If you had told S1/S2 me that one day I would reach legendary for the tenth time in ranked, I would never have believed you. I still remember when you won like 10 points every time you won and lost 60 when you lost. My first experience with ranked was back in S2 2019, when I gave up after reaching Elite because of the sheer number of points I was losing every single time I lost. (Pretty sure I was playing against either bots or really new players up until that point.) The following seasons followed roughly the same storyline, with me quitting at different points either because of boredom, S36 campers or RPG abusers.
The first time I hit legendary was the same season that the free HBR was obtainable through ranked rewards (I do not remember exactly what the season was; I think either S7 or S8, it was before gunsmith for sure), and I remember being so proud of myself at having reached there. They say the first step is the hardest, and for me that was certainly the case, as getting to legendary was very easy right after gunsmith… until the Akimbo Fennec meta, which was when I swore off ranked entirely cuz I could no longer deal with 5-man double Fennecs absolutely destroying me every ranked Hardpoint game.
I have failed to reach legendary many times, despite trying really hard (one of the more painful ones was during the MX9 meta, when SBMM and Holger campers successfully stopped me from going anywhere near legendary, or even the new grandmaster title for that matter), and this I attribute to my reluctance to using broken weapons. I have always prided myself in being able to perform well using weapons like the PDW, Cordite and RUS regardless of what the meta is, or how broken the best gun is, so my ego always stopped me from using the broken guns, whatever they may be (it varied about every two seasons back then, unlike now, when a meta lasts a year or more).
This same reticence has dried up my legendary streaks in the last year (all hail USS9 & MG42) and this legendary streak is my first in the year of 2025! Every single time I have reached legendary, it has been either because of the PDW, Cordite, Bizon or RUS, or some combination of those 4 weapons in the face of the ever-changing metas. As a two-thumb, non-meta abusing player, I am extremely proud of this here achievement and felt like sharing it with you guys!
So sorry for the long post, I did not expect there to be so much emotion in the topic for me. Remembrance of the past makes me very animated. If you made it till here, I admire your patience and perseverance. Thanks 🙂