Apex Legendsseason 17 will introduce new character Ballistic, changes to World’s Edge, an improved Firing Range, and more, but perhaps one of the biggest changes is happening to the Ranked System. This is the biggest change sinceApex Legends'“Ranked Reloaded” approach back in season 13.
Not only are these changes likely to be good for the health ofApex Legends' Ranked mode, but it’s also being complemented by improvements to matchmaking and cheat detection. Respawn Entertainment recently detailed these changes in a season 17 presentation, which Game Rant attended.
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Ranked Points are being replaced by Ladder Points, which will put more emphasis on placement and wins than kills. A long-standing tradition, theApex LegendsRanked Split, will be removed and resets will only occur with each season now. Furthermore, the entry cost forApex Legendsis now static across all ranks, so fans won’t have to worry about paying more as they gain ranks. And finally, provisional matches are being added to better place players for Matchmaking.
Matchmaking inApex Legendswill now be based on an individual player’s skill, rather than a squad’s skill or Rank/level. This is especially beneficial for solo queue players inApex Legends, as matchmaking will now try to accommodate and filter out three-stacks (full parties) from players who are jumping in with randoms. It remains to be seen how effective this matchmaking is, but Respawn described it as an “all-new system.” Plus, Respawn has taken some extra steps to ensure that matchmaking and Ranked as a whole are better across the board.
Alongside the improved matchmaking system, Respawn is imposing a new level requirement of 50 to play Ranked inApex Legendsto begin with. The benefit and purpose of this is pretty clear: it may not prevent smurfing in its entirety, but it’ll do a lot to dissuade players from doing so, as this makes even getting into Ranked a decent grind. On top of that, Respawn has taken steps to prevent kill farming and collusion tofarm levels inApex Legendsby ensuring that players do not gain kill points for killing someone more than once. Respawn is also implementing new cheat detection methods to root out those players too, though of course, the company didn’t go into much detail.
As a whole, these changes seem aimed at ensuringApex Legends' health and longevity, and it’ll be interesting to see how all of this changes up the dynamic of the game.
Apex Legendsis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
