When you reach 4th Lord in ranked matches, you'll only be able to play against players ranked 4th and higher. This might sound like a good thing since you'll be more likely to find opponents who are as skilled as you.. but this isn't the case. There aren't many players who reached 4th at this point which means it'll be harder to find matches (even harder than before with the mostly broken matchmaking system). When you do find a match, it'll probably be someone you already fought against two or three matches ago, and most of those players are cheap assholes who spam the same moves over and over again. What makes them worse than lesser ranked players is that they have mastered their cheap techniques at this point; they know the moves that work and they spam the hell out of them. I have little hope that things will get better when I get promoted to 3rd Lord. This sadly makes most of the highest ranked players no fun to play against. I don't want to waste my time with player matches, so I'll probably stop playing the game for a few months until there are more people to play against at this rank. 
 
Is there anyone else who reached 4th Lord and feels the same?

Instead of just stopping to play, could you just delete your game save and start over? Or does Capcom also keep a record of your rank?

I had the same problem, just earlier. As soon as I hit Fighter I started getting matchups with Lord-ranked players right away and the leap in skill was so immediate that I haven't been able to win a match since, so I haven't been able to get better (not much to learn while a Sentinel, Wesker and Phoenix team juggles you in the air forever without letting you attempt anything to begin with). 
 
The game is really starting to reach its critical point of cheapness. Sure, I might be able to try to do the same and spam air combos ending in a Wesker super or spam Sentinel attacks but... I refuse. Because it's not fun. So I can't win, so I can't get better. 
 
I'm surprised this didn't come up during testing that much. The game really needs a bunch of the weaker melee characters (Chun Li, X 23, Felicia and others) to be able to cross the screen faster while not comboing. They can out of a recovery or while attacking, but jumping high to avoid a beam attack still leaves you alone and not moving forward in the middle of the air, so that's not much use. If they fixed that and prevented shotgunning from being that useful maybe we could start talking about the flawed air combo system afterwards.

erasing your save doesn't work. but if you're on psn, just make a new profile

The best way to have fun in a multiplayer game like this is to find someone you know and play with them. It's impractical and annoying, but it's the surest way to have fun. Otherwise, there's a heap of online problems that follow you around.

I'm 6th Lord right now.  If that is the cause, then I will consistently get raped when I hit 4th.  I guess that will be my sign to go back to SSFIV.

@NoelVeiga:
To address what you said about "weaker" melee characters not getting in... Use an assist that covers area (Doom has alot of assists that help with that) so that when your assist's attack is out and covering the screen you use it as a sort of shield so that you can make up ground.

As for the OP, just tough it out bro, if you want to be as good as the people you're facing since hitting 4th guard... You gotta play those people. Also where is the fun in having a 293829832 - 2 record if you're only beating retarded kids with one arm?

Top online players have top online strategies. Rank means nothing.

Top online players have top online strategies. Rank means nothing.

" @Vade

Top online players have top online strategies. Rank means nothing.

I agree. I fought some really good players at lower ranks. This is why I think limiting the players you can play against based on your rank is bullshit. "

Oh... so that's why I couldn't find a match except for with the same 2 people right when I hit 4th Lord (actually 4th Ranger). That's bullshit. Not only can I only be matched with 4th Lords and up in Ranked Matches, but it has the same matchmaking criterion for Player Matches.

Damn, the matchmaking in this game is bad enough.  Luckily I'm only 7th Judge and getting my ass consistently kicked there, so I should be fine for a while...

I just played against the same dude 9 times.. This is getting ridiculous.

" Oh... so that's why I couldn't find a match except for with the same 2 people right when I hit 4th Lord (actually 4th Ranger). That's bullshit. Not only can I only be matched with 4th Lords and up in Ranked Matches, but it has the same matchmaking criterion for Player Matches. "

" @FluxWaveZ said:

" Oh... so that's why I couldn't find a match except for with the same 2 people right when I hit 4th Lord (actually 4th Ranger). That's bullshit. Not only can I only be matched with 4th Lords and up in Ranked Matches, but it has the same matchmaking criterion for Player Matches. "

Are you sure?  Even if you set rank to "Any"? "

" @SamDrugbringer said:

" @FluxWaveZ said:

" Oh... so that's why I couldn't find a match except for with the same 2 people right when I hit 4th Lord (actually 4th Ranger). That's bullshit. Not only can I only be matched with 4th Lords and up in Ranked Matches, but it has the same matchmaking criterion for Player Matches. "

Are you sure?  Even if you set rank to "Any"? "

Yes and yes. "

I reached 9th lord and I'm already out of my league, something like 12W - 63L. Needless to say I'm pretty bad at this game. =D

" I think you can still find player matches against players of lower ranks by searching for a lobby and setting the rank limit in the search options to "any". "

" @Legend said:

" I think you can still find player matches against players of lower ranks by searching for a lobby and setting the rank limit in the search options to "any". "

What I'm saying is that even when I put the search options to "any", I can still only find people who are 4th Lord or higher. This is probably because the lower ranked players are searching with the option "same rank", so I can't join them. "