Are you saying that Riflemen are fine in 1vs1?
Idk because I dont play 1v1, but it seems like they're fine in 1v1. I am certainly not claiming they're bad in 1v1, and it looks like nobody else is claiming that either.
It has been thoroughly explained multiple times in the past why riflemen struggle hard in teamgames since a long time now, it can be summarized in a few bullet points:
- the meta and maps in teamgames favour units that perform well at longer ranges since a long time already, and riflemen are terrible at long range for 280mp.
- riflemen were designed around their smoke grenade by Relic. The smoke nade is gone but no overhaul of their stats has happened in the meantime, and now you can see the results
- they are by far the most micro intensive mainline squad. Not only do you have to find the correct engagements while having terrible access to recon tools, you now also have to micro even more once the engagement started while other squads can just a-move and hug cover. And even with this extra effort they usually just lose
Nobody is saying riflemen are 'unplayable' across all levels btw. I am sure they can be viable at the lower ELO. But I am kindly asking anyone who defends riflemen and whines about pahtfinders to please use rifles in 2v2-4v4 against a top 100 player with 60+% winrate that spams lmg grens, volks, obers, JLI (or literally any axis mainline) with double HMG. And then upload the replay and tell us how much fun you had and how successful it was