The Apex Legends season 17 update is bringing several major changes to the game’s ranked system, including a points system overhaul and new level requirements. Respawn is also doing away with ranked splits, so players will be able to retain their rank throughout the entirety of a season. There are several other adjustments coming to ranked mode, and we’ll be going through all of them so that you’re ready when the Apex Legends season 17 release date rolls around next week.
Design director Evan Nikolich and experience design director Aaron Rutledge both went into detail on the upcoming ranked changes during a recent press event attended by PCGamesN.
“We’re putting a strong focus on matchmaking and creating competitive matches,” Nikolich said. “We’re taking into account pre-made squads to balance for competitive advantages.”
The dev team is introducing a new matchmaking system with a hidden skill rating, known as MMR. The system will aim to match solo and duo players with other solos and duos, but the speed of matchmaking will be prioritized so that players aren’t just sitting in the lobby for too long.
There’s also a whole new scoring system that gives more weight to match wins, instead of high kill numbers. With this change, RP (Ranked Points) are being removed and replaced with LP (Ladder Points). The entry cost for matches no longer increases with your rank – it’ll always cost 35 LP to start up a ranked match.
The new points system will reward you with LP bonuses by calculating factors such as kills, MMR performance at your ladder level, assists, and how difficult the match was for you overall.
Another notable update in season 17 is that ranked splits are being removed. Your rank will reset when a new season goes live.
“The main reason for no splits is we’re adding provisional matches to better gauge placement at the start of your ranked journey for the season,” Nikolich said. Each player will now need to play ten provisional matches at the start of each season, similar to the system seen in Arenas mode.
On top of all this, the ranked level requirement is jumping up from 20 to 50. Rutledge explains that this requirement will help to “slow down smurfs [and] give us more time to detect cheaters.”
Apex Legends season 17 lands on May 9, so you’ll be able to experience the revamped ranked mode for yourself next Tuesday. Be sure to check out our Apex Legends tier list and list of all the Apex Legends characters if you’re unsure of who to kick off your ranked season with.