EA and Respawn have announced a new feature as part of the Apex Legends Season 2 update. Known as Apex Legends Ranked Leagues, this extra game type will give competitive players something new and interesting to be a part of as soon as the new patch drops on July 2. If you’re curious about how Apex Legends Ranked Leagues work, including its structure and rewards, you’ll need to read our guide.
What is the Apex Legends Ranked Leagues feature?
Ranked Leagues is being put in place for those who want to add a competitive edge to matches. It’s designed to let those players, who feel that they’re exceptional at Apex Legends, to prove their skills, earn rewards, and be respected among their peers.
The feature will be implemented to create an accurate representation of the best Apex Legends players and will allow for competitive integrity through skill-based matchmaking. It will also create a leaderboard for the best players without forcing them to adapt their playstyle either. That means that support class players will be as rewarded for their efforts as those who jump into the fray more than their fellow gamers.
How do Apex Legends Ranked Leagues work?
Ranked Leagues will run for the duration of a season. So, for example, the Season 2 Ranked Leagues will run from July until September, which is when Season 3 is likely to arrive, and each season’s run will be known as a “Series.”
Ranked Leagues will also have six competitive tiers that players will fall into: Bronze, Silver, Gold, platinum, Diamond, and Apex Predator. Every tier, except for Apex Predator, will have four sub-tiers that players will need to be aware of. For instance, the Bronze tier will comprise of Bronze I, Bronze II, Bronze III, and Bronze IV. This is the system for silver, gold, diamond, and platinum too.
All players will start at bronze IV for the beginning of Ranked Leagues, but future Series will place you in a different tier depending on your progress over the past three months.
Players can climb the ladder and tiers by earning a set number of points per match. These points are known as “Ranked Points”, and you will get a certain amount depending on where you place at the end of each match.
Apex Legends Ranked Leagues | Ranked points
You will receive Ranked Points (RP) based on your performance in Ranked matches but not casual games. There’s a breakdown of how RP is amassed, and we’ve listed them below so you don’t have to read a wall of text:
- Kills — Worth 1 RP each up to to a maximum of 5 RP per match
- Placing in Top 10 — 2 RP
- Placing in Top 5 — 5 RP
- Placing in Top 3 — 7 RP
- Winning the match — 12 RP
This points system isn’t a cumulative one either. You can achieve a match-high score of 17 RP only, and that’s if you win the match and get the maximum kill score. You won’t, say, earn 12 RP for finishing in the Top 5 and Top 3 even if you came third.
Each time you want to play a Ranked match, you’ll have to fork over some RP that you have earned too. Again, we’ve provided a list of how much RP it will cost to play each Ranked match.
- Bronze — Free (0 RP)
- Silver — 1 RP
- Gold — 2 RP
- Platinum — 3 RP
- Diamond — 4 RP
- Apex Predator — 5 RP
A “Loss Forgiveness” system is also in place here. For example, you may end up with a —3 RP if you finish last and only get one kill in a diamond match (—4 points for diamond match entry, +1 RP for the kill). In this instance, you won’t be penalized and your net loss will always be zero. This only works if you stand to lose RP from a match though. If you get five kills and finish last in a diamond game, your RP net score would be +1 (—4 for entry, +5 for kills) so this system won’t be used.
Apex Legends Ranked Leagues | Ladder Movement
Your ladder movement will depend on how well or badly you play in Ranked matches. As we stated, everyone starts at bronze IV. Once you achieve 30 RP, you’ll rank up to Bronze III. You need to amass 120 RP before you can move up a tier to silver, 280 RP for gold, 480 RP for platinum, 720 RP for diamond, and 1000 RP for apex predator.
Once you hit a specific tier, you can’t be demoted back down. For example, reaching diamond IV means that you can’t drop back down to platinum I, no matter how many matches you lose. You can, however, drop down between ranks in a single tier, which means you can drop down to platinum II from platinum I if you fall below a certain RP level.
Apex Legends Ranked Leagues | Rewards
Respawn and EA has only detailed one reward that you will earn so far. At the end of each Series, you’ll be given a badge that shows where your final ladder placing was. Other rewards for accomplishments will be detailed down the line.
Apex Legends Ranked Leagues | Penalties
Cheating and leaving matches before their end will be punished by Respawn and EA. If you do either of these, you’ll be hit by a matchmaking penalty in regular and Ranked matches. Penalties will take the form of timeouts, which means you won’t be able to play for a select amount of time if you are punished.
Penalty timeouts start at five minutes but, if you keep leaving matches early or try to cheat, this can go as high as up to a week. Imagine a week without playing Apex Legends, and then decide if it’s worth it to cheat or leave early.
