SMITE 2 Open Beta 1 Update Notes: RANKED SEASON 0 Info

Welcome to SMITE 2 Ranked Season 0! With the launch of SMITE 2 Open Beta we are kicking off a brand new Ranked Season, with a more solidified format and competitive goals. While this will be a complete season, planned to last the duration of 2025, the “0” means that there still may be changes coming to the Ranked format and matchmaking over the course of this season. We have incorporated many lessons we learned from the Ranked Test Season, so we want to extend a huge thank you to those who played Ranked during the Closed Alpha – your contributions to improving the Ranked experience was invaluable for SMITE 2.

Season 0 will kick off with a week long “Preseason” which will start with the Open Beta patch on January 7th, 2025 Players will maintain their Skill Rating from the previous season as we perform one final test of most new functionality Players Ranks will be reset and Season 0 will officially begin on January 14th, 2025!

Season 0 will be separated into 4 Ranked Splits:

• Season 0 Winter Split

• Season 0 Spring Split

• Season 0 Summer Split

• Season 0 Fall Split

• SMITE 2 Ranked Splits will represent an opportunity to shake up the Ranked ladder and to earn Rewards! The first round of Ranked Rewards based on achievement will be granted at the end of the Season 0 Winter Split.

Hard Reset (Start of a new Ranked Season)

• Hard Resets have historically been a period of reduced matchmaking quality due to the complete wipe of skill data. SMITE 2 will preserve some skill data while still providing a fresh start for players.

• Skill Rating (SR) will be hard reset to 0 for all players

• However, all other player matchmaking data will be adjusted much closer to the median value, and then entered back into a “calibration” phase where adjustments can happen much quicker for all players – but not completely wiped

• Note: Skill Rating is incorporated directly into Ranked matchmaking, so a reset to 0 for all players will lead to chaos on the ladder - but this change aims to embrace the good chaos and “sort it out” much faster than in SMITE 1

• Season 0 will start with a Hard Reset of this nature on January 14th, 2025

• Soft Resets were historically an opportunity to shake things up only at the top of the Ranked ladder, so as to not punish players still trying to make progress at lower Ranks.

• While this is still a mentality that guides our philosophy to Soft Resets, given that Ranked Rewards will first be granted to players at the end of the Winter Split alongside the first Soft Reset, we will be aiming to make the Soft Reset a more community-wide event for players to jump back into Ranked and prove themselves again.

• Further details will follow closer to the end of the Winter Split.

• The Ranked Conquest Format underwent many changes during the Ranked Test Season. To kick off Season 0, and provide a resource for any new Ranked Players, we will detail the current SMITE 2 Ranked Conquest format, with new changes to the format for Season 0 indicated with the [NEW] tag.

• Rating System: Skill Rating (SR)

• Skill Rating (SR) is a ranked system designed for SMITE 2 which describes your skill level and rank tier

• All players start at the minimum SR, which is 0, and will work upwards from there

• SR is uncapped, but adjusts much quicker when a player is underrated

All Ranks up to Demigod are separated by 600 SR, and split into 3 Divisions The Ranks, with their starting SR, are as follows: Amber (200 SR) Bronze (800 SR) Silver (1,400 SR) Gold (2,000 SR) Platinum (2,600 SR) Diamond (3,200 SR) Obsidian (3,800 SR) Master (4,400 SR) Demigod (5,000 SR)

• Once in Demigod Rank, players will battle to earn the Rank of Deity, which is reserved for the Top 100 players worldwide and requires a minimum rating of 5,500 SR

• If a player loses SR that would drop them from their current Rank (ie. Gold 3 → Silver 1), a player will first fall to the minimum SR rating for that Rank, at which point they will have to lose one more match before falling out of their current Rank

• Parties of size 1, 2, or 3 can queue for Ranked Conquest

• [NEW] Parties will be matchmade based on the average Skill Rating of the party (previously was the maximum Skill Rating)

• While matchmaking parties based on maximum skill rating limited the opportunity for boosting, looking at its realized impact on the Ranked ecosystem it became clear that the much more common outcome was underexperienced players causing low quality matches for all players in a higher ranked lobby

Matches are limited to party compositions that give both teams equal chance at victory (+/- ~1% winrate) and those matchups are:

Any match with mirrored team composition 2111v11111 311v2111 311v221 32v311

Solo Queued players will have their SR losses mitigated after losing a match where parties are present in the lobby depending on the number and size of parties (up to 15% mitigation in the 32v311 lobby)

Players will receive reduced SR gains and losses if the SR range (difference between highest rated player and lowest rated player) of their party exceeds 1,200 SR 25% reduction up to 1,800 SR 50% reduction up to 2,400 SR 75% reduction over 2,400 SR

[NEW] Teams will have their pre-match god bans increased from 1 → 2 [NEW] A player must be Level 5 to queue for Ranked Conquest [NEW] Significantly increased the adjustment rate for Skill Rating (SR)

Analyzing the Ranked Test Season, it was found that it took nearly double the intended number of games for players Skill Rating to become properly reflective of their skill at SMITE 2 Conquest

As such, the adjustment rate for SR has been greatly increased This change will primarily affect SR adjustments while a player is under-rated The quality of opposition will now also play a slightly larger role in adjustments, with the potential variance of SR adjustment due to strength of the opposing team being increased by ~25%

Season 0 will be the first SMITE 2 Ranked Season to include rewards based on achievements. There will be rewards based on highest Rank achieved, but also new forms of rewards to reflect competitive achievement in SMITE 2.

“Demigod” Title Earned the first time a player reaches 5,000 SR in Ranked Tracking for this title starts after the Season 0 reset on January 14th, 2025 Will be first granted starting in the next SMITE 2 Open Beta patch

“Deity Winter 2025” Title Earned by any player holding the Deity Rank at the end of the Winter Season 0 Split

“Ranked Speedrunner 2025” Title Earned by the first 10 players to reach 5,000 SR in Ranked Season 0 Tracking for this title starts after the Season 0 reset on January 14th, 2025 Will be first granted starting in the next SMITE 2 Open Beta patch

Ranked Border

Ranked Borders are returning in SMITE 2! This cosmetic will display a player's highest achieved Rank for Season 0 – but the way to earn this border has been slightly changed for SMITE 2

A player will first be eligible to earn their Ranked Border at the end of the Season 0 Winter Split

To earn the border a player will be required to complete a minimum of 10 Ranked wins The Rank displayed on a player's Ranked Border can be improved if a higher Rank is achieved in a future Season 0 Split.

More information to follow soon!