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Hello everyone! We are super excited to share Arsenal’s Ranked Update. This is just the beginning of a series of improvements that modernizes the Ranked systems in Apex, and Arsenal is a big one.
Ranked Updates in Arsenal have two main goals:
- Evolving Matchmaking to enable consistently competitive matches.
- Adjusting scoring to further focus on playing the Battle Royale and playing as a team.
The Key Changes
- New matchmaking by hidden Matchmaking Rating (MMR), with skill adjustments for premade squad sizes to account for the competitive advantages gained.
- New Scoring system that emphasizes winning the Battle Royale
- New Bonus system that conditionally rewards wins and compensates losses
- No more split reset, with a full seasonal reset started off with 10 provisional games.
CONSISTENTLY COMPETITIVE MATCHES
Earlier in the year, we shared an update on matchmaking: Apex Legends Matchmaking Update. These updates are a core driving force for this season’s Ranked changes.
When looking at our former matchmaking algorithm (that matches players based on their current Ranked Points), we noted that RP only had a strong correlation to player’s actual skill at the high end of play. It had little to no correlation at the lower tiers. For instance, a Diamond/Platinum skill level player who misses a season or two of Ranked, may come back to Bronze lobbies due to their absence. This meant RP was not a true representation of a player’s skill and ranked matchmaking had to be revised.
From Arsenal onward, we are enabling matchmaking in Ranked based on a hidden Matchmaking Rating (MMR). We are confident that matchmaking based on MMR will bring the right level of heat to your Ranked experiences. The new matchmaker does value match fairness more than its predecessor, so you may experience a small, but noticeable increase in queue times.
| Matchmaking by RP → Hidden Matchmaking Rating (MMR)
The MMR system is brand new and engineered specifically for the Battle Royale experience. Broadly speaking, your MMR will rise when you are doing well in placements, and eliminating other players and teams will accelerate this growth.
While matchmaking prioritizes creating matches with similar party builds (solos vs. solos, duo + solo vs. duos + solos, etc.), it is not always feasible to find 60 players of similar skill and party size within a reasonable amount of time. Inevitably, parties of different sizes and skills will be mixed together. To account for the competitive advantage gained as a premade squad, premade duos and trios effectively have small advantages that are added to their team’s MMR during matchmaking. This way the intensity and fairness of your experience will remain relatively the same whether you’re playing as a solo, duo, or trio.
| Matchmaking accounts for party size
NEW SCORING SYSTEM
We are introducing a new scoring system using Ladder Points (LP) and retiring Ranked Points. The two systems look and feel similar, but will be different under the hood. The new scoring system revolves around Bonuses that amplify your LP gains and mitigate your LP losses. This new system focuses around the Battle Royale goal of the last team standing; the magnitude of these bonuses are directly tied to your placement results.
| New Scoring System; Ranked Point (RP) → Ladder Points (LP)
The differences will be obvious during the match, but your updates in game will not include bonuses as they are only revealed at the end of the match. Bonuses are based on your placements and the challenges presented in your match - the more difficult a match, the more bonuses you can expect to earn. Remember, bonuses are called bonuses for a reason: they must be earned, are not guaranteed, and are given at the discretion of the system.
| New Scoring System + Bonuses; Bonuses are tied to placements.
In Arsenal, there are 3 major groups of bonuses:
- Elimination Bonuses are given when your team eliminates other players. This bonus is individually calculated and multiple eliminations against the same players are discarded. To be clear: we use your personal individual kills, assists, and participations. In addition the Assist Timer has been increased from 15 seconds to 30 seconds.
- Rating Bonuses are given when your hidden MMR greatly out performs your Ladder Points, helping you catch up to where the system believes you should be.
- Skill Bonuses are given when your team interacts with a stronger opponent or performs exceptionally in an unfavorable match.
The bonus system introduces several complexities that will be hidden under the hood. This will allow the system to intelligently reward you based on the difficulty of your match and premade squad size, while filtering for abusive behaviors like kill farming. Bonuses are directly tied to your in-game placements, so make sure you aim to survive and place as high as possible for the best return on Bonuses.
| Placement above all; Placement defines Bonuses gains and loss mitigations.
1 to 10th: Bonuses
10th to 20th : Loss Mitigations
You may be wondering why 10th is a special breakpoint in scoring. The key goal of a Battle Royale is to be the last Squad standing - placements are prioritized over eliminations. While we do not expect advancing players to consistently be in the last Squad standing, we do expect successful players to be better than half of the lobby. Thus, placing 10th or better is considered a win in the new scoring system. With that reasoning, the per match point adjustments are tuned to guarantee gains to the top half and losses to the bottom half.
As for entry costs, you will pay an entry cost per game and earn points based on your placements. What’s different is that the entry cost will always be the same. Previously, the harsh scaling entry cost was necessary to filter out unskilled players from higher ranks, but put excessive pressure and focus on eliminations. This effect caused the goals of Ranked to change throughout the tiers. Scaling entry cost is no longer necessary with the MMR system.
We want everyone of all skill levels to have the same Ranked experience with the same common goal in mind: winning. This helps create a common team goal and helps players learn from each other. It ensures macro strategies from lower tiers continue to be valid throughout the tiers. As a result, we are unifying scoring and standardizing the game across all tiers. Entry cost will be set to be the same value at all tiers, which will also help to relieve entry cost pressure.
| Ranked Entry Cost: 0 to 175 → 35
TOTAL POINTS PER MATCH
The flat 35 LP Match Entry Cost is included in the table below. Value of each bonus will be adjusted based on match placements.
You will start your Ranked journey in Arsenal with 10 Provisional Matches as a way to calibrate your ranking. This is also done at every seasonal reset. You will start from the bottom (Rookie 4), and over the next 10 matches observe your ranking rise quickly toward your skill level. Provisional matches are unique: your losses are fully mitigated and your gains, including other bonuses, are significantly magnified. Doing extremely well in your placements can accelerate your rank climb.
| Provisional Matches: 10 Special Matches, during which losses are fully mitigated and gains are significantly magnified
RANKED STRUCTURE
We are removing the ranked split reset that happens near the middle of the season and we will only reset your ranking at the start of a season. It is important to note the Ranked progression pacing is adjusted with this split removal in mind.
Overall Ranked Structure update:
| Split Reset: Removed
At the same time, we are simplifying the math at each tier by setting each division to be 1000 LP, and we are simplifying the nomenclature of tier and points. Instead of saying 5134 LP, we are presenting it as Bronze 3 - 134 LP in game.
| Division Width: 1000 LP Per division
With the new tiers and division widths, we are also revising the promotion bonus and demotion. Rookie is now a rank that can be demoted into.
| Promotion Bonus: 300 -> 250
Demotion Penalty: Half of a division -> 150. Can be demoted into Rookie
Ranked reset will fully reset your progress back to 0 LP. Based on your performances in your provisional matches and your hidden MMR, your LP ranking will quickly recalibrate after the 10 provisional games. You’ll also see your projected rank throughout the provisional matches, becoming increasingly accurate as you progress through them.
| Ranked Reset: 6 Division → Full Reset; MMR undisclosed
Finally, to ensure new players are ready for the new Ranked experience, we are raising Ranked Level Requirement to level 50. This will also help slow down smurfs and give us more time to detect cheaters trying to load into Ranked quickly.
| Ranked Level Requirement 20 → 50
RANKED ARENA REWARDS
To all our Ranked Arena legends, we want to remind you to log in before the start of the next season to redeem your rewards. Claim your Ranked Arena rewards before they expire, and jump back into the game!
ONWARD AND UPWARD
We appreciate the community’s continued support and feedback, and can’t wait to see what you think of this latest evolution to Ranked. While we can't detail all of our anti-cheat efforts for obvious reasons, know that these latest improvements are just the beginning of maintaining and growing Apex Legend’s competitive integrity.
And don’t forget! The Veiled Collection Event’s double XP bonus for public matches is still live until May 9, 2023. There’s no time like the present to rise to the occasion and level up ahead of Arsenal to make sure your account level is 50 or higher to join Ranked.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
QUESTION: WHY IS HIDDEN MATCHMAKING RATING (MMR) BEING USED INSTEAD OF LADDER POINTS FOR MATCHMAKING?
By matching games using your MMR, we can find you the most competitive match as quickly as possible. In previous seasons, a skillful player would likely dominate and massacre through numerous games until they needed to start trying. Removing this unnecessary ritual and getting you right into the action of competitive Apex Legends matches is a much more exciting alternative.
Stomping on a match isn’t fun for anyone. It creates an uncompetitive environment that invalidates one’s achievements. This is how we can recreate Ranked Reloaded’s launch without excessively harsh entry costs.
QUESTION: CAN I KNOW MY HIDDEN MMR?
Your MMR moves in accordance to your performance in the game. Focusing on playing to win will naturally increase your hidden MMR. The MMR system is also built to detect and correct abuses, such as kill farming and intentionally dying, and hiding it will make the system more difficult to abuse and exploit.
QUESTION: WHY DOESN’T MY RANKING (POINTS) IMMEDIATELY MATCH MY SKILL RATING (MMR)?
We know how long it takes for your MMR to align with your LP, and these matches help us validate and know your Ranking is accurate. With each rank season, we ask you to prove again that you have what it takes to deserve the rank.
MMR adjusts extremely quickly, and we don’t want LP to immediately line up since that would enable boosting.
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