Apex Legends Ranked Arenas Rules And Features Explained
Apex Legends Ranked Arenas is a brand-new version of the popular mode that was initially introduced in Apex Legends Season 9: Legacy. Apex Legends Arenas has been a popular alternative to the standard Battle Royale mode, which sees 3v3 team battles on symmetrical maps featuring an economy system known as the Apex Legends Arenas shop, similar to the ones present in Valorant and CS:GO. It offers something vastly different to the usual last-team-standing fare, with its own Apex Legends Arenas tier list and best Apex Legends Arenas team compositions.
Despite Arenas not launching with a ranked mode, the upcoming release of Apex Legends Season 10: Emergence, Apex Legends Ranked Arenas is the version tailored to the competitive player that we've been waiting for.
Ranked Arenas will have different rules and features from Ranked Battle Royale, so aspiring Arenas Predators will want to familiarize themselves with the new settings before hopping into their placement matches.
Click to enlargeApex Legends Ranked Arenas Rank And MMR
Ranked Arenas will calculate your skill using two separate measures: Rank and MMR. This may seem like an odd feature to players new to this system, but it’s a widespread practice in many competitive games. Rocket League, for example, uses a similar system.
Your rank is the visible skill rating assigned following your placement matches. This is the rank players work toward throughout the season. Ranks are as follows:
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Diamond
- Master
- Apex Predator
On the other end, MMR, or matchmaking rank, is an invisible rank calculated behind the scenes. MMR is not visible to anyone, you can’t even view your own MMR. MMR is used to balance and match players with similarly-skilled opponents.
Rank and MMR usually go hand in hand, but there are times when the presence of both indexes works for the greater good. Because the MMR is hidden, it can be altered drastically without causing alarm to the player. The developers use this to their advantage to make quick adjustments and improve matchmaking quality.
For example, imagine a scenario where an above-average player gets unlucky in placement matches and ends up in Silver. Afterwards, they play a few Silver level matches and dominate their opponents. The MMR system will recognize this and begin to set this Silver player up with higher MMR opponents. If the undeserving Silver player is still winning games, they will get a boost to their Arena Points (AP) and their visible rank will climb rapidly until they arrive in the appropriate tier. Vice versa, MMR can protect players from losing too much AP when they lose to opponents outside of their skill range.
The rank and MMR combination works to help place players at their appropriate skill level more quickly and effectively than a traditional rank system could.
Click to enlargeApex Legends Ranked Arenas Placement Matches
Before you receive a rank in Apex Legends Ranked Arenas, you’ll need to participate in ten placement matches. Your performance in these matches will determine your initial rank and MMR.
The one unavoidable downside of a new Ranked System is that with placement matches, everything is a mystery. The Arenas Ranked System has not yet recognized if a player is Bronze level or Master level in skill. Due to this, the skill variance in these placement matches can be quite wide. But don't fret, the game will hastily pick up on your skill level and place you in the proper tier as you play more Ranked Arenas matches.
How You Earn Rank in Apex Legends Ranked Arenas
Arenas Points are awarded a bit differently than Ranked Points in the Battle Royale mode. There’s no Kill Points or Placement Points and no entry cost. Arena Points are determined simply by whether you win or lose the game - individual performance is irrelevant.
In the early stages of your Ranked Arenas grind, you will receive more AP for wins than you lose for losses. As you progress through the season, the amount of bonus AP you get per win will decrease as the Ranked System learns your skill level and your rank and MMR become more stable. By the end of the season, your rank should be a pretty accurate representation of where you are at skill-wise in relation to the rest of the Ranked Arenas player base.
Ranked Arenas will have no demotion protection — another change from the Ranked Battle Royale mode. If you’re on the border of Gold IV, a loss can send you back into Silver I. But as a consolation, the rewards you receive at the end of the season are based on your highest reached tier.
Click to enlargeApex Legends Ranked Arenas Has No Ranked Splits
Unlike the Ranked Battle Royale mode, Ranked Arenas will have no splits. This means that players can work on their Arenas rank all season without the worries of a reset halfway through. Top-tier Apex Legends pros like Phillip "ImperialHal" Dosen have been begging for the removal of splits in Ranked Battle Royale for quite some time. Ranked Battle Royale still has splits for now, but at least Respawn is testing the change in Ranked Arenas.
Arenas rank will be reset at the end of each full season and players will be required to play another ten placement matches once a new season begins.
Loss Forgiveness And Leaver Penalties in Apex Legends Ranked Arenas
Ranked Arenas will have loss forgiveness and leaver penalties with the aim of maintaining competitive integrity. Players that leave a Ranked Arenas match before its conclusion will be temporarily banned from matchmaking.
Additionally, players that have a teammate abandon them mid-way through a match will get hit with loss forgiveness. This will result in no lost AP for the victims.
Apex Legends Ranked Arenas Party Restrictions
Apex Legends Ranked Arenas will have party restrictions identical to the system present in Ranked Battle Royale. Platinum-ranked players and above cannot party up with teammates more than one tier away in rank. So, Platinum can only play with Gold and Diamond players for example. Gold-ranked players and below can queue up with anyone in the Bronze to Gold range.
Matchmaking will take into account party size when attempting to find a balanced match. Ranked Arenas will avoid matching a team of solo players with a full squad of three. Ideally, matches will consist of premade vs. premade and mixed parties will be kept in their own queue.
Click to enlargeApex Legends Ranked Arenas Map Rotation
Ranked Arenas and unranked Arenas will share the same map schedule. The three mainstay maps in the rotation will be Party Crasher, Phase Runner, and Overflow. Additionally, one Battle Royale location will join the ladder three maps in rotation. The Battle Royale-based Arenas map will change every two weeks.
Season 10: Emergence brings with it three brand-new Arenas maps pulled from the Battle Royale maps. These locations are:
- Kings Canyon - Hillside
- World’s Edge - Dome
- Olympus - Oasis
The featured Ranked Arenas map will rotate every one hour while the unranked Arenas maps will continue to rotate every 15 minutes.
Ranked Arenas’ rules and settings consist of a mix of new features and existing elements copied from Ranked Battle Royale. Together, they will work to create an entirely new Apex Legends competitive experience.
