Rocket League developer Psyonix announced that it has applied a hotfix to the car-soccer game today. This update makes adjustments to the way it handles the competitive tiers, lowering skill thresholds and giving each mode its own standards for rising through the ranks.

Psyonix wrote about how it saw some issues with its skill distribution, mostly because of how many players were spread across its tiers. A lot more players were ranked into the "average" tiers, while you'd see a lot fewer Grand Champions playing the game.

To balance this, so there's a more even number of players across all tiers, Psyonix has lowered its skill tier thresholds, meaning you don't have to win as many matches to be welcomed into the Star and Champion tiers. Additionally, skill tier thresholds are now different across modes. Players who mostly play 1 vs. 1 will work on a different skill curve than those who frequent the other modes. For example, Doubles players have a different set of standards for reaching the higher tiers than Singles players.

The developer says players who are ranked Challenger and above could see themselves gain anywhere from one-half to two skill tiers. Those in the Rising Star rank might move up to Shooting Star or higher. Those ranked at the bottom are likely to see no change at all. Despite this, your rank won't update automatically--you'll have to win some matches for the calibration to take place. You can check out the differences in the images below.

Before

After

Rocket League recently introduced a new arena that's set under the sea. It launched for free alongside two new paid DLC cars based on the deep sea theme.

In related news, Psyonix told GameSpot that it's considering a PS4 Pro patch that could upgrade various aspects of the soccer-with-cars game.

"We don't have anything to announce at the moment," he said. "We are still evaluating community interest, technical requirements, and other factors that influence our ultimate decision."

We'll keep you updated on any announcements, but in the meantime, you can check out every game that is and isn't getting a PS4 Pro upgrade patch here.