Ranked

For the Ranked system used in the past, seeRanked/2013-2020.

Ranked (also known asRanked Play) is the serious side ofPlay mode in which players are able to earn increasing ranks to reflect their prowess in battle and gain lucrative rewards every season. There are three separate Ranked ladders, one for eachgame format: RankedStandard RankedWild and RankedTwist.

The three Ranked ladders each consist of fiveleagues (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond), with a top-mostLegend rank above these leagues. Each league is made up of 10 ranks, and players climb through these ranks by winning matches andgaining stars. Different from these two Ranked ladders, new players toHearthstone play in a special beginner's ladder called theApprentice League in which there are 40 ranks.

Ranked play occurs inseasons, each a month long. During a season, manyrewards are handed out to players who participate in Ranked ladder, including theHighest Rank Bonus chest at the end of the season, seasoncard backs, first-time Ranked rewards, andgolden heroes.

Ranks[]

There are 40new player ranks, 50regular ranks, and a prestigiousLegend rank above all other ranks. Each rank has its own colored medal, number, and picture, with the majority of ranks pictured asminions from the game. At any time, the highest rank that a player has achieved during a season can be viewed in the player'sQuest Log or friends list. Only the best rank of the player'sStandard,Wild, orTwist rank is displayed, and this rank is also used in determining the player'send-of-season reward (The player’sBattlegrounds ranking will be displayed instead of the constructed rank if they play more Battlegrounds than constructed). Additionally, ranks in constructed are numbered such that the smaller the rank number, the higher the rank is.

At the end of a season, players are given outrewards based on the highest rank they achieved for that season in either Ranked Standard, Ranked Wild, or Ranked Twist. At the start of each season, every player's rank isreset back to Bronze 10 to begin the climb again.

New Player Ranks[]

See also:New player experience

New players toHearthstone start in the Apprentice League, which contains 40 ranks, from Apprentice 40 to Apprentice 1. These ranks are exclusive to new players only, and players cannot lose stars in these ranks.

Many rewards are given to players for climbing the Apprentice League. Players earn 3 packs upon reaching rank milestones at Apprentice 35, 30, 25, 20, 15, 10 and 5, one from each of the three most recent expansions. Upon advancing out of Apprentice 1 and the entire Apprentice League, the player earns 2 Classic packs and 2 packs each for the most recent four Hearthstoneexpansions. The player will then be promoted to Bronze 10, gaining access to thenormal player ranks and the ability to play withWild cards.

Normal Ranks[]

There are five leagues for establishedHearthstone players: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. Each league has a range of 10 ranks, numbered from 10 to 1 in increasing rank. For example, a player can be categorized as being in "Gold 5", "Gold 2", or "Diamond 1". The following table lists all the normal ranks for a typical player, from Bronze to Diamond:

  Promotional rank floor

  Non-promotional rank floor

Legend Rank[]

Players advancing out of Diamond 1 of the normal player ranks will be inducted into the prestigious Legend rank.

Players at Legend rank have their rank displayed as a yellow number on top of an orange gem. For example, if a player's gem displays the number 275, that player is ranked the 275th best Ranked player in theirregion. For a live leaderboard of Legend players, please visit theofficial Legend player leaderboards for bothStandard,Wild, andTwist in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions.

With the newRanked mode overhaul in April 2020 alongside the2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic, a record-breaking number of players achieved Legend rank in China, reaching as high as 100,000 Legend players inStandard.^[1][2]

Gaining stars[]

Winning matches earns players stars, and stars are needed to advance ranks. Each rank contains three "star slots", so only three stars are needed to advance out of each rank. The number of stars awarded for winning each match is determined by a Star Bonus, which is given at the start of each season, and also by a winning streak bonus. Players are awarded a Star Bonus based on both the player's MMR and numbered rank in the previous season.^[3][4] This Star Bonus is a multiplier on the number of stars a player earns from each match win.

• For example, a Star Bonus of 7x means that a player will earn 7 stars for winning a match.

Every player starts with at least 2 Star Bonus at the beginning of a season. Also, if a player misses playing for multiple seasons, the player will not lose much of their Star Bonus.^[5] The following is a table of the minimum Star Bonus a player can start with at the start of a season, provided the player's best rank performance in the last season:^[5]

In Ranked, losing games causes players to lose a star, unless they are at a rank floor. At a rank floor, a player can never fall below that rank for the remainder of the season. Rank floors occur at every 5 ranks in the ladder, for example at "Bronze 5" or "Gold 10". Upon climbing and hitting each ranked floor, a player's Star Bonus will decrease by 1, meaning that as a player climbs up in ranks, it will become more challenging for the player to climb up to higher ranks.^[9]

There is also a winning streak feature that doubles the amount of stars earned from a win if the player also won their previous two non-drawn ranked matches. This winning streak multiplier, however, is not given to players at or above Diamond 5.^[5] Games do not need to be played in the same session to be qualified as a winning streak, but winning streaks do get reset with each season.^[10]

• For example, if a player has a Star Bonus of 7x and also a winning streak, the player receives 14 stars for winning a match.

Matchmaking[]

Main article:Matchmaking

There are two matchmaking pools: matchmaking by rating (i.e. by MMR) and matchmaking by rank.^[5]

When playing with a Star Bonus greater than one, players are matched by a hidden Ranked matchmaking rating (MMR). This means that all players playing with a Star Bonus will always be matched against players who are close in skill level to them, until the player climbs to a rank which causes the player to run out of Star Bonus.^[11] Once a player runs out of Star Bonus, they will start matching with opponents by rank and not by MMR.^[5] The matchmaking system, however, can accept looser matches if necessary in order to ensure players are not left queueing for too long.

Players at Legend rank are matched according to the same hidden Ranked MMR.^[12] MMR is in fact tracked during all Ranked Play activity, and it is used whenever matchmaking involves at least one Legend rank player.^[5][13][14] MMR also determines the player's initial numbered seeding upon reaching Legend rank.^[14] While the system aims to limit "Legend vs sub-Legend" matchings as much as possible, Legend rank players are sometimes inevitably matched against sub-Legend players due to compromising calculations in MMR matchmaking.^[15]

MMR calculations inHearthstone are highly specific to the game. They are complex and do account for different amounts of playtime over time, among many other factors.^[16]

Matchmaking rating is not reset at the end of every season.^[5][17]

For more information about matchmaking in Ranked mode, please check out theofficial Ranked matchmaking FAQ.

Season reset[]

Each month of Ranked play is called aseason. The first time the player logs in or enters a match following the start of a new season, they will be shown a special announcement informing them of their rank at the end of the last season, their best rank during that season (which determines end-of-season rewards and next season's initial rank), theirrewards for that season, and their rank at the start of the new season.

At the start of each Ranked play season, all players are reset back to Bronze 10.

Rewards[]

Players can earn a variety of rewards by participating in Ranked play. These rewards include:

• The Highest Rank Bonus chest^[18]
• Season card back
• First-time rewards for hitting ranked floors in Ranked mode
• Golden heroes

Highest Rank Bonus chest[]

At the end of each season, players who have won 5 games or more in Ranked mode will be granted a Highest Rank Bonus chest containing rewards based on their highest rank attained that season, using whichever is higher of theirStandard,Wild, orTwist ranks. The rewards found inside the chest increase cumulatively with every five ranks that the player surpassed in that season. Rewards from the chest include rare and epic Standard formatcards, andcard packs from the latestexpansion.

Note that the single-card rewards obey theduplicate protection rule afforded to opening card packs, meaning that players get cards they have not yet acquired, unless they have all the cards for that rarity.^[19]

The following table lists the rewards inside the Highest Rank Bonus chest. Note that the rewards are earned cumulatively upon reaching each ranked floor.

Season card back[]

Main article:Card back

Each season brings with it a uniquecard back which players can collect by winning 5 games in Ranked play.^[9] These card backs are designed to be available to all players. After each ranked game prior to the 5th victory, players are reminded of how many wins they still need to earn the Season card back with an animation on the victory screen. Progress can also be checked by visiting theQuest Log.

Additionally, reaching Legend for the first time will award the Legend card back.

First-time rewards[]

Main article:Achievement/Game Modes - Ranked

First-time rewards are awarded to players who reach a ranked floor for the first time in Ranked mode. These ranked floors occur at every 5 ranks in theleague system. They can be claimed throughachievements Climbing the Ranks in Game Modes - Ranked category.

The rewards aimed to help new players get started with deck building.^[9] The single-card rewards also obey theduplicate protection rule afforded to opening card packs, meaning that if not all cards of that rarity have been acquired yet in the recent set, the single-card reward will be a card that the player does not own.^[20]

BeforePatch 20.0.0.77662, the rewards used to consist of cards and card packs from theClassic set, which is now a part ofLegacy set.

Golden heroes[]

Main article:Golden heroes

Whenever a player completes 500 wins in Ranked play orArena mode with a givenhero, that hero will be permanently replaced with a golden version. These are similar togolden cards, with golden borders and special animations for the hero and their Hero Power, and are automatically used in Play mode instead of the regular version. Players can track their win progress to a golden hero on the Ranked deck selection interface.

With the15.0 patch update on October 8th, 2019, whenever a player completes another 500 wins for a total of 1000 wins with a given hero in Ranked play or Arena mode, the player's hero can be replaced with a special golden1000-Win hero skin.

Seasons[]

The following table lists all past seasons inHearthstone history and their monthlycard backs.

For images of the card backs, seeCard back.

Gallery[]

End of season rewards (after April 1, 2020)

• 
  The start of a newseason sees the oldrank...
• 
  ...unlocking aHighest Rank Bonus chest...
• 
  ...containing variousrewards...
• 
  ...and out pops shinycards andexpansion packs!
• 
  The player's performance last season is then converted intoStar Bonus.
• 
  Earn the newseason card back by winning 5 Ranked games this season!

Patch changes[]

• Server-side patch (2020-05-01):
  • Fixed a bug that preventedduplicate protection from being applied to individual cards in the Highest Rank Bonus chest.^[22]
• Patch 17.0.0.44222 (2020-03-26):(Implemented on 2020-04-01):
  • Large overhaul of Ranked system. Now uses 50 Ranks, divided into 10 of each Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. All players reset to Bronze 10 at the end of the season.
  • New players are put into a new "Apprentice league" with 40 ranks.
  • Matchmaking is no longer based on rank, but instead internal MMR.
• Patch 15.6.0.35747 (2019-11-05):
  • An optionalStreamer mode is added forPlay mode.
• Patch 15.4.0.34670 (2019-10-08):
  • Achieving 1000 wins in Ranked play awards players with1000-Win heroes.
• Patch 13.0.9.28556 (2019-01-24):
  • The number of Stars required to advance in lower-level ranks was reduced.
• Patch 12.2.0.26996 (2018-10-02):
  • 25 new special player ranks, fromRanks 50-26, were introduced into the Ranked system to allow new players to better ease into the game, with free packs along the way during their climb.
• Patch 7.1.0.17720 (2017-02-28):
  • Upon achieving certain milestones in Ranked Play, it will no longer be possible to lose ranks beyond those milestones for that season. The milestones are Rank 20, 15, 10, 5, and Legend.
• Patch 5.0.0.12574 (2016-04-24):
  • With the arrival of game formats, Ranked has been split into Ranked Standard and Ranked Wild. Rewards are now based on whichever rank is highest.
• Patch 3.0.0.9786 (2015-08-18):
  • A bonus chest will be granted at the end of each season based on the highest rank reached in Ranked Play mode.
  • The gaining rank animation has been updated and lengthened.
• Patch 2.4.0.8311 (2015-03-31): The end of season rank announcement now includes a percentile for the player's success on that month's Ranked play ladder: "That puts you in the top _% of our ranked play players!"
• March 21st 2014: The remaining duration of the current Ranked season is now displayed upon logging into the game, or entering Play mode.This system was added withPatch 1.0.0.4944, but not activated until March 21st.
• Patch 1.0.0.4944 (Open beta, 2014-03-11):
  • During each Ranked Season change, players may now start the new season at a rank higher than the default Angry Chicken rank, depending on the rank that was obtained at the end of the previous season. You’ll receive one bonus star for every rank you achieved in the previous season.
  • The Angry Chicken rank now starts with 0 stars, instead of 1.Bawk!?
  • Rewards for ranked play have been implemented.
    • A special card back will be available each season, gained by reaching Rank 20
    • Golden heroes are now available, gained by achieving 500 wins on that hero in Ranked play
• Unknown patch: Sound effects have been added when gaining or losing stars
• Patch 1.0.0.4217 (Closed beta, 2013-12-10):
  • The Ranked play system has been completely redone
    • There are now month long seasons that reset at the end of each month
    • There are new ranks and minion portraits for all levels of play
    • You earn a star for each win and lose one for each loss and your stars determine your rank
    • Players who get to top rank of legend and are in the top 10,000 players have their exact region-wide ranking displayed
    • There will be rewards for playing ranked mode in the future, but they were not implemented with this patch, and will be added at a future date
    • Unranked is now known as Casual
  • User interface:
    • The toggle between Casual and Ranked Play modes is now more explicit.
    • Your player rank (icon and number) is now visible in the friends list, the versus screen and your BattleTag in-game.

References[]

External links[]

• Official blog post explaining the new 2020 Ranked league system
• Official FAQ for matchmaking in Ranked play