[Ruzbeh]

If I started to play differently in order to obtain a higher rank, does that I am being influenced in a negative way?

Of course. You are distracted from the game at hand, distracted from the round you're playing on whatever map with whatever team and focus on stats. If you even pay the slighest attention to the rank system, your playing style is affected negatively.

If the issue here is about team play, then you'll always have people like that.

Of course, but hlstatsx has no good reason to be here and causes problems for no real reason. It doesn't make things fun for the majority of players because their ranks are so low. Besides that, the ranks of low ranked players aren't even accurate. At all.

I don't see this as an issue unless the individual is hacking in order to obtain a higher rank.

That's another problem or concern that arises with this whole hlstatsx thing... but does adding hlstatsx, an inaccurate ranking system, really warrant these kind problems?