You can start your journey from Bronze to Apex Predator tomorrow.
Apex Legends Season 2 is almost going to start and prior to the big patch which is coming tomorrow, Respawn has explained how its new Ranked Leagues will work in a Reddit post.
If you want to begin the long journey towards the top rank, you'll have to start from Bronze IV, work your way to Bronze I, and then do the same through the Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond ranks respectively. The final rank i.e Apex Predator is the only one which is not divided into four tiers.
You'll rank up by earning Ranked Points, and the scoring is pretty simple:
- Each kill: 1RP's (maximum of 5 per match)
- Top 10 placement: 2RP's
- Top 5 placement: 4RP's
- Top 3 placement: 7RP's
- Win the match: 12 RP's
You also have to spend some of your RP's in order to play ranked matches and the cost increases with each rank making progression harder enough until the higher you rise:
- Bronze: free
- Silver: 1RP
- Gold: 2RP
- Platinum: 3RP
- Diamond: 4RP
- Apex Predator: 5RP
As an example, say you earned enough RP to rank as Gold II, the second highest Gold tier. If you play a ranked match and score two kills but don't place in the top 10, you'd probably get 0 RP for the match. If you didn't score any points at all, you'd lose the 2RP entry fee.
By losing RP, it is possible to drop tiers—you might go from Gold II to Gold III, for instance—but you cannot drop all the way down to a lower rank. Once you're in Gold, you'll stay in Gold unless you reach Platinum.
This seems to cause a problem: What if I'm in Gold and I play so terribly that I lose all my RP and so can't pay the 2 RP entry fee? That's not a possibility, as Respawn clarifies later in the Reddit comments. Once you reach a rank, you can't lose RP that would drop you out of that rank. So if I have 280 RP, putting me in the lowest Gold rank, and I have a terrible match where I earn 0 RP, I won't be docked the 2RP entry fee and will still have 280RP at the end of the match. If I have a great match and score 12RP, however, the fee would reduce itself to 10.
When matchmaking with friends, everyone will pay the RP fee called for by their rank, but Apex will look for a match based on the highest-ranked player in the party. The idea here is to prevent Apex Predators from carrying a bunch of Bronze players in easy matches against other Bronze players.
The first competitive season will last till September, ending at Season 2, though future ranked series may get even longer. A lot of it depends on what respawn learns during this first go at a ranked mode and the developer notes that we should expect "updates on the fly" as it adjusts.
The Reddit post also provides an explanation of why these ranking and scoring decisions were made, as well as details on rewards (not much on that yet), penalties (if you quit early, you get put in time out), loss forgiveness (if your teammates quit, you won't lose RP), and plans for future series.
Apex Legends Season 2 starts tomorrow, on July 2, and aside from ranked mode, there'll be a new Battle Pass and challenges, weapon and map changes, and a new character, Wattson.
