Respawn Extends Apex Legends Ranked Split, Shares News on Server Issues
Apex Legends players received some good news and some bad news in Respawn Entertainment's latest update on the server issues plaguing the game since the release of the most recent patch. The good news is that the game's current ranked split – the first one of the season – has been extended to allow players to grind out some more points before the split ends and a soft reset of ranks occurs. The bad news is that the servers aren't fixed yet, and a return to normalcy isn't expected to happen until September 22nd at the earliest.
The latest on Apex's server woes came from the Respawn Twitter account in a tweet that said despite improvements being made, the problems with disconnects and servers overall are still present. Respawn said it's still seeing three times the amount of disconnect errors in the game, a problem that players will be all too familiar with by now if they've been playing within the past couple of days.
Despite improvements today, we're still seeing roughly three times the normal rate of disconnect errors in @PlayApex, and a full return to normal may take until our next planned patch on Sept 22.
— Respawn (@Respawn) September 17, 2021
We'll extend the current ranked split by one week—that update will go live Monday.
The silver lining to the fix that won't come until after the weekend is the extended ranked split. Respawn said it plans to extend the ranked season by one week ahead of its scheduled end on Monday. With the one-week extension in place, the first ranked split of the season will now end on September 27th. It has not been said, however, if the Evolution Collection Event that's going on right now will get a similar extension due to the issues.
An extension of the ranked split was one of the main things that players asked for in the many queries and replies directed at Respawn regarding the server issues. While the simple answer to avoiding critical disconnects in ranked modes is simply to not play ranked matches while servers are having problems, the lengthy duration of the server issues led players to ask if the ranked split could be extended. The server issues don't discriminate between ranked or casual modes, so players on both sides of the Apex experience have been encountering these problems.
This isn't the first update we've gotten on the server issues, and it definitely won't be the last. The fixes and extensions for the current season should go out next week on the dates listed above, so until then, it's best to expect server issues will continue regardless of which mode you're playing.