gold Knockdown Shield dogpile that really highlights the issue. Had not all of them had one, it would have been possible for the real last man standing to have finished the winner and claimed the victory. None of this is to say that the Gold Knockdown shield should be removed fromApex Legends; at its most extreme, it should be removed from the loot pool in Ranked matches only.

There’s probably a good compromise. Perhaps in thetop 3 ofApex Legendsat high Ranks, the Gold Knockdown Shield no longer works. Perhaps players in this position overall die quickly if they don’t revive, or perhaps, the Knockdown Shield requires players to revive when downed. There’s certainly something to hiding and resurrecting, and while the whole game should not be changed for high-ranked gameplay, it definitely seems the Gold Knockdown Shield needs some tweaks.

Apex Legendsis available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.