?Along with the announcement two new heroes, Blizzard has finally announced the complete revamping of their in-game ranking system and seasons.
The new system
The new ranked system will now be divided into League Tiers and Divisions. Tiers will be (from lowest to highest):
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Diamond
- Master
- Grand Master
Each tier will also be broken into divisions with the lowest division within a tier being five and highest being one. Ex. A player in Gold 1, has a higher competitive rank than Gold 4, and that Gold 4 player has a higher rank than a player in Silver 2.
Master and Grand Master
The Masters and Grand Master ranks will have slightly different rules. Instead of divisions, Master League badges will display the total number of rank points you’ve accumulated in Master League that season, so players can track their progress against other Master League players. Grand Master League will be comprised of the top 500 point earners in each region’s Master League. For players in this league, badges will display a number ranging from 500 to 1. This number is their position in the overall Grand Master rankings from their region, which will be updated on a daily basis.
Seasons
Along with the new ranking system comes the beginning of Heroes of the Storm Ranked Seasons. At the beginning of each season, a series of ten placement matches will determine your rank. After your placement matches your future ranked matches will gain or lose you rank points (much like Hero League right now).You must earn enough rank points to play a Promotion Match which will move you up to the next tier or division. Conversely, if you consistently lose points, you will have an opportunity to defend you tier or division by playing a Demotion Match.
Seasons will last a couple of months, with season one being a little bit longer. Blizzard will temporarily be loosening matchmaking certainty during Season One placement matches. This means the games will have a higher impact on matchmaking rating, allowing players to make quick and meaningful changes to their MMR.
Rewards
So what do you get out of climbing the ranks? Players who participate in Hero League and Team League seasons will be rewarded with in-game gold at each season’s end based on their ranked performance in Team and Hero League. You can earn double rewards for participating in both as well! Season One rewards also include Portraits, Gold and Elemental Wolf Mount and Epic Elemental Wolf Mount.
Queueing
Only players whose ranks are within one league tier will be able to queue together as a party in Hero League matches. This will help with the MMR lull players seem to find themselves in now. During placement matches, players can only party with others doing placement matches. Hero League queue parties was initially planned on being extended to three players, but due to overwhelming community response, the maximum queue size will remain at two.
These changes will be applied in a fairly large game patch, due out June 14th.
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