As someone who just got Skull and Shotgun rank, I think it’s absolute garbage the way this ranking system was implemented. Back in 2012 they didn’t even explain it to you clearly, meaning you were basically guessing how it even worked. For those that now know how this ranking system works, it literally leaves you little to no room on having fun or shooting the shit online. You basically have to play perfect games from round 1 to 15 to be able to basically maintain the ratio needed for shotguns. You can’t even test out things or learn the maps without risking yourself getting deranked.
It also ruins the fun because if you try playing online in public lobbies, people with shotgun/bowie knife ranks always dashboard quit or quit early if they are about to get downed to avoid taking a hit on their rank. Your only option at that point is to either play Local Play, Turned or Grief if you genuinely want to play without feeling like a sweat. MOTD for example is the WORST map to play on as while you have more room to get downs, those downs SOMEHOW count against your rank. While the newer zombie games are not the best, I am at least glad they never attempted to implement such a dogshit artificially vague excuse of a ranking system again.