
As we’ve mentioned in our Roadmap, we are working on separating Classic into two modes: Casual and Ranked. The reason for this is simple.
Combining competitive players who want to fight for a spot on the leaderboard and casual players who just want to have fun was causing conflict. We want to ensure that new players have a fair chance to learn and enjoy the game while veteran and experienced players are able to compete with other players in a fair fight.
To do this we have created a new Ranked mode that will be released initially as a Beta so that we can experiment with squad sizes and rulesets. As always, we think this will spark some questions we've tried to anticipate.
When will the Ranked Beta go live?
We’re currently teasing out some bugs with the new mode (and we have an exciting new progression system to release as well!), so we don’t want to put an exact date on it, but we hope to go live within the next couple of weeks.
Is the playerbase big enough to support two modes?
Not yet, but we’re hoping to grow it! Initially, Ranked will be available at limited times in North America and EU regions only.
What times and in which regions will the Ranked Beta be available?
In the EU and NA regions, Ranked will be available at weekends only and exact times are still to be decided.
Will the queue times for Ranked be really long?
They might be! This is why we're running a Beta pre-season. We’re going to experiment with various squad size and queuing options to see what works best, but it’s possible that players in the Ranked queue might need to wait a bit to get a match.
What are the new rules for Ranked?
We’re still working through those and we’d like you to help! Hop on over to our Ranked Rules survey and tell us what you think the rules should be!
What about Leaderboards?
These will work largely as they do now, with some tweaks as we go.
What about my current league rank? Will I get to keep it?
Everyone playing Ranked will be starting fresh. Matchmaking ratings and your tiers will all be reset. As a special bonus, however, we’ll be giving all players who have achieved any rank in our current league system an exclusive Sweet Science Hero skin. You have until the 21st of April to get to Bronze if you haven’t yet, so get playing now! Your hero skin will be delivered when we launch our Ranked mode!
Where can we give you feedback on these plans?
Glad you asked! We're running a poll with a few questions we'd like your input on.
Head on over and fill in our Ranked survey now![ 2016-04-08 17:44:29 CET ] [ Original post ]