How does ranked work?

Ok scrub player making scrub post but I really cant figure this out. If im an Ultra Bronze why am I playing Ultra Silvers and Gold players? Isnt it called ranked for a reason? Shouldnt you be playing against players near your rank? I get that you have to play better players to get better but there isnt much for me to learn by getting stomped in the first 15 seconds of a match. I love those close matches that get your blood pumping and im not getting them as often as I should. Casual actually does a better job of matching me up with players of my skill level and thats weird. So to play people near my skill should I just play casual and leave ranked alone?

its broken…so it doesnt work.

It’s just broken right now for some reason. For many months before you were only be able to play people of about the same rank as you are.
And believe me, people on higher ranks DON’T enjoy playing with you either, because they gain nothing from that and if you beat them they can lose a ton of points.

The issue is more apparent when you’re at higher leagues like Platinum and Diamond as your wait times will be longer due to how much smaller the competition available is at that level. Sometimes you can be waiting for literal minutes because you’re a Ultra Platinum and there’s no Ultra or Super Platinums available to play. Then it finally connects you to a Platinum or if it’s real a ghost town you’ll get thrown against an Ultra Gold. As long as you’re top 16/8 major material, no problem you’ll beat them and get 20 measly points. Lose and get raped. Plus there’s the small off chance that someone is smurfing which throws things off.

I tend to normally get matches pretty quickly in ranked with like players, but you can have those early mornings or late nights where you’re sitting there for a long time because no one near your rank is waiting for a match.

What you really should be doing is playing casual to figure out better gameplans to go back into ranked and move your way up to Silver. Bronze is a very easy league to get out of. You just literally have to understand how SFV works competitively to get out of there. It’s most likely just setting you up with Silvers and Golds for the same reason. A lot of the bronzes are probably currently playing other people and the other people that are currently waiting for matches are people who just happen to be higher ranked. It’s not like a bajillion people are requesting matches at any time.

And I still dont understand this game. For now all I know is the better your buttons are the more you win and having range is very crucial. I’ll just stick to casuals.

Lack of players and the way the matchmaking identifies your opponent.

It seems to grab the best ping check it finds, some of which are wrong and need rechecking and some of which are a league or two above you. This isn’t an issue for lower ranks because it allows you to earn a lot of points for a single victory, but for anyone in diamond or above the threat of being paired up against a platinum or hell even an ultra gold sometimes means you’re putting a ton of points on the line whilst they aren’t.

Matchmaking in this game is subpar just like SFIV’s was, the end.