Ranked play Season 3 is quickly upon us, but, with some major changes. Let’s dig into what's new and what this means for players!
The Heroes team has rolled out the details for Season 3 which will be upon us starting the week of December 12th. You can read the full details for Season 3 and its rewards here.
Along with the normal rewards, (who wants to ride an elemental reindeer?) some very significant changes will be shaping the world of ranked play until its end in March. Let’s take a look!
Play friendly, play fair
Say goodbye to draft-dodgers. Blizzard decided to enforce the basic gaming rule of play nice, play fair. According to the official post: "Players who are currently silenced or penalized for leaving games early can no longer queue for Team League for the duration of their penalties."
"Players who are currently silenced or penalized for leaving games early can no longer queue for Team League for the duration of their penalties."
This news couldn’t be more exciting. When someone leaves a draft they are escaping from the risks inherent to team coordination and draft strategy. But ditching a draft is not team play. We could never imagine players in pro sports dodging a part of a competitive match simply because one member didn’t make the choice they wanted. A team wins and loses together.
When team competitors want to play for keeps, they play in a ranked mode. When playing in ranked you will no longer have to deal with those people who are not willing to risk the rules of fair play. Now you can be sure that if you enter a draft lobby, people will be relying on their team, their team’s drafting communication, and remaining responsible for the outcome. Team League will not only be a test of skill, but a test of your ability to draft and communicate effectively. That might make up for half of the skill in Heroes just there.
The New Solo Rank
As of Season 3, Hero League no longer allows groups. You can only queue alone in Hero League, making it a new mode of ranked play entirely. There are a few potentially great things about this new Solo Rank:
- Players can focus on playing their best game, without worrying about groups of coordinated friends unbalancing the playing field.
- Hero League will now more accurately represent a solo-play competition and matchmaking. This may dramatically affect rank and the quality of ranking for the better. The size of the community may shift as well.
- Players of Hero League can focus on refining their solo-play skills on a level playing field.
- Rank in a purely solo environment will now more accurately reflect skill for solo play and convey a better sense of personal skill.
The rise of Team League?
Along with Hero League becoming purely solo queue, Team League will now support anyone who wishes to group up in parties of two, three, or five, and climb ladder. These changes are huge, and hopefully beneficial for everyone:
- Now it’s possible to group up with friends and play Team League without the task of finding exactly five people to work with beforehand.
- Queues in Team League will probably be much shorter than in the past because smaller groups of two and three can be paired off more easily.
- Ranking in Team League should feel more accurate as more players enter the population to compete in a coordinated environment.
- Two-stack and three-stack groups will more easily meet Team League friends by being grouped with other two-stack and three-stack groups of similar ranking. Every match acts as an interview to make new friends to play with in the future. Yay Friends!
- For drafting, Team League will still utilize First Come, First Serve (FCFS), which means that parties will need to coordinate draft order to be effective as a team unit. Now that more players will be in the Team League community, this allows more people to learn the skill of drafting together as a coordinated team. Time to raise the bar. Drafting is a game in itself and it's time to learn!
- More population in Team League will inevitably spur the use of the new, Blizzard voice feature of Battle.net. We will have a tutorial on Blizzard voice soon! The team that communicates wins.
Some other items of note about Team League
- Players need to have access to at least 14 Heroes to play Team League
- There are no minimum Hero level requirements for participating in Team League.
It’s important to remember that the changes for party sizes in Hero League and Team League are intended as a trial run during Season 3. Regardless of how awkward or effective these new arrangements work, Blizzard has the community's back and will continually make adjustments to the system until it's the best it can possibly be. Get ready fans, because it's a great time to play Heroes of the Storm!
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