Respawn Entertainment has detailed all the Apex Legends Season 17 Ranked changes coming to its’ battle royale in the next major title update, and there’s a lot to unpack for fans of this FPS game. One of the most interesting changes to come from Respawn’s refresher of Ranked is the fact that Apex Legends‘ Ranked mode will be presenting players with an invisible MMR system going forwards – while also dropping Ranked Points (RP) for Ladder Points (LP) – that could result in longer queue times. Oh, joy.
As explained online, Apex Legends wants to provide its’ players with “consistently competitive matches” moving forwards. So, it’s “enabling matchmaking in Ranked based on a hidden Matchmaking Rating (MMR)”. With RP not being a true representation of a player’s skill level, Respawn Entertainment is hoping to introduce a hidden MMR system that values match fairness – but, that could also result in “a small, but noticeable increase in queue times”.
However, this is also going to account for party size and should offer Respawn a more accurate assessment of your skill level when matchmaking. This divorce from RP, though, does mean that there’s a new points system to contend with: Ladder Points.
In Season 17 and onwards, for the time being, Apex Legends’ competitive Ranked mode will be scored using LP – and we can’t help but think that this new system is going to be very controversial.
The LP scoring system is one that “revolves around Bonuses that amplify your LP gains and mitigate your LP losses” in games. However, it’s a system that leans into placement and values winning battle royale games above all else. If you place 10th or above, you’re getting Bonuses based on eliminations and skillful teamplay. If not, you’re going to need to mitigate your LP losses – thanks to that pesky entrance fee.
Thankfully, though, the LP entry cost is going to be universal going forwards – set at 35 LP, no matter the rank you find yourself in.
In addition to all of this, the removal of Ranked Splits – which were teased ahead of this announcement – leaves us with a new series of ranks to overcome. Each division is going to be 1,000 LP wide, with a promotion bonus of 250 LP if you manage to jump up a tier.
In the long-run, each ranked reset will put everyone down to 0 LP and players will then have to complete ten calibration matches to find this recalibrated. How will this impact Season 18? That remains to be seen, but it’s certainly going to be interesting.
If you want to know more about this strange and convoluted new Ranked system, you can find out more on the Apex Legends blog right here. The Apex Legends Season 17 release date is right around the corner, though, and while we agree that Apex Legends’ battle royale fanatics deserve access to this PUBG tool, we’re also well aware that Apex Legends’ latest audio fix update “won’t resolve all concerns”.
So, as cool as Ballistic is sure to be, Season 17 is going to be an interesting one for Apex Legends. It’s one of the best battle royale games out there right now and one of the best competitive FPS games available. However, these changes to Apex Legends’ Ranked mode throw all of that up into the air – and we’re not sure where the chips will land when the dust settles.
