Hello, Battlerite – it’s Liz again for my second full Dev Blog on the job!

Cutting straight to the chase: we have heard your frustrations and concerns about the Halloween Event and have been looking into making changes to this event and structure of future events. We will announce more changes and specifics very soon, but for right now know that the quest allowing you to earn one Creepy Chest for ten games will repeat weekly for the entirety of the Halloween Event.

I want to make it very clear: This is not the only change that will be occurring.

There’s not anything more we are free to say at this moment, but thank you again for your feedback and your passion.

Moving on, we’ve received requests to explain the latest matchmaking changes more in detail. Shelt has compiled the most common questions we’ve received and answered them.

Why was I placed in Gold 2 and my friend placed in Platinum 1 after we both finished placement games with a 5 – 1 result?

Placement games take a lot of factors into consideration when trying to estimate your skill. The round results have a very high impact on how you’ll be placed. A game with 3-0 round score will yield different results than a 3-2 game. The combined skill of your team vs the enemy team is also a big factor, meaning if you win versus a team considered worse than your team, you won’t gain as much rating. Placement games are also not limited to only players that are playing their placement game, so it is possible to face players from the different leagues during your placement games.

Why did I only have 3 placement games when I teamed up with my friend?

If the system has previous records of a player’s ranking when they form a new team, we can take that into consideration when the new team starts their placement. This will highly improve the match quality of your placement games since we can start your team closer to where your true skill actually is. Overall this greatly reduces the amount of matches where skilled players are matched with less skilled players.

Why did you add rating decay?

We added rating decay to make more players and teams active throughout the entire season. If players become more and more inactive, matchmaking has a harder time finding balanced matches which creates a worse experience for everyone.

How much will decay effect my team’s rating and how often will it decay if the team is inactive?

Teams will receive a rating decay after one week of inactivity if the team is in Diamond League or above. The decay starts with roughly a division lost in rating, and after that about a tenth of a division will be lost every day until the end of the season or until the team finishes one match.

Where can I see if a team is in risk of receiving a rating decay?

At the moment you have to keep track of this yourself. But tracking will be a high priority if we are happy with how the system works. We plan to improve on this for the next season.

Will I receive rewards based on the highest league I’ve got during the season or by the current league I’m in?

You will receive rewards based on your highest achieved league throughout the season. However, season rewards for Diamond League and above require you to actually finish the season in those leagues to receive the rewards. The reason for this it to prevent teams from reaching a high league and then becoming inactive for the rest of the season, yet still receiving the top rewards.

/Shelt