The Road to Paragon: Ranked in 1.18 and Beyond

Greetings Champions!

It’s been a good year for Ranked Mode so far! Back in February, Update 1.12 we moved Ranked matchmaking from MMR to VP, not long after we doubled Hero bans from one to two per team, and we introduced Placement Matches to help you move through the Ranks at a pace more suited to your previous Ranked history.

All of these changes were among the most requested we've ever had from you, and came straight out of conversations with the community. That dialogue has only grown stronger, and we’re excited to look ahead at what’s coming up for Ranked Mode in the next update, and beyond!

Introducing Master Tier

Update v1.18: Frostbite adds a brand new tier towards the top of the ladder: Master, sitting between Diamond 1 and Paragon.

Here’s how the new Master Tier will work:

Promotion game

When you reach the top of Diamond 1, you'll play a promotion game to earn your place in Master.

No VP ceiling

Once you're in Master, there's no VP cap. Your VP keeps climbing as long as you keep winning.

What about Paragon?

Paragon is the absolute ultimate goal, but it’s going to be a lot tougher to get there…

Paragon, Reforged

Paragon should be the ultimate achievement. It should be the rank people recognise the moment they see it in the lobby and show people that this person is one of the best in Predecessor.

Last split, around 1,000 players managed to hit Paragon. With the new system, that number is going to drop dramatically. Paragon now belongs to the very best of the best.

The Best of the Best

Only 100 players can be Paragon at any one time. Once you gain over 200 VP in Master, you are eligible to enter the Top 100. There’s no promotion match here, your goal is to prove yourself and earn as much VP as possible to enter the Top 100 and claim the rank of Paragon.

Paragon Daily Refresh

The Top 100 refreshes every 24 hours. If you hit Paragon, you’ll hold that rank for the next 24 hours until the refresh happens again. If you’re still within the Top 100 players, you keep your rank. If not, you’ll be back into Master. The only way you can lose your rank early is if you drop down to Diamond through consecutive losses.

The first time you hit Paragon, you’ll be greeted with a notification to let you know. Whether that’s on login, the leaderboard, or right after the match that got you there.

Matchmaking

The new Master tier, as well as making Paragon far more prestigious, also gives us a cleaner split at the top of the ladder. This will mean less overlap between Diamond and Paragon players in matchmaking.

Cracking Down on AFKs

Nothing ruins a Ranked game like players going AFK. V1.18: Frostbite brings the first round of improvements to make sure players who go AFK are suitably punished, and the rest of the team who stayed in the fight are impacted much less.

From the next update, if you go AFK and get demoted, any negative VP you have acquired from going AFK will be applied after your demotion, meaning you start the next rank with less VP than usual.

Better VP loss mitigation

If someone on your team goes AFK, the VP you lose is now reduced more effectively. If a teammate goes AFK, you now lose at least 25% less VP than before, meaning in a match where we detected an AFK player you will now lose even less VP.

VP Decay

To keep the top of the ladder competitive, we're working on a VP decay for Master and Paragon. To really be the best of the best, you’ll have to prove it by fighting for your spot.

We know you have lives outside of Predecessor of course, so decay isn’t going to just drop your VP the moment you stop playing. Each match you play will allow you to bank Days, in Master and Paragon you will be able to bank up to 14 days. Every morning the game will reduce your bank days by 1 and if your banked days is already at 0 you will instead start to lose VP.

While this feature is currently aimed for v1.18 there is a chance it might not make it in time. Be sure to check the Patch Notes when they're available!

Beyond v1.18

V1.18 Frostbite is a big step forward, but we are still working on more that we hope to ship with the next Rank reset. Here is a preview of what we are working on and we will share more information as we get closer to the start of the new season in 2027. As is always the case with sharing future plans, it's possible some of this may change!

Role Preference Queue

Role preference queue is planned to come Q1 next year, to support Ranked draft and other modes. You can select for role preference in order from most preferred role to least and each match we will assign you a role based on that preference. When we are unable to give you your preferred role we will increase the chance of you getting it the next match. You will still be able to switch roles in the draft so you can continue to utilize diplomacy when we can’t provide you your preferred role.

Smarter VP Gains in Master and Paragon

Right now, wins and losses at the top of the ladder are a flat +11/-11. We're looking at moving Master and Paragon towards a proper MMR-style model, so the VP you gain or lose better reflects who you're playing against. Beat a tougher team, get rewarded for it. This one isn’t 100% confirmed, but it’s certainly something we’re looking into.

Regional Ranked

We’re planning to move to a Regional Ranked system. The idea is that each server would have its own separate rank and MMR, with its own Paragon leaderboard. We’re currently thinking Paragon slots would be reduced per region to match, e.g in a lower population server, there may only be 50 slots or less, so being Paragon will mean being one of the best in your part of the world.

More Bans?

We know a lot of you have been asking about this. We're currently discussing increasing Hero bans to three per team. It needs a little bit more thought at the moment, but it’s certainly on the table for next year.

AFK Comeback Mechanic

We're also working on a comeback mechanic. If a player disconnects but returns and makes a meaningful contribution to the match, their AFK penalty can be wiped. Life happens and connections drop, and we don't want to punish players who come back and fight. No date for this one yet, but it is being worked on!

A New Season Structure

We're changing how seasons work in the new year. Splits are going away, and we're moving to a simple Season 1, Season 2, Season 3 format, where each Season would last around 18 weeks. You’ll work on hitting the highest rank you possibly can, and maintaining it, get your rewards, and start fresh with a new Season!

Why the change? We're streamlining our seasonal structure to make every single season feel punchier, more impactful, and far more rewarding. Moving away from multiple drawn-out splits gives you clearer, more frequent milestones to conquer and keeps momentum high.

Instead of saving up huge gameplay overhauls for massive once-a-year events, we want to ship bigger features as soon as they are ready and align them with the needs of the overall game. At the same time, we know how frustrating it is to have the ground move beneath your feet mid-climb, so we still won't be making drastic gameplay changes in the middle of an active season. This keeps the competitive playing field completely fair while ensuring new features drop on a much better, more natural timeline.

That's a lot of Ranked! The changes we've made this year happened thanks to your feedback, and we’ll continue listening as we head into 2027 and beyond. Jump into our Discord or Reddit and tell us what you think about all the changes and what we’re working on for the future.

Update v1.18 Frostbite launches on 3rd November. Time to start the climb!

Until next time,

The Omeda Team