Apex Legends Season 2 Ranked Mode, How It Works

Are you ready for Apex Legends season 2? Respawn definitely is and now that the day of arrival is here, the team took to Reddit to talk about a few of the new features in the battle royale game. You know, outside of the dragons. One of the biggest features is the Ranked Mode, something the devs wanted to talk a little more about so that players can know everything about the new feature before diving right in.

“We believe that Apex is a dynamic game that takes time and effort to master,” said the team in a recent Reddit post. “Ranked Leagues should be the place where competitive players (or players who feel competitive now and then) can go to prove their skills and gain recognition for their efforts.”

The entire goal of this is to add a new experience, something that many players felt was desperately needed after the disappointing proceedings in the first season. They also outlined what’s important about this mode and what it brings to the table: 

• Reward competitive players for the time they invest in Apex Legends. We do this through a ranked ladder that shows how you stack up against the rest of the playerbase. Additionally, you will receive in-game rewards at the end of the season based on the rank you achieve.
• Ensure competitive integrity through skill-based matchmaking. No one can really say they’re the best if all they do is stomp n00bs in Skulltown, so matchmaking in Ranked Leagues is focused on putting players of similar skill in the same match. You won’t always be playing against players of your exact tier (Silver players may compete with Gold players, for instance) but it will be as close as possible for your region and time of day.
• Create a space at the top of the ladder for the best players to establish a high-skill meta without forcing a playstyle. We do this by rewarding match placement and kills, with some specific limits. After all, support or strategic players shouldn’t be rewarded less because they’re not getting 15 kills a game. We’re approaching scoring with an even hand that ensures the focus is on winning above all else.
• Create a true measure of skill in Apex Legends. We’re starting out with a score-based ranked system (detailed in the Scoring section below), but we don’t intend for this to last forever. We’ll be watching Ranked players closely to see what determines success on the ladder, what types of players climb the quickest, and how the high-skill metagame plays out. Our goal is to take data from the launch of Ranked Leagues and adjust the system over time. So, players should expect seasonal soft-resets where your ranks get pushed back down for a new season, as well as changes to the scoring system, matchmaking system, and ultimately the ranked format entirely over the course of future seasons.

Season 1 data helped shape how the Ranked Mode works and it runs competitive periods that they call “Series.” July through September will mark the first Series, though the devs did mention that they aren’t necessarily tied to new seasons. Players will fight for the change at six competitive tiers: 

• Bronze
• Silver
• Gold
• Platinum
• Diamond
• Apex Predator

Each tier, aside from Apex Predator, have four divisions to scale up with starting placements going forward learning from previous Series. Each match will also cost RP, as follows: 

• Bronze matches are free
• Silver matches cost 1RP
• Gold matches cost 2RP
• Platinum matches cost 3RP
• Diamond matches cost 4RP
• Apex Predator matches cost 5RP

There will be penalties for this high-reward feature of Apex Legends, including for those players that like to leave mid-match. As for rewards, Respawn mentions the usual bragging rights in addition to scaled rewards based off of individual tiers. You can learn more about the Ranked Mode right here with the team’s full blog post for Apex Legends Season 2.