Apex Legends Dev Teases Upcoming Ranked Changes

An Apex Legends developer has shared some potential changes that could be coming to Ranked play and how Respawn is working towards combating cheaters. Respawn Entertainment’s John ‘JayBiebs’ Larson, appeared on the latest Apex Uncut podcast and talked about the potential inclusion of two-factor authentication to ward off cheaters from ranked play. He also discussed an increase in level requirements to gatekeep ranked from cheaters who can reach level 10 to play ranked in a matter of hours. Here is everything Larson had to say about potential legend balancing and changes to improve the state of the game.

Two-factor authentication might not be a great way to combat cheaters

During the Apex Uncut podcast, Respawn Entertainment’s John ‘JayBiebs’ Larson mentioned that two-factor authentication has been considered but it does not work “quite as well as some may believe it to, because you can always spoof.” However, the studio is taking action to clean up the current state of ranked.

He also shared his thoughts on potential ranked changes. Currently, players put some ranked points as a “bid” to enter a game and if you manage to secure enough kills or assists, get a certain rank or even win, you get bonus points and climb. If you are unable to perform well enough, you lose your points and you have to sacrifice more points to potentially climb in each game. However, the mode is not perfect according to Larson.

The current system can be abused by higher ranked players by farming low rank lobbies. The community has asked Master and Predator ranked players to not be awarded any ranked points for kills against other players who are below Diamond. Many higher-ranked players simply connect to less populated servers and end up in matches with a lower skill bracket which is something Respawn needs to address.

Players who are inactive may lose their points soon if they do not play enough matches within a given timeframe. It is something Respawn has considered and the dev revealed that Respawn “Can’t make any promises, but it is something we’re aware of and looking into.”

Apex Legends Season 10 is just a weeks away and it remains to be seen what changes are headed to the game to improve the ranked experience for all players. The game is also set to get Arenas Ranked mode which will feature its own competitive ranked system in a 3v3 environment.