Apex Legends Ranked Changes in Season 17

The Apex Legends ranked changes have really created a stir in the community. With the Season 17 update coming out on 9 May, EA and Respawn have really overhauled a lot of things in their battle royale title including map changes, addition of weapon mastery, changes to Firing Range and more. Here's a quick overview of the ranked updates.

Apex Legends Ranked Updates in Season 17

The developers of Apex Legends have updated their matchmaking system for Ranked mode to improve the consistency of competitive matches. The former matchmaking algorithm that matched players based on their current Ranked Points did not accurately represent a player’s skill level, especially at lower tiers. Therefore, Respawn will use a hidden Matchmaking Rating (MMR) system that values match fairness more than its predecessor. They set the MMR system to raise when players perform well in placements and to eliminate other players and teams in the interim.

Matchmaking will prioritize creating matches with similar party builds, but pre-made squads will have minor advantages added to their team’s MMR to account for their competitive advantage. Finally, ranked matchmaking will be based on player’s skills and not their Ladder Points.

Apex Legends Ranked Scoring System

The game will introduce a new scoring system, replacing the old Ranked Points (RP) system with Ladder Points (LP) system that revolves around bonuses tied to placements. Respawn is basing the bonuses on three groups: Elimination Bonuses, Rating Bonuses and Skill Bonuses. The system will intelligently reward players based on the difficulty of the match and the pre-made squad size.

The placement in the game determines the bonus gains and loss mitigations. According to the update notes, Apex will consider players who come 10th or better, a win. The per-match point adjustments guarantee gains to the top half and losses to the bottom half. The entry cost will be the same value at all tiers, and players will start with 10 Provisional Matches to calibrate their ranking, during which losses are fully mitigated, and it significantly magnifies gains.

No more Splits

The ranked split reset, which happens in the middle of each season, is being removed and rankings will only be reset at the start of each season.

Rank Simplification

Apex’s division width will now be 1000 LP per division, and it will simplify each division to Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Master. The promotion bonus is being reduced from 300 to 250, and the demotion penalty is being reduced from half a division to 150. Ranked reset will fully reset progress back to zero LP, and the ranked level requirement is being raised from level 20 to 50 to ensure new players are prepared for the experience and to detect cheaters and smurfs more effectively.

Up next: How Apex Legends Season 17 Map Changes Affect the Game