‘Fortnite’ Ranked Mode Finally Happening After Six Years
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner gets more competitive than ever with Fortnite‘s new ranked mode.
Fortnite had humble beginnings as a zombie survival shooter where you built things to hold off zombie attacks in 2017. The game initially received mixed reviews, and it didn’t become a phenomenon until Epic decided to make it a Battle-Royale-style game after the success of Players Unknown Battlegrounds.
The Battle Royale mode became a massive hit, the game started getting crossovers from major properties like Marvel, Disney, Netflix, and even anime crossovers. The collaborations came in the form of skins, weapons, and event modes. The game started to look like what happens when you give every toy in a toy box a gun. Since then, the game has grown considerably.
The game is currently on Chapter 4, Season 2, and has changed the world significantly and added some more anime characters like Mikasa from Attack on Titan and Goku Black from Dragon Ball Super. The current season is set to end on June 9th and the next season promises to bring in something it has surprisingly avoided all this time.
via Epic Games
Ranked, Baby!
Epic Games announced over the weekend on a blog spot that the game will be receiving Ranked Play for the first time. Starting in Fortnite v24.40, Battle Royale and the newer Zero Build mode will have a Ranked option. The ranks will be different between modes, so that means you will have to rank up on both.
Battle Royale:
- Solo
- Duos
- Squads
Zero Build:
- Duos
The Ranks will span Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Elite, Champion, and Unreal. Unreal is a fun name since Epic Games is responsible for the Unreal Engine. Bronze through Diamond will have 3 levels to go through to get to the next rank. This will make only the most hardcore to enter into Elite through Unreal which only has one level to rank up.
via Epic Games
The introduction of Ranked will start with “Ranked Season Zero” and will last until the end of the upcoming Chapter 4, Season 3. Since this is the first time they are doing it, expect there to be changes to the mode throughout.
How Ranked Works
Players will get a Rank based on their past match performance on their account over the years and will be given what it is once they do their first Ranked match in both Battle Royale and Zero Build. The option will appear as a setting in the Lobby and once on, players can see their rank on the left and a progress bar on how much is needed to advance to the next rank or if they are close to being pushed back a rank.
New players will have to complete the specific Quest “Outlast 500 opponents” before they can enable the Ranked option in the lobby match options. This way they aren’t at a disadvantage of going straight in.
The progress bar for your rank moves depends on match placement and how many eliminations you or your team got during the match. This way it isn’t always about winning the Battle Royale and more about how well you do overall. Eliminations can also score more if done much further into the match and if the player’s rank is higher than yours.
Solo players will be of course judged on their own and Teams will be judged as a single unit. All team members will gain and lose progress equally based on eliminations and team placement calculated at the end of a ranked match.
Matchmaking will have players being matched with players with similar ranks as them. Solo is straightforward in how that works with teams working with a “party rank.” Your team’s party rank will be determined by the highest-ranked player on the team to make sure you are matched in with similarly ranked teams. This way you can’t basically have a ringer in lower-ranked matches.
The addition of this mode will have some balancing changes coming to make it more challenging in all modes:
- Material caps will be decreased from 999 to 500.
- Harvesting rates will be slightly increased.
- Players will drop 50 of each material when they are eliminated.
Rewards and Effect on Competitive
Reaching Unreal will let players not have to worry about going down in rank, even if they lose every time after reaching it. It does not give any special rewards and will be given a number signifying their standing among Unreal players globally. Players can raise that number by playing the Ranked modes more. There will be rewards with Urgent Quests players can complete for Seasonal cosmetic rewards. A new quest will be given every match and has to be done during the match since it does not carry over.
via Epic Games
Arena mode will be discontinued once Ranked is added and remaining tournaments for Battle Royale Chapter 4 Season 2 will not have a rank requirement for eligibility, except for the Console Champions Cup. Players will need to reach Platinum I rank or higher in Ranked Battle Royale to be eligible to compete in the Console Champions Cup on May 23.
Next Battle Royale Season, players’ rank will, among other factors, be an eligibility requirement for Epic-hosted tournaments of Fortnite. All other eligibility requirements needed and the specific rank requirements for a given tournament will be listed in the official rules for the tournament. Keep an eye out for that.
Fortnite is one of the most popular games of all time. The addition of Ranked mode is going to breathe some new life into the game without too much change. Streamers will definitely be all over this and now the fate of tournament players is tied to it. I only recommend Ranked mode if you are a competitive person because people mean business there.
“7.6 Days.” “Huh, but that’s half a fortnight!” – Gohan and Goku, DBZ Abridged
