Apex Legends Season 18 is gearing up for an 'evolved rank system'

Character holding a gun
(Image credit: EA)

Apex Legends Season 18 is just around the corner, and with this comes so giant changes to rank. 

The previous season of Apex Legends saw a record number of players climb the ranks to the higher echelon. Many players were dissatisfied with the rank distribution in Season 17 as it was skewed towards the "Master" rank. In an unlikely turn of events, some users were able to gain the top Predator rank without killing anyone. 

In an interview with Dextero Shiv, a content creator for Luminosity Gaming said that "This ranked system is just plain wrong. When hardstuck plastic rank skill level players can literally AFK their way to master. Yeah, I think the ranked system is Dogs**t." 

Thankfully the devs are dead set on changing the ranked system to benefit the players and ensure that the same slip-up from last season doesn't reoccur in Season 18.  

"Rank is definitely at the top of our mind for us this season," design director Evan Nikolaj said. "We are committed to keep improving and evolving the rank experience and appreciate how much our community has been engaged in rank this season". 

Apex Legends Season 18 will have a brand new rank system which will hopefully create tighter competition. "We've worked hard restructuring our rank tuning to prevent the giant spike of players that made it to masters in the first few weeks of season 17", lead progression designer Chris Cluroux said. "This does mean that some players that are in masters in Season 17 won't be able to climb back that easily". 

Luckily there are some benefits coming into Season 18. For example, there'll be a minimum bonus for elimination at all ranks, so you can always count on eliminations to contribute to your success. 

While we wait for Season 18, check out our Apex Legends coverage, as well as all the details for its upcoming mobile beta and our best FPS games list if you're in the market for something different. 

Elie Gould
Features Writer

Elie is a Features Writer for TechRadar Gaming, here to write about anything new or slightly weird. Before writing for TRG, Elie studied for a Masters at Cardiff University JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs or editing the gaming section for their student publications. 

Elie’s first step into gaming was through Pokémon but they've taken the natural next step in the horror genre. Any and every game that would keep you up at night is on their list to play - despite the fact that one of Elie’s biggest fears is being chased.