Season 2 multiplayer has been insane

Is it just me, or has the difficulty on multiplayer matches skyrocketed since S2 dropped?

I hit prestige master towards the end of last season and had about a 1.9 E/D with a few thousand kills just a few days ago. But since S2, I'm struggling to break 1.0 E/Ds in games and my prestige master E/D has fallen off a cliff.

I was a casual Apex player before COD released and at the begining of those seasons, a lot of the streamers and sweats would return to the game to try out the new update and complete the battle pass ASAP making games a nightmare for casuals. Do we expect this to happen in this game too? I'm curious if anyone else has thought this.