From March 15 to June 21, Caliber will host the 7th season of Ranked Battles — a recurrent competition in PvP mode. The season will last for 14 weeks, and is named New Strategy.
The New Strategy Ranked Season will feature the «Picks and Bans» system. The starting League will be defined after five placement battles, and rewards for victories in all Leagues will become equal.
Any player can participate in Ranked Battles mode as long as their Account fits the following criteria:
The 7th season of Ranked Battles will take place in the updated Hacking game mode, which now features fewer rounds as well as new infiltration and installation areas.
Summary:
Along with the 7th season of Ranked Battles, we are introducing the new battle entry system. In Ranked Battles, this system will function together with the «Picks and Bans» system.
How it will work in Ranked mode:
We have already described the new system in our article.
In Ranked Battles, there will be five Leagues: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond. Each League (except for Diamond) has three ranks.
Rank progression depends on how successful your battles are. Players earn Rank Points for victories and lose them for defeats.
The Diamond League leaderboard will feature a separate list with eight players who have the highest rating. At the end of the season, the top 8 players will receive additional rewards.
Previously, there used to be cases when players with higher rank had to wait longer for a match.
We have changed the matchmaking process for such players so they will find their battles faster.
However, this issue was not the only reason why it took a long time to find a match. During previous seasons, there were players who earned a lot of Rank Points by playing with more experienced players in one fireteam.
In order to receive the reward granted at the end of the season, such players just stop playing in Ranked Battles to keep their rating. This will no longer work.
In Gold League and higher, your rating will be decreasing every Wednesday for a lack of activity. To avoid it, you have to play a certain number of matches in Ranked Battles every week.
The higher the League, the more battles you have to play, and the more Rank Points players will lose for a lack of activity.
To be placed in a League, players have to play five placement matches. These matches will ascertain the skill of each player and place them into an appropriate League.
How the placement works:
After each battle, the number of Rank Points will change.
The number of Rank Points that you can earn or lose depends on the rating of an enemy team. If both teams are equally skilled, you will earn 10 points for a victory and lose 10 points for a defeat.
When defeated, the player who earned the most Ribbons out of the two teams will lose an 80% less Rank Points. This advantage will not be applied if there are two or more such players.
The following Ribbons are taken into consideration: Treatment Specialist, Revival Specialist, Damage Specialist and Elimination Specialist.
The changed number of Rank Points can be found on the battle statistics screen.
Every rank has upper and lower borders. For example, in Gold I, there will be players whose Rank Points are above 800 and below 899. When a player earns 900 Rank Points, they will get to Platinum III.
Out of all Diamond League players, only the top 8 with the most Rank Points will be featured on the leaderboard.
When the number of Rank Points falls below the border, there will be a demotion.
The rank protection system works as follows:
For example: if there is a player with the Bronze II rank and a 105 rating, they will only lose 5 points on a defeat, instead of 10.
Thus, being at a lower border of a rank, a player can lose two matches without a demotion.
During matchmaking, players can be two Leagues apart maximum. The main point of this matching is to form two equally powerful teams based on their players’ ratings.
One fireteam can contain players with a big League difference, in which case matchmaking will be carried out based on the best players in the team. However, a victory with such a fireteam will earn fewer Rank Points.
In Ranked Battles, the following penalties apply:
During the event, players will be earning Rank Tokens, used for purchasing items in the Ranked Armory.
In the New Strategy Ranked Season, rewards for victories in any League will be the same. For every first victory of the day, you will receive 40 Tokens. For every fifth victory, you will receive 20 Tokens.
The reward for reaching a new League will be given instantly, not at the end of the season. You can receive this reward for reaching each League only once.
The reward for being in the League at the end of the season will be given on June 21.
In the Ranked Armory, you can spend Tokens on Epic Outfits, Executions, Emotes, Camos and HQ backgrounds. The Showcase will feature familiar items as well as new ones that we prepared specifically for the new season.
The Armory will be open throughout the Ranked Season and one week after it ends.
Rank Emblems are not given as rewards at the end of the season, but change dynamically depending on the player’s League. You will find a dynamic Emblem on your Account. The higher the League, the more valuable the Emblem that you will have on your Account.
The Emblem will represent the player’s League until the beginning of a new Ranked Battles season.
