Hello Chasers,
We will be moving into the new season on April 27th. With the arrival of the new season, we’ll be guiding you through couple of changes that are brought to the rank and matchmaking system.
Rank Determined by Rating
In order for rank to properly portray the level of skill, your rating will now determine your rank. The ranks S, M, and G will be decided by rating instead players’ placement on the ranking board. The players with the highest rankings will be in the Rank UI in Eltheca.
Promo Matches Eliminated
Since rank will be determined by rating, the current promo matches will be eliminated.
Rank Simplified
In order to reduce the fluctuation of rank due to changes in rating from winning or losing, the rank system will be simplified.
- Rank will no longer be sub-divided into 3 sub-ranks. It will be combined into 1 rank.
Rank Placement System Added
A rank placement system will be added so that players can be quickly placed into ranks that reflect their skill level.
When players create a new character or when the new season begins, there will be 5 rank placement matches.
Once players complete all 5 matches, they will be placed into the starting rank for that season.
Rating Revealed for Everyone
Once you complete your rank placement, you can check your own rating.
In the past, only the players in A rank and higher could check their rating. This feature will be available for everyone who completed their rank placement.
After every ranked match, players will be able to check their increased/decreased rating.
Improved Matchmaking System
The matchmaking range expansion will be improved to match players of similar skill levels.
The range of matchmaking will expand differently depending on your rating, so players will more likely match against other players of similar skill levels
Party Play (Duo Queues) Disabled in Ranked Matches
Party play will be disabled in Ranked matches.
Since Kurtzpel Ranked Match is based on 2vs2, we believe communication and teamwork are large factors in determining victory and pre-formed parties have a natural advantage in these factors.
Adjusting the rating and matchmaking range was not enough to overcome these factors, so we have decided to limit party plays in ranked matches. We are very regretful to make this announcement, as we believed solo queues and duo queues playing together in a fair and free setting is ideal. We will make sure to consider different variables and improvements in hopes to incorporate party play back into the game.
Normal Match (2vs2) Added
Normal Match (2vs2) free of rating and rank will be added.
We expect Ranked Matches will have bigger pressure on players, with rating determining the rank and party plays being disabled. Normal Match (2vs2) mode is added in hopes to relieve this pressure.
Normal Match (2vs2) offers quick matching to match players on a wider range of skill levels than ranked matches.
Improvements to Prevent Rating Management
There is a system in place to prevent rating management, where players stop playing Ranked Matches in order to manage their rating. However, this applies a large pressure on certain players and leads to certain players getting matched with a large gap in skill due to their ratings dropping by a large margin.
We’ve decided to alleviate this by giving players more time before the rating deduction takes place and reducing the maximum deduction cap in their rating once their accounts are marked inactive.
Changes to Season Rewards
In the past, we gave out rewards based on the highest rank reached in the season.
This was to alleviate the pressure in managing ranks during the season. However, when some players reached a certain rank, they became unmotivated to play, causing other players to be frustrated.
Starting from next season, season rewards will give rewards based on the current rank at the end of the season.
Changes to Rating on Alternate Characters under the Same Account
When players of higher skill levels created alternate characters, they were matched with players of lower skill levels, causing unexpected harm to players of lower skill levels.
In the next season, alternate characters upon creation will be given a rating based on the character with the highest rating in that account.