Heroes of the Storm News: Changes in ranked games

Blizzard has announced changes in Heroes of the Storm ranked games coming in force right after June, 14th. Changes and improvements include: new rank system, seasons, privileges for players with highest levels, and summing-up-season rewards. Plenty of inspiring updates are to come!

Tiers to league divisions

New Heroes of the Storm ranking system consists of tiers and league divisions. Each tier has a certain percentage from total number of players, approximately equal in their level of mastery. Game obtains the following tiers (from the lowest to the highest): Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master and Grand Master. Moreover, each tier preceding Master and Grand Master is divided into 5 divisions: the lowest is 5th, and the highest is 1st. Divisions indicate how close a player is to get to following tier or to fall at the preceding tier of HotS ranking system. For example, a player with Gold 1 tier (tier: Gold, division:1) has better ranking than a player with Gold, 4 ranking, A player with Gold, 4 ranking has better ranking than a player Silver, 2.

Tiers as an indication of mastery

How good are you in Heroes of the Storm? New ranking system helps determine how good you are during the competitive mode of the game. At the beginning of each season you are going to play 10 matches which will determine your starting rank. After each ranking game you receive or lose ranking points depending on the result you show in the game. When you have enough points, you can pass to a new division or move to a new tier participating in Promotion Match. If you have lost many points, you need to participate in Demotion Match not to move to the lower tier or division. The notification about Promotion or Demolition match participation appears at the score screen. The additional notification is visualized via your ranking badge.

Highest tiers of Heroes

Welcome to the highest tiers of ranking system! Master and Grand Master have two essential differences comparing to all lower tiers. Badges indicate not Divisions but ranking points received during the current season in Master’s league. It helps in tracking the achievements and compare them to the achievements of other players. Grand Master’s league consists of Master’s league best players from each region. Total number of Grand Masters for each region is 500. Badges of Grand Master players show a number from 1 to 500, and indicate rank of a player in overall Grand Master ranking. Rankings are updated daily according to the region.

Seasons

Updates of ranking system also introduce new Heroes of the Storm seasons. Each season lasts for 2 month, but the first season will last a little bit longer.

With the beginning of the first season, developers make a step forward to the players who stuck at their current tier to encourage them to play and gain new achievements. Rules of the matchmaking will be slightly loosened during the first season so that players get more control over their rankings. It means that match results will have stronger effect in matchmaking ranking, and players can change their tiers and ranks quicker.

Rewards

In each new Heroes of the Storm season players participate in complicated matches which deserve good rewards. At the end of each season they receive rewards which depend on their rankings in Hero and Team Leagues. Players are rewarded according to the maximum ranking in the season (results in preseason are not included). The rewards are earned in each ranking mode – Hero League and Team League. So if you want to grab all the rewards, call you friends and gather a team for the up-coming season!