Ranked play is getting a substantial update in season 11 of Apex Legends.
The competitive mode is a hugely popular game mode in Apex, making up about 40 percent of all playtime, according to today’s patch notes.
The updates to ranked play are intended to “provide more flexibility and nuance to how players can express skill when RP gains are at stake,” addressing two major issues: skill disparity between players in the same lobby and the total amount of RP that is possible to get from kills in a game.
The rank of players in each lobby will now be taken into account and assigned different values for kills. When players in Platinum, for instance, drop into the same match as Diamond players, Platinum players will pick up an extra two points when they get a kill on a Diamond player. In the early game, kills are usually worth 10 points, but picking up a kill on a Diamond will give Platinum players 12 points instead. Those bonus points add up if the players are separated by more than one tier: a Gold player will rack up 20 points if they manage to kill off an Apex predator. And the bonus works both ways, decreasing the value of a kill on a player of lesser rank. If a player in Platinum kills a player in Silver, for instance, they only pick up five points.
That doesn’t mean ranked lobbies will suddenly be full of players with drastically different ranks. Matchmaking will continue largely as it has before, but when those disparities in encounters do happen, players get compensated according to their rank. The new, more dynamic system rewards players who clutch up against strong opponents and ensures that high-ranked players don’t pick up a ton of kill points on players who are easy for them to beat.
Another change coming for season 11 addresses the RP limit. Previously, players were capped at six kills and assists. A member of a squad that wins a ranked game earns a bonus of 25 RP for each kill or assist, for a total of 150 possible RP. Now, the kill point RP limit is 175 RP, and the cap is seven kills or assists. That change, along with the different potential value of each kill, will allow players to reach the maximum amount of points in a ranked lobby in a wider variety of circumstances. High-kill games with relatively lower placement scores will see the majority of the benefits.
Ranked Arenas also has some changes. There will now be two splits, just like ranked mode in the battle royale, and each split will require players to jump into new placement matches: 10 matches for the start of the season and another five after the new split. There was also a change that addressed players losing too much AP after a loss.
Other changes for ranked play are hinted at in the blog post: “Stay tuned; this is only the start of what we have in store for Ranked improvements.” Player will be able to start the season 11 grind when Escape releases on Nov. 2.
