From August 16 to December 13, Caliber will host its 8th season of Ranked Battles—a recurring competition in PvP mode. The season will last for 17 weeks, and is named Arctic Wind.

We have heavily reworked the placement matches for this season to be able to determine your skill level more accurately at the start and place you in the suitable League. We have also made slight changes to the selection determinants so that the players will get to play against other players more frequently.

The main rewards for the season are an Epic Outfit that might have already caught your eye during gameplay—The Hoya Outfit for Medic Shersheret—and the Doppelgänger Outfit for Assault Plut that has already captured the imagination of hundreds of players.

Any player can participate in Ranked Battles mode as long as their Account fits the following criteria:

The 8th season of Ranked Battles will take place in Hacking mode. While many maps have been changed, the mode’s rules remain the same.

Summary:

Just like in the previous season, the Ranked Battles will include the "Picks and Bans" stage. You can check this article to refresh your memory on this system.

The Leagues reflect the level of skill of the players participating in the Ranked Battles. Each League, except Diamond, consists of three ranks.

There are five Leagues in total: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond.

Your starting League will be decided by the results of the placement matches, and your advancement by your performance in battles. Victories add to your Rank Points, while losses deduct from them.

By clicking on each League, you can see 50 players that are a part of it, and their amount of victories and Rank Points. Even though only 50 players are displayed, there are a lot more of them—the list refreshes once per minute. It is not a table that displays all the players and their achievements, but rather an opportunity to look for familiar names that you may have encountered in your battles.

The most prestigious Diamond League has a separate Leader list, which will include the top eight players with the highest rating. Those top-8 players will receive additional rewards when the season ends.

To be placed in a League, players must play five placement matches. These matches will help ascertain the skill of each player and place them into an appropriate League.

The best possible League after placement is Gold.

All the players start the placement matches with zero points. This parameter will be hidden until the placement is completed. Each victory brings a predetermined amount of points and the losses do not deduct any points.

The personal efficiency of the player is now taken into account. The more efficient you are with a particular type of character, the more points you will get.

Individual efficiency during the placement matches is analyzed to assign players more accurately to the different Leagues, and to improve future matches.

Each consecutive win will grant more Rank Points. This figure is progressive—the highest Rank Points bonus will be awarded with the fifth victory in a row.

But keep in mind that losing will cost you your victory streak.

The League that you finished the previous season will be taken into account, just like before. But now, bonus Rank Points will be awarded during the placement results after the five finished matches.

After each battle, the number of Rank Points will change.

The amount of Rank Points that you can gain or lose depends on the average rating of the team you are playing against compared to your team.

If the rating of both teams is similar, then you will either gain or lose 10 Rank Points after the battle.

All changes to the amount of Rank Points will be shown immediately after the match ends.

If you end up being the most effective player of the match among both teams, but your team loses the match, then you will lose 80% Rank Points less.

Effectiveness is determined by the amount of ribbons acquired:

If the two best players have the same amount of ribbons, this mechanic will not be applied.

Highlighting the most efficient player of the losing team is required to place players more accurately among the League without making individual achievements too important—the team standing matters most.

This mechanic will become an effective method of moving through the Leagues, but can also correct your path in case of an error in the matchmaking system.

Every rank has upper and lower limits. 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 limit, there will be a demotion.

The rank protection system works as follows:

For example: if there is a player with Bronze II rank and a 105 rating, they will only lose 5 points on a defeat, instead of 10.

During the previous season, we have implemented the inactivity penalty system for the players in the highest Leagues: Gold, Platinum and Diamond. This feature proved to be effective, thus we have decided to keep it.

If you reach an advanced League, you will have to regularly prove your mastery.

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.

In Ranked Battles, the following penalties apply:

During matchmaking, the system tries to pick players that are 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.

So, if you are in the Bronze League, and your fireteam ally is in the Platinum League, then you will be very likely to encounter the players from the Gold, Platinum and Diamond Leagues during your battles.

During matchmaking, the system will always try to spread players across the teams first. So, if you are going into the battle with a fireteam of 4, for example, then the system will try and match you against a team with the same composition. But these conditions will only be applied if there would be enough fireteams in the system during matchmaking.

If the system is not able to find suitable opponents, then priority will be given to teams of 3 and 2, then to single players.

And don’t forget that the rating of the fireteam, the time of searching for a battle, the distance of players from the servers are all taken into account as well.

It is nice to get into a high League. But it’s even better to get rewarded for it. During the event, players will be earning Rank Tokens, used for purchasing items in the Ranked Armory.

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 immediately.

The reward for being in the League at the end of the season will be given on December 13.

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 Emblem will represent the player’s League until the beginning of a new Ranked Battles season.