NEW UPDATES COMING WITH APEX LEGENDS™: TAKEOVER We live to fight, Legends. This season we’re bringing the community to the forefront of Apex Legends with some of your favorites taking over content and competition. These Creator Commissioners will craft a series of challenges based on their own Apex experiences with a chance to earn cosmetics.
Gear up with Arsenals, a new one-stop shop stocked with weapons and ammo to hit the ground running. Purchase a Legend Spotlight Pass to find a potential new main and earn a Legendary skin for both your new Legend and a weapon. Add in Legend updates and bold meta changes, and we’ve got ourselves a party worthy of our sixth anniversary. Speaking of, our Anniversary Event kicks off at season launch with even more community created content and the debut of the Mythic R-301. This Takeover is a party you’re not going to want to miss.
CREATOR COMMISSIONERS
Creators take the wheel this season. Four different Creator Commissioners will step into the spotlight for two weeks each, bringing challenges to conquer, new and returning fan favorite modes, and fresh rewards. Week one you’ll chase glory together to complete Community challenges and ultimately determine how many Apex Packs† will be up for grabs the following week. Here are your community goals for each first week:
Tier 1 completion: 10 total Apex Packs† earnable
Tier 2 completion: 15 total Apex Packs† earnable
Tier 3 completion: 20 total Apex Packs† earnable
In week two, the hunt is on to earn those rewards! Work through five individual challenges to unlock a Creator-selected Legendary weapon skin and the Apex Packs† you chased in the first week. Participating in week one doesn’t automatically earn you rewards, so you’ll want to jump into matches that second week as well. Plus, earn a Banner Frame when you tune in to your faves on Twitch via Twitch Drops and a free Creator-themed tracker set in the Featured store to gift your friends!
If you haven’t already, be sure to connect your EA account with your Twitch account in order to receive drops: instructions can be found here.
Creator Commissioners and their Legendary choices:
February 25-March 10, 2025: Ninjayla
Legendary skin: Wingman’s “Death Ray”
March 11-24, 2025: Oraxe
Legendary skin: Kraber’s “The Pioneer”
April 1-14, 2025: Apryze
Legendary skin: Mastiff’s “Bone Breaker”
April 15-28, 2025: Kaminari Kyupi
Legendary skin: Mastiff’s “Tombstick”
ARSENALS
We’re bringing the arsenal this season with…well, Arsenals. This new addition to Battle Royale provides easy and consistent access to weapons and ammo of your choice. Stations will be located across all POI's on every map and, while their locations are fixed, the ammo type they will provide is random each match.
In addition to providing our full armory of weapons, Arsenals will also provide relevant ammo and the ability to enhance weapons. You can enhance one weapon per Arsenal and that weapon must match the Arsenal's ammo type. Doing so will grant an upgraded attachment and provide an optic if the weapon is missing one. When bins reset, so too do Arsenals—giving you the ability to upgrade again with higher potency. The amount of ammo they provide also significantly increases after a reset.
Locate Arsenals while you’re in the Dropship to inform your squad’s drop location, or spot them on the map and in-game HUD once your boots are on the ground. Prefer the hunt? Adjust how much info you want in the settings menu. The choice is yours. Pinging to request a weapon, ammo, or attachment will also automatically ping the nearest relevant Arsenal.
META CHANGES We’re bringing a little extra heat to battles this season with a couple of meta changes that you’ll want to get your hands on and test yourselves. It’s buffs a plenty with all weapon classes getting adjusted to feel more competitive with Assault Rifles. That’s right, every single weapon is getting an update.
The time-to-kill has been decreased not only with these weapon adjustments, but with updates to Armor, Helmets, and headshot multipliers. Legends aren’t missing out either—the Assault class is getting some hot new perks, and both Ash and Ballistic are getting some special attention. We’ve also made some adjustments to regen items to ensure you still have a fighting chance while taking on these lethal changes. Takeover Patch Notes drop on February 10, 2025, with all of the nitty gritty details. LEGEND SPOTLIGHT PASSES In the spirit of the season, why not let a new Legend take over your spotlight this season? Complete challenges with the new Legend Spotlight Pass to increase your proficiency with a potential new main. Progress through twenty levels to earn rewards that you’d normally have to wait for in shop rotations. You’ll also earn two Legendary Packs along the way: one at Level 10 with a weapon skin and one at Level 20 that grants one of ten available Legendary skins for that Legend. One Legend Spotlight pass can be purchased per season, per Legend in the in-game store and it also unlocks the Legend if you haven’t done so already.
SEE YOU ON THE DROPSHIP So, are you ready to rise to the community challenge, Legends? There’s something for everyone this season from buffs to perks, rewards to passes, and even more around the corner. Who will you feel out first: a high-precision simulacrum or a formerly distinguished gentleman? Maybe the buffs of weapons or Arsenals calls more to your heart. There’s no wrong answers here—just the heat of battle. Takeover launches February 11, 2025.
Apex Legends™: Anti-cheat and Matchmaking Update
Last year we made a commitment to you that we were going to continue to grow our communications and give you additional development insight. For our first dev blog of 2025, we’re sharing progress on the last two hot topics we covered: anti-cheat and matchmaking.
We touched on both of these in our Dev Update video that launched today, but we wanted to give a written overview as well. You already know that anti-cheat is an ever evolving process, but we wanted to update you with the latest on teaming, botting, and actioning your reports. We chatted about matchmaking just ahead of the holidays, but there’s so much more to catch you up on including new features in the works. Here’s a TLDR of what we’re covering in today’s dev update:
Anti-cheat Update
Recent efforts against teaming including recent action being taken on ~1,200 accounts across all platforms and the removal of ~17.4 million ranked points
An update on our progress against botting including a brand new machine learning model
Report Feedback: a new feature that we’re investigating to provide additional insight into the report you sent in-game
Brief touch base around a recently resolved incident that saw some high-profile accounts become compromised
Matchmaking Update
A sneak peek of in-progress features coming in the not so distant future: Unranked Skill Display, seeding skill values, and lessening Ranked resets
Looking at some new and upcoming tests: npc “Apex Bots,” preferential matchmaking (solos vs. premades), and queue time adjustments
Sharing some ongoing conversations for added transparency: Ranked premade restrictions, Ranked placement matches and skill difference and scoring
Anti-Cheat and game integrity will always be a top priority for us and the fight continues as we work to put in safeguards and evolve our systems to stop and get ahead of cheaters. This is another topic that we’ll share updates on as often as we can, whether it’s through social updates or blogs.
Today we’re sharing some advances we’ve made in combating teaming and botting, and an upcoming feature to better your reporting experience.
TEAMING
While Apex is a team game at its core, it’s not a team’s team game. If you’ve not encountered this before, teaming is when multiple teams collude during a match for a shared goal. For those that have experienced this in the past, you might’ve noticed a decrease over the last few months.
We’ve actively been targeting this negative behaviour in Ranked modes from multiple angles, including rolling out new automated teaming detection algorithms, swifter and more severe punishments, and stripping any ill-gotten ranked points from offenders. These efforts have led to action being taken on ~1,200 accounts across all platforms, including the removal of ~17.4 million ranked points, and we’ve seen a decrease in teaming thanks to this. We’ll continue to counter this exploitative practice and take appropriate action against bad actors. Teaming has no place in Apex.
BOTTING
There has been a recent increase in bots that’ve been circumventing our existing security measures and we’re actively working on addressing this. We’ve also created a brand new machine learning model that not only detects this new generation of bots, but was also built to be more future-proof to combat future variants and evolutions. At the time of writing this, our early reviews have found this new model to be incredibly accurate with low false negatives and we’re on track to have this in the live game by the time you’re reading this.
Encountering bots like these in your play sessions is not only frustrating, but it also muddies the player pool. Often these accounts are being used for various malicious purposes after they’ve been levelled up including cheating and harassment. Our work here is not done, but we expect another decrease in cheaters and an overall improved experience by continuing to reduce these bots.
REPORT FEEDBACK
Knowing your report against a cheater has been effective has been long requested by our community. We’re still in early stages, but we can share that this is something that we’re investigating. Look for an update with more details about this potential feature in the future. Please continue to send your reports—each one has the potential to make an impact:
Towards the end of January, a few high profile pro and creator accounts became compromised. While this has since been addressed, we want to share that we discovered and resolved two exploits that contributed to this One exploit targeted a party privacy status that impacted custom matches, and the other capitalized on our server-to-server handshake verifications—both of which we are confident are fixed and secured. We thank those impacted for flagging this and working with us to get this rectified as quickly as possible so that they could get back into the Outlands.
MATCHMAKING UPDATE
Our last dev blog provided a good baseline which we can use to focus on what’s coming next, things that we want to test, and ongoing conversations. The team has been hard at work to act on what we’ve been hearing from the community of players as well as our own data.
COMING SOON
Some of what we’re sharing today is still in progress and may change before it goes live, but here’s a sneak peek at some features coming in the not-so-distant future.
UNRANKED SKILL DISPLAY
Pre-Match Skill Display in Ranked has been an asset and we’ve seen the impact it has had on your matches, strategizing, and potential flagging of issues. Since it’s seen such success in Ranked, we’ll be rolling out a version for Trios BR at the start of the next season. Its purpose is the same as its Ranked variant: to provide context on where your squad’s skill level sits within the rest of the lobby.
Unranked Pre-match Skill Display will look a little different as there isn’t a visible skill value for players in pubs. Here’s what you can expect from this feature: How “wide” the skill is for the entire lobby Where the bookends of the lobby skill sit in the overall skill distribution of all players in this match Your squad’s skill in the context of both the lobby and the overall player-base
One thing that isn’t here that is in the Ranked Display is the number of squads throughout the distribution. We had an early version that included this, but it was not easy to read at a glance. We’ll be releasing a more simplified version to start with while we continue to iterate.
SEEDING SKILL VALUES
How players start with new modes and LTMs has varied in the past, but it’ll soon have a more consistent approach and result: your starting skill value when playing a new mode for the first time will be influenced by your skill value in other modes. Modes that you’ve played before (including returning LTMs) will already have your match history to work with.
Your starting skill value will be more elastic than your other skill values, meaning that it can change more quickly and with a larger swing based on your performance. It will stabilize over a number of matches and your matches will get more consistent. TLDR: the launch of a new game mode will be less chaotic in terms of skill mixing. Now all players will have a starting skill value to match from and they should start to be paired with like-skilled players from their very first match.
This will be coming to unranked matches first, but will quickly be followed by a solution that allows matchmaking to seed players into their correct Rank Tier based on their performance in other modes.
LESSENING RANKED RESETS
On the topic of skill mixing, this happens the most at the start of each Ranked season and each split. We’ve also seen a good amount of chatter about the dislike of both seasonal RP and split resets, and this is an active conversation for us.
For the near future, we will be tuning the reset values and reset placements to reduce start-of-season skill mixing even more. This should help reduce skill mixing for players that participated in the previous season, but doesn’t prevent new Ranked players from climbing. This is just one step we’re taking to reduce skill mixing and more are on the way.
TESTING
These next items are either in testing or will be soon and we’ll aim to share some results and decisions for future in-game changes in a future dev blog. Note: the dates of these tests haven’t and won’t be published to avoid outside influence, but we’ll circle back and share after our internal analysis is done.
APEX BOTS (NPC)
Bot Royale created an approachable way to build your skills and onboard with a squad, but when you’re ready for Unranked pubs you’re thrown into the thick of it. It’s clear that you’re looking for tighter and fairer matches, especially those who are newer and early-tier players. We’ve started testing something that we think will not only help developing players, but also deliver on the lobbies you’ve been looking for.
We’ve slowly been introducing a small and deliberate amount of npc bots, “Apex Bots,” into lower-tier public lobbies. These bots only deploy as opponents and will be a full squad; your squad will not be filled. We want players to have fun playing Apex, and we see this as a potential path to deliver more of that, but we didn’t want to just drop them on you.
Enemy bots don’t always create the best in-game experience, so it’s worth repeating that this is a test. We’ll be monitoring and measuring for impact in a few areas: decreasing skill width, decreasing overall queue wait times, and whether or not this helps players increase their game sense and combat effectiveness. We hope to have enough data for next steps by mid-season, so that we can report back and share updates and if we can leverage these Apex Bots for increased game health in the future.
PREFERENTIAL MM: SOLOS VS PREMADES
A desire for premades to play only against premades and solos to only play against solos is something we’ve frequently heard, but a full splitting of the queues isn’t a possibility that we’re going to pursue in the near future. We need to keep premade squads and solo queueing players together to maintain healthy queue populations and ensure that matchmaking quality isn’t compromised. It’s worth calling out that there would be a significant impact to queue times in order for this change to be felt by players and reach the level of desired impact.
With that in mind, we’re going to run a lot of testing to understand the impact of adding preferential matchmaking criteria based on premade vs. solo. The goal of this is for the matchmaking system to take into consideration premade vs. solo queuers, and attempt to match them together as much as possible within the acceptable level of impact to queue times and skill width. We’re looking forward to digging into what is possible and feasible with this as it’s one of the most requested matchmaking changes.
QUEUE TIME ADJUSTMENTS
At the start of From the Rift, we adjusted how much time CWMM takes to expand the search for differently-skilled players in both Unranked and Ranked BR matches. While this increased wait times, it had the desired positive effect of making matches tighter overall, meaning more encounters with like-skilled players. This also led to more damage output and kills per player, and we believe that these combat-focused measurements roughly translate to both “fun” and “fairness” for the majority of players.
While this has had some success, we’ll be continuing to experiment and optimize maximum wait times for various skill bands in order to increase match tightness. We’ve not yet found the sweet spot for this—more work needs to be done.
ONGOING CONVERSATIONS
These next topics we’re going to cover are ones that are hot both internally and externally. We’re just starting to formulate tests to help us validate our ideas on each and we’ll hopefully have more to share once they’re out of the investigating phase.
RANKED PREMADE RESTRICTIONS
With the Ranked Skill Display showing that yes, sometimes a Silver can be in the same lobby as a Master, it’s less clear that this is partially due to premade squads allowing players within 2 Tiers of each other. A Silver can pair with a Platinum, and they can then get pulled into a Diamond lobby which also allows Masters (including Preds). Too many ranks for one lobby.
We could further restrict premades to reduce the width of matches caused by premade squads, but this would limit who could play together in its current form. We’re not a big fan of that route as this is a team game and forming squads with your friends to compete is something we’d like to see more of. This one needs the most cooking time, and we are going to keep talking about other solutions to this specific problem.
RETURN OF RANKED PLACEMENT MATCHES
We want players having fun as quickly as possible and one aspect of that is playing against players of similar skill. Previously, we had implemented placement matches where players would play 10 matches and then be placed into their starting Division and Tier for that Ranked season. We’re looking to return to a version of this system as it’s both easy to understand, and effective at detecting and properly placing players even before their first official Ranked match. This system will leverage skill seeding to assist in each player’s placement based on past performance in other modes, and will also rely on Ranked Placement Match performance to influence their starting position.
SKILL DIFFERENCE AND SCORING
This is a fairly new topic of discussion for us and it’s an interesting one: how can we leverage scoring outcomes to make the match more fair when there’s wider skill mixing in a lobby. One broad example would be if the least skilled player in the lobby got killed by the highest skilled player in the lobby, would they lose less RP? And vice versa, would they get a major bonus to RP (or XP if unranked) if the opposite occurred?
Scoring and balance is a super delicate topic and requires a lot of work even before being ready for testing. Right now, the feedback we’re hearing is that it is very much not worth the risk of being in matches with higher-skilled players. While we are doing many things to actively reduce skill mixing, there will always need to be some level of mixing and want to explore options to make it more fair.
SEE YOU ON THE DROPSHIP
We’re committed to continuing the conversation with you, our community, and we’re reiterating that promise now in 2025. Apex Legends should be fun and competitive without any loss to the integrity of the game, and this is just the beginning of how we’ll be focusing on the issues that are impacting your experience in-game.
Look forward to more of these updates as we continue to action this commitment while implementing changes, running tests on community requests, and improving on your in-game experience. Cheers for your patience and feedback, and we’ll see you in Takeover.
Apex Legends™ - Higround Prize Pack Giveaway
Want to win your very own Higround prize pack? Follow these steps for a chance to win your choice of a keyboard and mousepad:
The stage is set. The Legends, ready. There’s no denying you’ve captured the worlds’ curiosity. Question is: What are you going to do with it?
And keep an eye out next week for the Apex Legends: Takeover Gameplay trailer, Dev Updates, and more.
Learn more: http://x.ea.com/apxl/takeover
Apex Legends™ is a free-to-play* battle royale game where legendary characters battle for glory, fame, and fortune on the fringes of the Frontier. Play for free now on PlayStation® 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via EA App, Epic Games Store and Steam: http://x.ea.com/57366.
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*Applicable platform account and platform subscription (sold separately) may be required. Persistent internet connection and EA account required. Age restrictions apply. This game includes optional in-game purchases of virtual currency that can be used to acquire virtual in-game items, including a random selection of virtual in-game items."
Celebrate with a cosmic twist in the Lunar Rebirth Event
Celebrate Lunar New Year with a cosmic twist, as Materia from the FINAL FANTASY™ VII REBIRTH Event returns via Rift Relics. Wield the devastating Buster Sword and equip Hop-Ups to boost your critical rate, and much more. Pull from the returning 36 FINAL FANTASY™ VII REBIRTH-themed cosmetics, with your owned items counting toward Loot progress. Earn rewards in the new Lunar Rebirth Reward Track and collect from 24 Event cosmetics as you work toward Alter’s Prestige Skin, complete with 3 Tiers, a unique Skydive Trail, and a unique finisher.
Transcend the Otherworld in the Astral Anomaly Event
Science, Legends, science we say! Brace for interdimensional chaos as Launch Royale returns with a vengeance and a turbocharged map rotation. Earn Bytes to redeem rewards like Epic skins for Seer and the Flatline. Pull from 15 event cosmetics including Legendary skins for Octane and more with an opportunity for Legendary skins for Horizon and Alter, each with a unique Character Select Animation.
LTM: LAUNCH ROYALE
Step back in time again for Launch Royale! Experience the LTM with the old school weapons, Legends, abilities, ruleset, but on all of the current day Apex Legends Battle Royale maps. Kings Canyon, World’s Edge, Olympus, Storm Point, Broken Moon, and District will all be available to play with Launch Royale. If you're craving that old-school Apex vibe on the modern maps, this is the best time to jump in and see where legends were born. Relive a refreshed nostalgia from January 7-20, 2025.
MILESTONE EVENT ITEMS
Pick-up 15 otherworldly limited-time cosmetics as you progress through the Astral Anomaly event. Each item received during the event counts towards bonus rewards that are automatically unlocked at milestones along the way including 10 Exotic Shards.
All 15 items will be available in Astral Anomaly Event Apex Packs† for the duration of the event, with each pack having a chance to unlock Alter’s “Anarchonaut” and Horizon’s “Dark Horizon” skins. Note: each event pack contains one event item and two standard items, and there are no duplicates of event items in these packs.
REWARD SHOP
Earn Bytes by completing daily event challenges, then check out the Astral Anomaly Reward Shop to redeem them for rewards and see your progress with all four event badges. Offerings will rotate halfway through the event.
PATCH NOTES
BALANCE UPDATES
Care Package
Opening a Care Package now grants EVO to the entire team instead of just the opener
Support Perk benefits will be disabled once a player reaches the Ring Lethality Warning time limit
Revive Expert benefits will still maintain a long cooldown before re-use after being used inside the ring
ATTACHMENTS & ORDNANCE
Accelerated Weapons NEW Accelerator: stock on the Nemesis Burst AR, G7 Scout, and CAR SMG
Increases EVO gained from damage
Increases Ultimate charge from damage
Knocks grant 30% ult charge as long as an Accelerator weapon is equipped
Dev Note: We are trying something fresh with this new Hop-Up and adding it to the base of these weapons by default. An ability like increased EVO and Ult charge gains makes the biggest impact when acquired early in a match, so we wanted to try and provide that exciting gameplay without the need to hunt for a rare item. Arc Star
Players will now be notified with a “STUCK” message when they have been stuck with an Arc Star
Dev Note: It can sometimes be difficult to know if you’ve been stuck by an Arc Star in the heat of combat. This messaging should help take the guess work out of making the right play. Hop Ups
Added Select Fire
Equippable on Prowler PDW and Charge Rifle
Adds a togglable automatic firing mode
WEAPONS
C.A.R. SMG
Damage increased to 13 (was 12)
Charge Rifle
Increased ammo capacity
Base Ammo: 6
White Mag:7
Blue Mag: 8
Purple Mag: 9
Increased projectile size at closer ranges
Increased projectile speed
Improved recoil
Maximum damage for range scaling now achieved at 200m (was 300m)
Reduced projectile gravity
Now takes Select Fire Hop-Up
Alternate fire: automatic firing mode
Damage reduced by 25%
Increased fire rate
Recoil improvements when in auto
Dev Note: The Charge Rifle is an absolute monsoon of a gun in the right hands, but it can be a bit tricky to get the hang of. We are taking a pass at making the Charge Rifle more approachable by increasing magazine capacity, adjusting recoil, lowering the range to get max damage, and adding the Select Fire Hop-Up into the mix.
Mastiff
Aim down sights blast pattern tightening reduced
Blast Pattern size increased
Increased the time before the Mastiff is ready to fire when raising
Raise and lower times slightly increased
Dev Note: The Mastiff has proven particularly strong this season and its consistency at range is a big part of that. We are smoothing out some timing issues which allowed niche double Mastiff builds to deal higher than average DPS and pulling some power out of its range by widening the blast pattern and ADS tightening.
Peacekeeper
Choke speed significantly increased
Increased projectile speed
Dev Note: When it comes to good range shotguns we want the Peacekeeper’s choked shot to be the main talking point so we’re speeding it up and making the projectiles fly faster. This should drastically improve its performance at range, particularly around hitting moving targets.
RE-45
Damage increased to 13 (was 12)
Dev Note: The RE-45 has taken a backseat since Akimbo took the stage. This damage bump should help it feel a bit more viable within the current meta.
And...lots more! Please visit the link HERE for the full update.
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Apex Legends™ EA Play* Weapon Charm
Experience a world of thrill with EA Play. Join to get great player benefits and unlimited access to an unrivaled collection of EA’s fan-favorite franchises and top titles. Members can unlock rewards in the hottest titles each month including Weapon Charms in Apex Legends. Dive into all the game-winning, world-creating, and galaxy-defining moments in The Play List or discover a new favorite with trials of select recent releases for up to 10 hours with no commitments. If you decide to buy, your progress carries over to the full game, ready for what’s next. Plus, members score 10% off EA digital purchases, saving on full games, points packs, and DLC. Find out more about upcoming EA Play benefits at https://store.steampowered.com/subscriptions/ea or follow us on X (Twitter) and Instagram @eaplay.
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Interdimensional chaos erupts in the Astral Anomaly Event
Science runs amok in the Astral Anomaly Event! Interdimensional chaos erupts as Launch Royale returns with a vengeance, across more maps with a turbocharged rotation. Dive into the mayhem and earn Bytes to redeem rewards in the Reward Shop including Epic Skins for Seer and the Flatline. Don otherworldly containment suits as you pull from 15 Event cosmetics including Legendary Skins for Octane and more with an opportunity for Legendary Skins for Horizon and Alter, each with a unique Character Select Animation.
From December 24 - January 7 enjoy limited-time discounts on Legend Unlock Bundles and more! Pick up the Glory Seekers & Victory Chasers Legend Unlock Bundles along with new Legendary skins for Valkyrie “Primal Hawk”, Vantage “Exo Hunter” and more. Drop in to Apex Legends™ and check out the Store tab today!
Matchmaking is not only a core part of Apex Legends™, but it’s also an important topic for both our community and our development team. For us, good matchmaking means putting you in a squad with players of a similar skill, in a lobby with squads within your skill range, where everyone has a shot to come out on top. You may win some, you may lose some, but it is a system that should provide a variety of outcomes with each encounter.
Matchmaking is also complex and Apex has a lot of variables to account for that going into assessing a player’s skill; we don’t rely on KDR (Kill/Death Ratio) as it doesn’t fully reflect the complexity of what skilled play looks like in a Battle Royale. We know that there’s room to improve on our matchmaking and we’re going to.
A primary goal for us moving forward is to grow the conversation with our community on how our system works, why it works the way it does, and what we’re working on to better your experience. When we’re all on the same page about where we are now, we can then move the conversation forward quickly and towards the outcomes we all want—matches that consistently feel both fair and fun.
We are committed to focusing on matchmaking every season, continuing the conversation with you in the coming seasons, and promising that this is a priority for Apex. Here’s a TLDR of what we're covering today:
Our current tech systems: the big changes since our last update.
We’ve introduced Continuous Window Matchmaking: a dynamic system that’s capable of predicting and adapting to the current live population. This has increased our consistency during both natural periods of lower and higher server populations.
Bespoke changes to game modes: we made changes to how we approach measuring and using a value for a player’s skill, and each game mode is measured differently. We don’t rely on KDR as that’s not fully reflective of how we measure success and skill in a Battle Royale.
Recent improvements: Ranked Pre-match Skill Display. This launched with From the Rift and has become a tangible means for players to understand the range of ranks they’re seeing in the lobby. Some of these are due to pre-made squads, but some screenshots have helped us with investigations and adjustments.
Working with your feedback: we share answers to some of the most commented pieces of feedback.
OUR CURRENT TECH SYSTEMS There are 2 major changes since our last matchmaking update that we want to share:
Introduction of Continuous Window Matchmaking (CWMM)
Bespoke changes to game modes, including Ranked
As population shrinks, CWMM widens the skill levels that are allowed into a match. It does this predictively based on live populations, striking a balance between queue wait times and lobby skill width.
CWMM has limits in how far and quickly it’s allowed to adapt, which are set as a result of continued analysis and assessment. This means that we can effectively cap both the time a player will wait in queue and also how wide the skill can be in any given lobby; these are the ‘rails’ we establish for the system to work within.
From metas to playstyles to growing skills, no two seasons are alike for each player. We’re constantly evaluating and adjusting those data ‘rails’ to keep the majority of matchmaking experiences within our desired design goals. All game modes make use of CWMM in order to match players with the closest skill values possible, though how we determine the skill value can be different depending on the mode.
BESPOKE MATCHMAKING CHANGES TO GAME MODES As CWMM came online, we also made changes to how we approach measuring and using a value for a player’s skill. This skill measurement is different between game modes, as is how we decide to update the skill value based on a player’s performance. DAMAGE MODEL Measuring damage output is a reliable way to determine skill when it’s done over a number of matches. It’s a very good system for game modes that have a smaller number of teams and players as damage output is more consistent. All players currently start with a matchmaking ‘skill’ value of 0 for their very first match of a mode that uses this model. Then the player plays the match, (hopefully) deals damage, and then their skill value updates once the match is completed.
The skill value consists of 2 parts: Average damage done by players historically, which makes up the majority of the overall value Damage from your last match, which makes up a small part of the value
With only a small part coming from your most recent match, the overall skill value becomes fairly stable over a number of matches. This allows exceptional matches to change the outcome more significantly, but not to the point of wild swings. The Damage Model skill value is used when matching in Mixtape (each Mixtape mode has an independent skill value) and certain non-BR LTMs. MATCHMAKING RATING (MMR) MODEL Over time, the team determined that the damage model could be improved upon as Battle Royales have more nuance to being ‘skilled’ than pure damage output. A new set of criteria were developed to establish skill values and when players would get updates to their overall skill value.
For all BR modes, an update to your MMR is triggered when your squad knocks or kills a player in another squad. Both squads are then flagged for a skill update because the eliminated squad is likely to leave the in-progress match after elimination. We want to make sure that you can jump right back into another game with an updated skill value for your next match.
What determines the magnitude of your skill change is your relative placement in a match compared to the teams you had a significant encounter with (knock or kill) and the skill of the other squad. MMR is a value that falls within a fairly granular range. This is also why CWMM works so well: it starts grabbing those with the closest values of skill when trying to fill a lobby. Matches based on skill will result in fairer games when skill values are specific and granular.
It’s a simple system that works effectively and captures what we think are the most important measures of skill in BR—fighting, surviving and high placement. This model is used in all BR modes except for Ranked.
RP MODEL For Ranked matches, a player’s Ranked Points (RP) value is used for matching players. This was reimplemented in Season 20 as a response to player dissatisfaction of being a high MMR player fighting against other high MMR players (as MM tries to match closest skill value), but in a low rank tier lobby like Bronze.
This combo of using MMR for matching while using RP to determine the progression for players broke the existing player expectation that ‘Bronze lobbies should be easy’ and ‘Masters lobbies should be hard.’ In response, we linked RP and skill, and we are now using RP for matchmaking. There is a loose correlation between actual skill (as measured in MMR) and a player’s RP value. This works fine when a player has plateaued in their seasonal Ranked journey (i.e. when their ‘skill value’ has stabilized for the season), but that isn’t always the case.
This becomes challenging when a high skill player starts their Ranked journey at an RP of 1, and they’re matching mostly with other players that have a very low RP value. That player will quickly stomp their way to higher ranks and make the experience less enjoyable for those getting stomped. It also gives the perception that matchmaking is totally broken, and lowers those players’ trust in Apex and their desire to keep playing.
In the past few seasons, the ‘RP Reset’ has been adjusted in an attempt to keep similarly-skilled players together at the start of the season, reducing skill-mixing. We are also re-evaluating Provisional Matches as a possible solution to initial Division and Tier placement, preventing some of that initial skill mixing while also making it harder for smurf accounts.
As you may know, your RP value gets updated when you finish each match. That updated value is what is used for your next match, so keep requeuing and hit your best tier!
RECENT IMPROVEMENTS
If you haven’t been in a Ranked match yet this season, Pre-Match Skill Display shows a live display of rank tiers for each player will be shown at the bottom of the screen as the lobby fills for each Ranked match. This was introduced not only for added transparency into your upcoming match, but also to build trust around matchmaking and ensure that it’s working as intended. Bonus: it has given you a tangible way to capture and show us anything that is not balanced. Cheers for sending those through!
While some of the screenshots have been due to pre-made matchmaking, some haven’t been and that’s led to an array of actions from slight tweaks to going back to the drawing board.
We’ve some additional initiatives in the works that tap into that same goal of building trust, especially around consistently fun and fair matchmaking. So heads up: we’re going to be flexing and straining some of the existing systems and how things have historically worked. There may be some bumps in the road as we find the right fit, but we’ll keep you informed and ensure that our changes align with the Apex community.
WORKING WITH YOUR FEEDBACK Your feedback is a big part of that process and we often look at ways to act on it. Here’s some comments that we’ve seen the most and some insights on each of them:
Unexpected High Skill Players: “there’s X tier in my lobby”
Ranked Tiers And Matchmaking: “each Ranked tier should only be matched against itself”
Squadmate Matching: “my squadmates are terrible”
Premades Vs. Solo Queuing: “I consistently get rolled by premades as a solo queuer”
UNEXPECTED HIGH SKILL PLAYERS This is the most common piece of feedback in regards to why matchmaking is perceived as unfair. You’re chilling in Diamond IV with your squad and what looks like a full 3-stack of players with Pred badges and 20-bombs pops up as the Champion squad. What if you’re playing pub matches or Mixtape and see the same thing? You don’t have the context of anyone's rank to help understand how skilled these players really are in comparison to you and everyone else in the lobby.
This is further complicated by a decent percentage of our current players having reached Masters at some point in their past (yes, even outside of Season 17), which means they have the badges and stats to prove it. There’s nothing wrong with showing off on your Legend Banner, but that doesn’t always reflect their current seasonal performance. It often takes time for players who have been away for a while for their skills to get back into the groove after jumping in.
There are three major reasons that you’re seeing highly decorated and highly skilled players in your lobby:
Their current skill rating is close enough to yours for the matchmaker to put you in the same lobby
You‘re in a high-skilled lobby in a premade squad with a player/s higher ranked than yourself
You’re playing in a low population queue
The solution to the first is something that we have been actively tuning and are getting more aggressive with by prioritizing close skill matches over queue time. This season’s changes will create a longer average wait time (compared to last season) in favor of getting the lobby to be of closer skill as well as some harder limits on which ranks can be matched together. We are hoping the trade-off meets with the expectation of our most competitive players and will be worth it.
We are constantly monitoring the state of matchmaking, and this will be no exception. We are always ready and willing to make live adjustments if matchmaking times are worse than expected.
The problem of premade squads is something that we try to address in Ranked by restricting squads to be within 2 rank tiers of each other, but matching based on the highest RP value in the squad. This is meant to help counter hard-carries and boosting. In Unranked BR matches, we increase the effective skill value of the squad, to slightly counter the inherent bonus we believe premade squads have. We are looking at adjusting these values up even more and measuring the impact for solo queue players.
While low populations due to time of day or region is something we cannot directly control, we’re looking at ways to allow more players to play together regardless of time or region, and we should have more to share on that topic in the future.
RANKED TIERS AND MATCHMAKING Similar to the last topic, we’ve seen the feedback around limiting matchmaking by ranks or tighter ranges of RP. We touched on this in our continuous matchmaking section as well with “rails.” Our current matchmaking system treats all players at 16k+ RP as Masters tier players. Players at this level and above are minimal, so we have to match them all together and consider them to be at the same skill level for the purposes of matchmaking.
We allow for RP to continue to be gained to allow for Masters players to continue to compete for Apex Predator, but it’s important to note that Pred isn’t a ranked tier on its own. It’s a title that we give to the top 750 Masters Ranked players on each platform.
That said, we are continuing to balance time to find a match vs. how “wide” the match can be in terms of included Ranks in your lobby. At the time of this blog, the Ranked matchmaking system allows for the following maximum match-ups (using Diamond Divisions as the example):
All Divisions of Diamond can match up to Masters (and therefore Preds)
Diamond IV can match down to Platinum IV
Diamond III can match down to Platinum III
Diamond II can match down to Platinum II
Diamond I can match down to Platinum I
This doesn’t account for premades though. Ranked premade squad members are allowed to be within two tiers of each other, but they’ll get matched based off the highest rank in the squad. This can result in the above restrictions appearing broken as the effective lowest rank that could be matched is now two tiers lower via a premade squad.
That said, this is also the maximum that the matchmaker will try to match to. It will always try to match the exact Ranked tier if enough players of that tier are actively queuing in your region and on your platform. To continue with our Diamond example, it currently takes about 6 minutes for matches to expand to the maximum in the current configuration.
SQUADMATE MATCHING How squadmates are chosen by the matchmaker was covered in the previous blog, and it hasn’t changed since then. TLDR: your squadmates are chosen based on closest skill value matching. Of course, if the overall skill width in the lobby is very wide then there may be a gap between teammates.
When we examine some cases of ‘bad’ matchmaking it becomes clear that a core contributing problem is conflicting motivations and/or playstyles. You may want to push everything, but your squadmate plays more passively. Or you may want to complete sniper challenges, but your squadmate is already sniping and won’t give it up. There are so many individual styles of play and motivations that some level of incompatibility is inevitable. The best thing we can recommend here is to keep communicating, flex when possible, and remember that we’re all just looking for that next W.
The non-social part of this gets improved with overall match width tuning. If there are narrower skill gaps for the entire lobby, your squadmates are going to be very very close to your skill level. Then it’ll be up to you to figure out if you all want to play in the same way. PREMADES VS. SOLO QUEUING It was mentioned above, but worth restating: we give premade squads an effective skill value increase for matchmaking, so they match into higher skilled lobbies. This is to compensate for the inherent benefit of being in a lobby with someone that you’ve presumably played with before and likely have some level of communication and coordination with.
We have experimented with preferential matchmaking of ‘solos with solos’ and ‘premades with premades,’ but the results weren’t as clear-cut as you might expect. This is something that we’ll be testing again in the future to hopefully better understand the actual impact and reaction from players.
CONCLUSION Apex Legends should be fun, but also a competitive and challenging experience. Both consistently winning and consistently losing is bad for long-term player enjoyment, and the goal is always an optimal experience. We want players to be able to hone their skills and come out stronger as a result.
In order for that to happen, there needs to be some degree of challenge for players which is partially where matchmaking comes in, but it’s a delicate balance. Apex has some of the most skilled and competitive Battle Royale players out there today. We’re working to build up the trust in our systems and design approach, and you can expect to see a new focus on that goal via matchmaking.
As always, we look forward to your feedback and will keep you in the loop about what’s coming next. Until next time, Legends!
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