by JR Cook - 7 years ago     show comments

Season 3 of Ranked Play is fast approaching and there are some big changes coming with this new season.

For starters, Hero League will now be solo queue only. No more duo queuing your way up the ladder. As a result, Team League is being changed to accommodate parties of 2, 3, and 5 players. At this point these changes are only being implemented on a trial basis for Season 3. They may or may not remain in effect for future seasons based on how they affect ranked play as a whole.

They will also be making some changes to how players are disbursed throughout the different leagues in order to even out the Bell Curve a bit. At Blizzcon they mentioned that they felt too many players were ending up in Silver and they would like to see some of these players moved into Gold. They also play to reduce to the number of players in Diamond to make it feel more prestigious.

Changes are also in store for placement matches. While it will still require 10 games to be placed into a league, your effective MMR initially may be adjusted a bit if you haven’t participated in HL or TL recently. Uncertainty will once again be increased for the first few matches, allowing players to more easily move up or down the ranks.

What would a new season be without rewards? In addition to the usual portraits, players can also earn the Elemental Stag Mount by reaching either Platinum in Hero League or Bronze in Team League. Reaching Master or higher in either mode will also earn players the Epic Elemental Stag Mount. There are also Gold rewards based on the highest rank reached in each mode during the season.

Season 3 will officially begin the week of December 12th. If you would like to read the full blog post detailing what to expect simply click here.