Though i mostly play Ranked in fighting games because is faster for find opponents, nowadays i try to ignore the W/L ratio and whatever rank (if there is) they are. Specially Injustice which had a severe ragequit bug, and i personally find tracking W/L even on Ranked (but specially on any other mode like Injustice) can easily demotivate casual players.
Most top players in these sort of games usually stick with a pretty basic scrub plan which works online. Even if said tactic only works for a week (e.g. Deathstroke zoning), they already played enough matches for be in the top 10 of a leaderboard. This is more effective right when the game is released, as the community is still learning the game.
It became more apparent for me that Ranked, Leaderboards, etc. are pointless when Persona 4 Arena came out in Europe (Some weeks ago from this post. Woooooh arksys). Online was pretty dead, and you are playing the same 3-10 players every day. But since there are so few people and they'll have equal or higher rank/title than you, getting in the top rank is pretty easy. This ends similar to buster players which plays just with themselves for easily obtain the top rank.
tl;dr Ranked is full of flaws since it exists and so if someone is on the top leaderboard(s) will mean no much when the match begins
