Rocket League Season 4 starts today with the arrival of the new Dropshot update, and there’s a ton of new stuff to get to grip with if you’re going to compete in Psynox’s vehicle-based soccer game.
The next Rocket League competitive season encourages players to become a champion in their sport, and will start as soon as the latest update is available.
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In Season 4, players will rank differently as Psynoix realizes that players have evolved and become better at the game. As a result more skill tiers have been added so that players feel a stronger sense of progression.
The Rocket League Season 4 Division Tier titles that you’ll now be playing for are as follows:
The Divisions per skill tier have also been tweaked. Instead of five divisions which we saw in Season 3, Season 4 will now have four division. For example in the Gold I tier range, the divisions will be: Division I to Division IV.
Grand Champion rank has also been tweaked. Psyonix explains:
“Based on the feedback we received regarding the Grand Champion rank during Season 3 recalibration, we have taken the following steps for Season 4:
- Champion I, II, and III includes players of skill ranging from Champion to low-end Grand Champion from Season 3.
- Grand Champion has been made more exclusive and given a distinct icon above the Champion ranks. It will not be quite as difficult to obtain as the original Season 3 version, but significantly more difficult than post-calibration Season 3.
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Season 4 skill reset and matchmaking
Your skill tiers for Season 4 have been reset but it’s no longer going to be a matter of grinding up the tiers. You’ll be matched more evenly based on your previous season rankings ensuring you’re placed with players that are of your skill level, rather than seasoned players having to take on less skilful players just to grind.
Matchmaking in general has had a few changes in the latest Dropshot update.
“The most significant change is in how we are calculating your Matchmaking Rating (MMR). In previous seasons, MMR was a conservative estimate of your skill. A conservative MMR formula is common in modern skill systems and subtracts a few standard deviations of your “uncertainty” (how confident the system is about you) from your “skill” to generate a safe estimate of your potential,” explains the developer.
This should ensure fairer matches and games that are more balanced, and therefore more fun!
Future updates will concentrate on more reliable matchmaking, which will hopefully also see an improvement in connection and connection speeds.
Map amendments
Following the Rocket League update, you’ll notice that the Neo Tokyo arena has gone. Psyonix says it’s due to its infrequent use by players, but it will return as a standard arena in the future.
The Arena preferences system has also had an overhaul and will take into account the following:
- If half of the players in a server dislike a map, it will appear 50% less often.
- If one player likes a map and another player dislikes it, it will appear as often as normal.
- If all of the players in a server dislike it, it will now never appear.
Though an end date for Rocket League Season 4 has yet to be determined, Psyonic has promised a much shorter season than last time. So, get your competitive season underway and boost up those rankings!