*sigh* Oddly, this makes me miss my Halo 2 days. IIRC, I managed to get as high as a 34, and competition was rough, but having held that 34 for a spell felt good. Getting paired up with mid-level 20s and hearing them gush over a +30 on their team was a real stroke to the ego.Exactly! And because there is zero form of rankings (please don't add it), there is no sense of "I have to climb the ladder", or "I'm gonna get demoted because of you". I think that also cut down the level of toxicity.
Then I also recall a FFA match where the leader won with zero deaths, and before we all were dropped to the lobby, he came over the mic with a "good game," and he sounded like he couldn't have been older than 10. That was the point where I recognized that competitive multiplayer was NOT my bag. I played for fun afterwards, and tumbled back down into the high 20s (where I belonged,) but eventually lost most interest, and to this day, haven't played competitive MP in, I dunno, a decade? I bought Titanfall, paid full price, and literally played ONE match before deciding letting the skill of others dictate my enjoyment of my purchase was not going to work for me. The closest I've come is being invaded in Dark Souls, and even then, I usually just let the invader kill me so I could get back to the SP.