Ranked Vs Casual Matchmaking in Apex Legends explained

Apex Legends is a game that really knows how to make you feel like a superhero. The sensation you get from sliding down a hill and then finishing someone with a kick is something that only Apex Legends can give. 

But if we forget for a moment the fact that Apex Legends is a fundamentally enjoyable game, there is one more thing that has intrigued its players. That is, the competitive matchmaking. Thousands of players are fighting it out to get to know who is the most skilled player in the world.

Both the Arenas mode and the Battle Royale mode have a ranked and a casual version. Even though the core of the game remains the same, some small differences between them make different players have different preferences in the game. In this article, we will explore the differences between Ranked and Casual Matchmaking in Apex Legends.

What is casual Matchmaking in Apex Legends?

The most basic modes of Apex Legends are Battle Royale and Arenas, which are the two casual versions of the game. They are the first modes that you can play after completing the training at the beginning of the game and they are, as the name suggests, pretty “casual”. 

There is nothing at stake here since the game only tracks your kills/assists so it can award you the correct amount of experience points. You won’t lose anything by underperforming and there is nothing to put pressure on you except your teammates.

In the casual modes if you chose to play with random teammates the game will assign some to you without too much consideration of your skill difference. There is some consideration but not as much as in the Ranked Modes that we will see below. This is done to keep some sort of balance in the game, for newer players to learn, and for older players to not get frustrated.

What is Ranked Matchmaking in Apex Legends?

The Ranked Matchmaking in Apex Legends is the competitive version of the casual modes. As we mentioned before, the core of the game remains the same with some minor tweaks.

First of all, you can not just boot Apex Legends for the first time and jump right into Ranked Modes. You need to meet some ranked Requirements to do that, mostly to protect players that are struggling at the bottom of the ranks from players that have no idea how to play the game.

After you meet these requirements comes the hard part. Actually, playing Apex Legends ranked modes. In Ranked Arenas, the player is required to play 10 placement matches first to see in which rank you belong. After that, you get an Arena Points AP Ranking. You get AP for every win and lose for every loss. Simple as that.

On the other hand, if it is your first time playing Apex Legends Ranked Battle Royale, you get placed directly at the lowest-ranked tier which is Rookie iv. In this tier, you have the lowest rank RP that you can possibly have and from there you fight your way up. The way RP for Battle Royale is calculated is more complicated than the Ranked Arenas mode but we will not dive deeper into this topic here.

Ranked Vs Casual Matchmaking in Apex Legends.

There are some basic differences that make these modes distinct from each other.

The differences between“skill-gap” and “skill-cap”

When you are playing in casual mode, there is the chance that the enemies that you will encounter will be much better or much worse than you. That makes many encounters in the game quite frustrating. You might be playing your heart out in a game and suddenly you encounter a player or a group of players that roll over you like it’s nothing. Even though there is some sort of balance in the matches these things are pretty common.

At least when it comes to ranked matches you know that you will encounter players of similar skill. For example, if you are a poor bronze iv player, it will not pit you against Masters or Apex Predators. 

Although this easily becomes a problem since there will be no match, after you reach your skill cap, that will be just you, dominating the game. Every encounter will be difficult and impactful. This is really enjoyed by some players, while others prefer the occasional feeling of complete domination.

The difference that Ranked points make

A big difference between Casual and Ranked Matchmaking is the Ranking Points and Arena Points. The points that measure your skill and are a representation of your place in this global network of players are (each season), as expected, quite impactful to the players' play-style and to their mentality. 

When you have this number always there, even if you are not a competitive person, you are still going to feel something deep down if you start falling in the ranked ladder.

Differences in queue times

One last difference that we have to mention, is the difference in queue times. When you are choosing to play ranked, you have to take into account that the game has a much smaller pool of players that it can match you with since they need to be, more or less close to your rank. This is not a problem in the ranks close to the average RP of Apex Legends (each season) but when you go to higher ranks it really becomes apparent. This is why, both in the case of Ranked Arenas and Battle Royale have higher queue times than the unranked modes.

In the end, the Casual and Ranked versions of the game are there to serve different kinds of players, the ones that want to play for a few hours and just enjoy a well-made game and the ones that are looking for the thrill of competition. No matter which one you are, Apex Legends is a game that can give you what you are looking for. Just go for it!