Critical Ops Ranked Match Error—"Rank Difference Too High" Issue

My friend and I are trying to play ranked matches in Critical Ops, but we keep getting an error message saying, "Rank difference too high", even though neither of us has a determined rank yet. Because of this, we can’t play together at all, which makes no sense.

Not allowing players to enter ranked matches before their rank is set is a frustrating and unnecessary restriction. This issue is preventing us from enjoying the game, and I urge the developers to fix it immediately. Ranked matchmaking should allow unranked players to queue together without this problem.