Apex Legends Season 13 Is Adding Tier Demotions

Apex Legends is adopting a couple of critical ranked changes worth taking note of in Season 13 with one of the most important ones being the fact that tier demotions will be implemented. Through this new system, players who are struggling to compete in any particular tier (Gold, for example) will be able to be demoted down to Silver. There's a cap on this to prevent players from dropping too far, Respawn Entertainment said, with the first details on these plans revealed ahead of the new season's launch.

To be clear, this new tier demotion feature is separate from being demoted to lower divisions. The tiers in Apex are the main ranked groupings like Bronze, Silver, Gold, and onward while the divisions exist within those and include things like Bronze II and Platinum IV. Tier demotions currently exist in the Ranked Arenas mode in Apex, but not in the main ranked battle royale environment.

"Your ranking is important and should be accurate when it comes to representing your current skill," Respawn said in the blog post discussing ranked changes in Season 13. "Having the ability to demote out of a tier will allow a player's skill to be reflected with more precision. In Saviors, we are introducing tier demotions with the goal of addressing the current struggle some players experience when they get promoted to a new tier but cannot climb higher in the ranks."

Players won't have to worry about getting dropped right back down to Silver the second they lose their first game in Gold territory, however. Tier Demotion Protection will be enabled for the first three lost games after you move up to a higher tier to keep players there in case they have three unlucky games. Those who get promoted to a new tier will also get a 100 RP bonus to further move them away from demotion danger.

Another restriction on this new feature is that players can only drop so far when they've been demoted to a lower tier. Respawn said "Players can demote out of a tier, halfway down to the previous division" while giving the example that if you were in the Masters tier, you can drop down to "50% of Diamond 1." This will hopefully prevent situations where people bomb their rank intentionally to face low-level players while also preventing players from feeling like their rank is spiraling with no way to save it.

Other ranked changes were discussed throughout the post, so read up on them here before the next season of Apex begins on May 10th.