Apex Legends ranks and Season 19 ranked changes explained

If you’re wondering what the Apex Legends ranks are, you’re not alone. We know it’s a lot of fun to casually drop into Respawn Entertainment’s battle royale shooter, but there’s a competitive side to this game that shouldn’t be ignored. And, that’s where things like ranks, the ranked split, and LP come into play.

Apex Legends, which is one of the best battle royale games out there, has its own dedicated ranked mode which challenges you to get good with your favorite legend, rather than just mess around with their ultimates. As you emerge out of the lower Apex Legends ranks and shoot for the top title of Apex Predator, the grind gets harder, and the games get sweatier – you might want to get some grip tape for your best PS5 controller, Switch controller, or Xbox controller. Our Apex Legends tier list will give you an idea of which characters are the best to help you climb, but what use is that when you don’t know where to start? Here, we’ll go through everything you need to know about Apex Legends ranked.

• Apex Legends Ranks
• Promotional Trials explained
• Ranked LP cost
• Apex Predator rank
• The LP system
• Current Season end date
• Rank reset schedule
• Loss forgiveness
• Can't join friends
• Rank distribution
• Rewards

What are the Apex Legends ranks?

The Apex Legends ranks are:

• Rookie – 0 LP
• Bronze – 1,000 LP
• Silver – 5,000 LP
• Gold – 9,000 LP
• Platinum – 13,000 LP
• Diamond – 17,000 LP
• Master – 21,000 LP
• Apex Predator – Top 750 players

Apex Legends has eight ranking tiers, starting at Rookie and stretching all the way to Apex Predator. New players are placed into the Rookie rank – a one-time-only placement rank with no ranked rewards. This gives new players a chance to get familiar with Apex Legends’ ranked modes before they’re placed properly into the other brackets.

Each rank tier has a set amount of League Points that you need to earn before you move up. These were previously known as Ranked Points under the old ranked system, though they serve a similar purpose. League Points are earned by scoring bonuses that boost your LP gains and mitigate your losses. These bonuses are:

Elimination Bonuses: Given when your team eliminates other players. This bonus is individually calculated and multiple eliminations against the same players are discarded. That’s right, this bonus uses your personal kills, assists, and participations. With the ranked system update, the Assist Timer has been increased from 15 seconds to 30 seconds, giving you a larger window to get an assist bonus.

Rating Bonuses: Given when your hidden MMR greatly outperforms your Ladder Points, helping you catch up to where the system believes you should be.

Skill Bonuses: Given when your team beats a stronger opponent or performs exceptionally in an unfavorable match.

Since the ranked system update in Season 17, the ranked mode can now more intelligently reward you based on the difficulty of a match and your squad size while filtering and taking into account negative behavior like kill farming. That’s right, kill farming won’t get you up the Apex Legends ranks – you’ll just be wasting your time.

Instead, you’ll just need to play the game and aim for top spots while cleaving through teams. If you place first to tenth you will see bonuses, but placing tenth to twentieth will see loss mitigations, so the better you do, the more you’ll be rewarded.

As for Apex Legends ranked matchmaking, this system keeps track of a hidden Matchmaking Rating, also known as MMR. The system will rank your performance in matches and use this hidden score to group you with similarly skilled players in a bid to keep ranked fair and competitive. With MMR being hidden, kill farming to unfairly gain ranks or intentionally dying to lose ranks, alongside other forms of smurfing and griefing, are deterred.

For Season 19, the amount of Rating Bonus has been increased, to help players “catch up to their skill bracket more quickly.” There’s also a reduction in dropped LP after provisional matches are completed at the start of the season.

What are Promotional Trials in Apex Legends?

A new addition to the ranked system with Season 19 is the introduction of Promotional Trials. When reaching the peak of your current rank, you’ll enter a Promotional Trial state, where LP loss and gains are frozen. To go up a rank tier, you’ll have to complete a promotional trial, which is either winning a match or completing alternative conditions.

When entering the Promotional Trial state, you’ll have five matches to complete the conditions to be promoted. If you fail to complete the conditions within the match limit, you’ll fail and be given an LP loss based on your performance. However, if you’re victorious, you’ll also get a 250 LP promotional bonus when entering the new rank tier.

However, things aren’t all bad if you fail. Each time you enter the Promotional Trial state for a tier, you’ll gain an extra match attempt, up to 10 matches. For example, entering the Promotional Trials for a tier the second time will raise the match limit to six, a third time will increase the match limit to seven, and so on.

You can find the Promotional Trials and conditions for each rank tier below:

How much Apex Legends LP does it cost to play ranked?

To play Apex Legends’ ranked mode players will need to pay a 35 LP entry fee. Prior to Season 17, the cost was different depending on your rank, but it is now one universal price for each ranked entry. Rookie tier, however, is free to enter as Respawn wants to get you up and out into the main ranks as soon as possible.

Thanks to the fixed cost and the new rewards structure, placing in the top half of a match will earn back your LP spent to enter the match. However, that does mean that it’s possible to end a match with fewer Ladder Points than when you started.

Why do I keep losing my Apex Predator rank?

There are a couple of reasons why you’re losing your Apex Predator rank. Respawn and EA have changed the way the ranking system in Apex Legends works because, in past seasons, too many players made it to the top rank – Apex Predator. To combat this, the Master rank was slotted in between Diamond and Apex Predator. Now, only the top 750 players on each platform will have the prestigious title – so, this is likely to shift whether you lose LP or not.

In addition to this, since Season 17, players have three games’ worth of demotion protection in every tier before they are liable to be demoted. The demotion penalty, for dropping below the LP threshold, will now be 50% of the lower division. For example, a Masters player will drop to 50% of Diamond I. This could also affect your chances of getting Apex Predator.

How does Apex Legends LP work?

In Apex Legends ranked, your placement gives you a base amount of LP, which is then added to or removed if you get bonuses or loss mitigations. This was established with the ranked changes in Season 17.

There is a sliding scale for how much LP you earn for each bonus, based on how hard and tough your match is and any challenges you may face. Then both the total of your bonuses – which are only shown at the end of the game – and your ranked placement LP will be added together.

For Season 18, LP gain was reduced, while Diamond+ will lose 50% more LP should they fall below the placing threshold. Respawn says that Season 17’s LP tuning was too generous, and caused “a series of cascading issues with the rest of the Ranked system.”

The exact amount given to each placement is as follows:

It’s worth noting that placing worse than the bottom half of the lobby constitutes a loss. Those placing worse than tenth are likely to lose LP and those who place in the top half of the lobby will always see a boost of some kind, although you will need to be in the upper half of the top 10 to see significant rank climbing.

When will Apex Legends Season 19 end?

Apex Legends Season 19 will likely end on Tuesday, January 3, 2024, at which point Season 20 will begin and your rank will be reset. An official end date hasn’t been set yet, but Apex Legends seasons usually last 12-13 weeks, and always land on a Tuesday.

If the date changes, for example a small delay, we’ll update this to reflect the new end date.

When do Apex Legends ranks reset?

The Apex Legends ranks are reset at the start of each new Season. When a new Season begins, your progress will be fully reset back to 0 LP. However, you’ll have 10 Provisional Matches to quickly get back up to speed. Doing well in these Provisional Matches will set you well on your way to rising through the ranks.

When ranks reset, you’ll also get end-of-season rewards based on the highest tier you managed to reach during the Season, so it’s not all doom and gloom.

How does loss forgiveness work in Apex Legends?

Loss forgiveness in Apex Legends is defined as a state where any LP losses you might have taken are zeroed out. Generally, loss forgiveness in Apex Legends is applied if you have an unexpected quit, if you get to the start of the drop sequences and you don’t have teammates, or if your matchmade teammates (not friends) abandon the game.

There are, however, some caveats to loss forgiveness for unexpected quits. If, say your internet goes down during a match and you leave the game, loss forgiveness will be automatically applied. However, when a second unexpected quit happens, Respawn will consider if it looks like a forced abandonment or an accident. If it’s the former, loss forgiveness will be given but it will be treated as a used forgiveness abandon.

Players only get three used forgiveness abandons in a series. When the limit is hit, all further unexpected quits that look suspicious will be treated as abandons.

Loss Forgiveness also takes place during the initial placement matches where bonuses are massively boosted and mitigations heightened.

Why can’t I join my friend’s party in Apex Legends?

Respawn has restricted certain tiers from playing with one another to combat boosting in Apex Legends. For example, players who are ranked Platinum and above can only party up with friends who are one tier different from them.

Since this is designed to prevent boosting and encourage fair competition, there is no way of getting around this other than to close the gap between your ranks.

However, this is set to change in Season 19. According to community manager ‘RSPN_Thieamy’ on Reddit, premade ranked restrictions will be removed, “with the caveat that your squad will face more difficult battles if there’s a bigger discrepancy between your skill.”

What is the Apex Legends ranks distribution?

With the cost of competing in Apex Legends, it can be difficult to achieve Apex Predator status. Don’t worry if you’re stuck in Gold though because, according to Respawn and EA, that’s the average rank most players achieved in previous seasons.

According to Apex Legends Status, this is the current rank distribution during Season 19:

What are the Apex Legends ranked rewards?

Apex Legends ranked rewards are dished out at the end of each ranked season. They traditionally include dive trails, charms, or badges, and will reflect the highest rank you managed to reach in that season.

However, in Season 18 Respawn removed dive trails. In the Resurrections highlights blog post, the developer says the measure has been taken to combat “an unintended effect where the presence of a Ranked Dive Trail during the drop would unduly influence where players wanted to land—either strongly avoiding or actively pursuing players with the trail.”

Instead, Diamond+ players now receive an Epic Banner Frame that allows them to flex their mastery over the Apex Legends ranks, without affecting their in-game experience.

That’s everything you need to know about Apex Legends’ ranked mode for Season 19. Whether you’re a Loba loyalist or a Seer specialist, ranked is the ultimate arena for competitive players. For more excellent competitive titles, check out our lists of the best FPS games and the best multiplayer games where you can really put your skills to the test.

If you’re looking to showcase your Apex prowess online, then be sure to check out our PS5 and Xbox streaming guide, as well as the best beginner streaming setup to get you off to the races, and eventually to Apex Predator. Good luck!

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