The big difference between Apex Legends and Fortnite may not even be the visual aspect or the different way of playing, but the fact that Apex Legends does have a ranked option and Fortnite does not (yet). That will only change soon as Epic Games recognizes that its game has been wandering around this modern world for too long without a ranked option.
Like any game that uses a ranked system, you can be placed in one of the following ranks: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, elite, champion and unreal. The ranks bronze through diamond have three more “subranks”, so you start in, for example, bronze 3 and if you play well you will be promoted to bronze 2 or 1. The ranks elite, champion and unreal all have only one common rank which is, presumably, based on the amount of MMR you collect.
Small patch notes are below
Based on your previous result from pots and a single ranked game you play, Fortnite will assign you a rank from which to grow. So for Battle Royale and Zero Build, you only need to play one ranked game to receive your first rank. In the main screen, you must turn on a ranked option to then play it. Epic games does have three points of interest that have been adjusted between the “normal” and ranked versions of the game:
- Material caps will be decreased from 999 to 500.
- Harvesting rates will be slightly increased.
- Players will drop 50 of each material when they are eliminated.
By the way, not everyone can dive into ranked immediately. For example, new players will first have to outplay 500 other players in a normal game of Battle Royale.
Battle continues in unreal
Once you reach unreal, you cannot drop down to lower divisions. That means you will be stuck in the unreal rank for the entire season. Yet the challenge does not stop there, as the unreal rank gets its own leaderboard on which you can obtain a spot. You then fight among everyone in that unreal rank for that number one spot on the leaderboard. Fortnite had massive success with their FNCS and Worldcup with huge prizemoney, but Covid put a stop to it and threw a heavy damper into the hype. After that the game started to struggle a little as Warzone got released and people were more and more frustrated with how good people became, making unranked play not so enjoyable anymore. The changes aim to seperate the casual players from the amateur, semi-pro and pro gamers. This will surely benefit the game!