When the Emergence update is released for Apex Legends next month, Ranked Arenas will be introduced. This new feature offers a ranked system separate from the familiar Ranked BR. There are also differences in the design.
Ranked Arenas is set to have two separate measures of the player’s skill and these are:
- The player’s rank, which is the visible skill rating.
- Examples are Bronze, Silver, Gold, pretty much like the BR ranking system.
- An underlying MMR (matchmaking rating) score.
- This is a number that is invisible to everyone, even the player.
- This is the number that the game uses to determine who should be matched against the player in Ranked Arenas.
The Basics
So how does it work? During the first play of Ranked Arenas, players begin with placement matches. The initial MMR and starting rank are determined in the first 10 matches. While this may sound familiar, Arenas is a head-to-head battle between two teams and thus the Arenas Points being awarded are rather cut and dry compared to the 20-team Battle Royale. It means that everything boils down to getting the win.
After the players get their starting rank, they’re going to get more AP for wins compared to how much they lose for losses. However, as the player’s rank converges with their MMR, the bonus AP received for wins starts to shrink. Meaning once the season ends, the player’s rank should provide a more accurate measure of their skill.
That may be good news but there’s a catch. There’s no demotion protection available in Ranked Arenas, so players can get demoted. But that doesn’t mean players should no longer try this. Because the rewards given at the end of the season are going to be based on the highest tier reached by the player.
Map Rotation
Ranked Arenas will have the same overall map schedule as unranked Arenas. Party Crasher, Phase Runner, and Overflow are going to be rotated along with one BR location that changes every two weeks. The Emergence update offers three new BR locations which replace those from Legacy.
Read more about Ranked Arenas here.
