Apex ranked gets a major overhaul with no drop ship and new rewards

The rumours were true, Apex Legends Ranked is getting a really exciting overhaul in Season 26. It's safe to say that Ranked has been a controversial subject essentially the entire lifespan of the game, with a range of approaches tried and tested. There has been a big divide between more serious and casual players.

Currently, Ranked is widely considered unengaging and unrewarding, with the days of seeing dozens of top pros and streamers grinding across a split a thing of the past. However, that looks set to change in Season 26.

Respawn have unveiled some big changes to ranked, borrowing some ideas from the ALGS. Reception to these changes was hugely positive when they leaked online last week with a lot of enthusiasm from the games biggest names.

The biggest change coming in Apex Season 26 takes inspiration from a hugely popular change in the ALGS. Ranked will have new drop zones, with the Drop Ship no longer the way you start your game. Teams will be randomly assigned a drop zone at the start of every game.

To facilitate this, there has been an adjustment to where Ring Consoles and Survey Beacons are distributed across the map.

This change will completely rebalance Ranked matches, and the early game pacing. If four or five teams die off drop that has a big change on how the game plays out. Teams feel under pressure to get kills. There are less teams in the end game. Players of almost any skill level enjoy endgames full of teams, with intense final circles.

Solo queue players will also welcome this change. No longer can your random teammate launch you to Fragment East with seven other teams, ruining your game from the start.

In addition, solo queue players will also benefit from a new requeue system. If you enjoyed the game you played you can now directly opt to requeue in game with your previous team. This means you can run it back with good players if you encounter them.

Drop zones aren't the only change coming to Apex ranked in Season 26. There is also a range of tweaks to the RP system. These are also designed to slow the game down, and move focus to placement. Currently, there isn't enough incentive to focus on winning versus just kills.

To that end, there are a few tweaks coming to the RP system:

The Respawn team want to move the focus towards looking to win, rather than simply racking up kills and potentially winning as a side-effect.

However, we have seen systems move people towards ratting/hiding. We even saw Sweetdreams solo queue to Apex predator while dealing 0 damage at one point. Developers are keeping a close eye on this but expressed confidence they have found a good balance.

Also new to Apex Ranked in Season 26 is a brand new ranked reward, called Ranked Auras. This is a displayable cosmetic that will show your current rank. They appear during skydives, during finishers and revives as well as emotes. They are a great way to show off your rank and flex on opponents.

These changes were mooted on social media and proved hugely popular. Apex Ranked has been through periods of huge popularity, but has felt unengaging in recent seasons. Big names expressed their excitement about the changes. This means the race for #1 Apex Predator is set to be one of the most competitive we have seen in years when Apex Season 26 releases.

However, previous seasons (like Season 13, Split 1) that were popular with top level players weren't enjoyed by more casual players. Finding a ranked system that works for everyone has been a major challenge for developers. It looks like this system has potential, but will it satisfy everyone?

Check out the rest of the exciting changes coming in Apex Legends Season 26.