The Ranked playlist has been a very hot topic in the last few seasons of the Apex Legends community. From the flawed ranked system, to cheaters as well as collusion, players have been frustrated with how Respawn has been handling this particular playlist. I myself have shied away from playing Apex Legends for these very same reasons. Luckily, Season 17 will bring about a change that I believe will move ranked in the right direction.

Season 17: Arsenal will launch May 9, and with it brings a whole new rework to the ranked playlist. This will include a new point system, matchmaking updates, a whole new focus on competitive integrity as well as a change to splits every season. This season’s changes are one of the first of many that are to come in the future. This season isn’t just about bringing new content to the table, but also tending to the garden and soothing certain pain points.

GOOD RIDDANCE, RP

First of all, say goodbye to rank splits. Rank will reset on seasonal reset now. The main reason for this is that Respawn is now adding provisional matches to better gauge your placements at the beginning of your ranked journey. The ranked playlist is meant to be more engaging throughout the entire season, and hopefully we will have more players grinding ranked not just at the start of every split now.

The minimum requirement to play rank is now increased to level 50. This will hopefully lessen smurfs as well as cheaters and gives Respawn more time to detect cheaters before they can make it into a higher rank.

Now a rework of the points system comes with this new season. So we say a farewell to the Ranked Points (RP) system (thank god!) and hello to Ladder Points (LP). The LP system is meant to reward players who actually want to win the game and not just rack up their kill points. No matter what your rank is, the entry cost is the same across all ranks.  Scoring for placements will also remain consistent in every division. You now get bonuses to your score based on kills, assists, how challenging of a match you were in, and your ladder level in where you were placed in a new hidden skill rating.

Now the new hidden skill rating is the new MMR to Apex Legends’ Ranked Playlist. The match will now place you in games based on your skill and not just on your ladder placements. This will mean cheaters as well as smurfs will no longer be able to “s**t on” newer or lower skill levelled players. With this system, there will be more consistent matchmaking and this will also take into account pre-made squads.

Competitive integrity is a high priority for Respawn this season. The new scoring system will take into account only receiving LP for unique kills and assists, which means you can no longer respawn beacon farm. This is to also stop people from colluding in matches.

Respawn also confirmed that they have a new detection method for bots and cheaters but due to security reasons, they cannot discuss that any further. 

Players will get to experience first-hand the new rank changes with the new season coming this 9th May! This coincides with the entrance of Ballistic, the new legend who will surely shake up the meta, especially in the ranked playlist. Hopefully, all these changes will improve the game’s health and competitive gamers will enjoy grinding ranked again.

For a detailed description with stats on the new rank changes you can refer to the Apex Legends S17 blogpost on rank here.