Respawn is clearing the rats.
Promotional trials for ranked are being added to the newest season of Apex Legends. This change comes after recent seasons of the popular battle royale have seen a trend of players ratting to achieve a higher rank instead of playing the game as intended. We’ll break down what exactly promotional trials are and how they work below!
What are promotional trials in Apex Legends?
Promotional trials will be a set of three challenges players will have to complete before moving up to the next ranked tier. Now instead of simply needing a certain amount of points to rank up from Silver I to Gold IV, you’ll now need to complete a set of challenges. The promo trials will be for a limited time, meaning you have to finish all of them within five matches to successfully rank up.
What will the promo trials look like?
Promo trials will be tracked in the Apex Legends lobby when you reach the end of a ranked tier. Here’s all the challenges you'll have to complete to rank up:
Trial Tier | Main Condition | Alternative Condition |
Rookie → Bronze | Win a game | During the Trial: 3x Top 10 placement & Get 3 Kills/Assists |
Bronze → Silver | Win a game | During the Trial: 3x Top 5 placement & Get 6 Kills/Assists |
Silver → Gold | Win a game | In 3 different matches complete both: Place Top 10 & Get 3 Kills/Assists |
Gold → Platinum | Win a game | In 3 different matches complete both: Place Top 5 & Get 6 Kills/Assists |
Platinum → Diamond | Win a game | N/A |
Diamond → Master | Win a game | N/A |
What happens if you fail the promotional trials?
Don’t worry if you fail to complete the promotional trials within the first five matches of ranked Apex Legends, as you will get more chances and there will be a sliding scale of punishment. With each failed attempt you will gain 1 additional promo match, up to a maximum of 10.
. If you were close to finishing the trials, then you’ll only go down in rank slightly and you’ll be able to try again sooner. However, if you weren’t even close to completing the challenges, then you’ll go much further back down. Also, the next time you reach the promotional trials, you'll have an extra match to finish the challenges.
Additionally, once you reach Diamond, the punishments for failing the promotional trials will be more severe.
Why is Apex Legends adding Apex promo trials?
The developers for Apex Legends at Respawn are always trying to improve the ranked experience for players. In recent seasons, the goal of ranked has shifted focus from getting lots of kills to achieving a higher placement. However, the unintended effect of this decision has been that many players have begun ratting to get within the top three of every game. Apex promotional trials will make this more challenging.
Ratting means that these players will hide in hard to reach or obstructed parts of the map so that they don’t encounter any other players. By avoiding other players, these ratting players are able to avoid any gun fights and just wait out other players until most are dead.
This is a strategy that most of the fanbase, and the devs, don’t approve of. Promo trials are being added to Apex Legends so that players trying to rat are forced to engage with other players to rank up.
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