basic answer, that guy is bullshitting you, its not a flag or anything, getting out of initiate 2 after being stuck there for 500 games has been done and will be done again. Case and point, i've done it. what actually seems to be happening right now is that the game still thinks initiate 1 is a thing (its no longer a rank you can get), so it tries to rank you down from initiate 2, but it cant, so you keep accumulating negative MMR, once thats done, as any game with an MMR system, you're just gonna have to win A LOT to get back up. the bigger the win streak and the better your stats, the faster youll rank up... however... some stats are weighted more than others so some characters have an easier time ranking up... which ones? for a solo player, NONE. its entirely up to rather or not you get the bastards going 0-12 within 15min or not... or if you're that guy, then your rank is deserved. for a duo/group player, pretty much any support as long as youre hitting objective a lot, bonus points if youre kill stealing... cause ofc it would give more points... dont be that guy tho... seriously. bonus point if youre actually hitting enemies and, obviously youll have decent healing cause youre support so bonus point there too.
anyways, yes, you can get out of initiate 2, no it is not a flag, its a bug. negative mmr should not be a thing. idk why they removed initiate 1, i wasnt there, but its not a thing in the game anymore, initiate 2 is the lowest you can be.
(autistic rambling below... sorry, you can skip this, just know im not trying to be an asshole or anything... but getting out is doable, proof above on one of my older replies from when the win streak started about a week ago... tho those 3 matches that got me back out of initiate 2 were solo tbf, previous win streak before that was very big idk how many wins in a row exactly it took tho.)
is initiate still absolute hell as a solo player? YES... is the matchmaking for initiate specifically pretty much the worse in the entire game on any rank? YES... is it entirely because of how the matchmaking is setup? YES. would the game get as big of an audiance as it could with all this in mind? NO. its a great game, but with how frustrated i was getting back in initiate 2 at how i had like 4-5 kills and no deaths while 2, 3, sometimes even 4 of my teammates went 0-10 within 15min... i cant see someone without my kind of patience and time enjoying the game long term, especially if you've been higher ranks in other MOBAs, have been good at shooter games and have already learnt to minmax, get around the map and optimize your damage/sustain... yea... i think youre ready for the next rank bracket... it was just dumb being stuck at the very bottom while doing consistently well but not being able to 1v11...
as for how i got out, i half stopped playing solo, thats how, got my gf to join me (she's better than me at everything ever, not that im bad, she's just that good) got my ass absolutely carried within a week of her starting (exaggerating a bit... took longer than that but we did start winning a lot more within a week) and finally broke the curse after a casual 18 win streak... its "all" it took... now im in seeker, ranking up is hella hard and im doing way worse (not "bad" mind you, just worse) cause im conditioned to playing with brain dead people in initiate... seeker is slightly less brain dead... as for her, she's way higher rank, so when we play together, the game meets about in the middle... is this fair for anyone? no... not really and i now can see why initiate is so awful... just happy to be out of it atm...
