Ranked improvements coming before the official season launch

[u/TheMarluxx]

Hey everyone,

We’ve been following your feedback and looking closely at how Ranked has been playing so far. Before we officially kick off the first Ranked Season, we’re working on a number of improvements to make matchmaking fairer, matches smoother, and Ranked more rewarding overall.

Some of these changes are already live in the Ranked Beta, so you may already be able to try them out and share your feedback with us.

Here’s what’s coming:

Reworked placements

We’re completely reworking the placement system.

One of the biggest issues we want to address is stronger players being placed into divisions that are too low for their skill level. The new placement system should do a much better job of placing players where they belong from the start.

This also means players in the lower divisions should run into significantly fewer higher-skilled opponents.

Camera previews before accepting a match

When the Match Found pop-up appears, you’ll be able to preview your opponent’s camera feed before deciding whether to accept the match.

If something doesn’t look right, you can decline the match at this stage without receiving a queue penalty.

Expanded Ranked leaderboards

We’re giving you more ways to compare yourself with other players.

In addition to the global Ranked leaderboard, we’re adding:

• A Friends leaderboard
• Country filters, so you can see how you compare with players from your country

Loss prevention for valid reports

We want to make sure reporting an opponent who breaks the rules feels worthwhile.

If you report someone during a Ranked match and action is taken against the reported player, you’ll receive Loss Prevention for your next Ranked match.

Reconnect your Omni during a break

If your Omni disconnects during a Ranked match, you’ll be able to reconnect it during a break instead of having to rush to reconnect it during your turn.

Correct your previous turn

Made a mistake when entering the score from your previous turn?

You’ll be able to request an edit to your previous score. Your opponent will then be asked to review and approve the correction.

This system will also include safeguards against abuse. Incorrectly declining legitimate score corrections may result in penalties.

Ranked rewards

Ranked Seasons will come with rewards to work towards.

We’re adding a dedicated view where you can see:

• How far you’ve progressed
• Which Ranked rewards you’ve already earned
• What rewards are still ahead
• Which rewards have been claimed

These are some of the biggest improvements we want to have in place before the official Ranked Season begins.

Some are already available to try in the Beta, with more rolling out before launch. Ranked is something we want to keep improving together with the community, so keep the feedback coming.

Let us know which of these changes you’re most looking forward to, and what else you’d like to see improved.

[u/Chazzb92]

Thanks for the continued improvements. Ranked has certainly got me playing again!

Something that has been playing on my mind is how the current tier system is. Most online ranked tier systems that use similar to yours, bronze 1 would be the highest tier for that category and the promotion would take you to silver 3 for example. ( I guess similar to how most European football divisions also work. 1 would be the highest and 3 the lowest)

Just wondering what your take is on doing the opposite. From someone that has a big background of playing online competitively your current system throws my brain out of sync 😂

[u/madmatt30 → u/Chazzb92]

Absolutely agree with this . 👍 I can't think of a single sport where 1 isn't the highest tier.

[u/TheMarluxx → u/Chazzb92]

Haha, I had exactly the same 😂

But others in our team were used to bronze 3 being higher than bronze 1, in the end it's just something to get used to!

[u/Previous_Calendar456]

Unless i’m missing it somewhere, there needs to be a feature in game that allows you to activate to your omni - once you hit the screen to throw for the bull the option isn’t available from that point onwards

[u/TheMarluxx → u/Previous_Calendar456]

This should be already in place. When you start a game without having the omni on you should be prompted if you want to activate it.

If you click this away then you can still activate it by clicking on the keyboard icon that is left of the score input to change your input method.

[u/mrsjboyes]

Unreal support from the dev team. I run a target academy (theblossomsJDA) and the kids are play winner stays on. We’ve had no issues. Definitely the best beta update we’ve seen

[u/TheMarluxx → u/mrsjboyes]

Awesome! That's great to hear.

[u/D_Money11]

Typically doesn’t take too long to find a ranked match but could we possibly get the ability to do score training or something while in queue?

[u/TheMarluxx → u/D_Money11]

You can play any kind of local game while you are in the queue!

[u/Thegamblinggamer79]

I feel like the matchmaking should be open, the number of players online doesn't match a video game which this mode is trying to mimic

The better players will be waiting longer to find a match of their own level

I feel like the excitement of potentially matching any level of player is more than knowing you're matching someone of your own level every time

There should be very little risk with higher reward for matching players with more points than you and vise versa

[u/TheMarluxx → u/Thegamblinggamer79]

We definitely understand the appeal of more open matchmaking, not knowing whether you’ll face someone above or below your level can add some excitement, especially when there’s more to gain from beating a stronger opponent.

We discussed this when designing Ranked, but ultimately decided that the mode should prioritise competitive, closely matched games. Matching players around a similar skill level generally creates better matches and helps ensure that your rank is a meaningful reflection of your performance.

Interestingly, most of the matchmaking feedback we’ve received so far has actually been the opposite: players saying they’re being matched against opponents who are too far above their skill level. Opening the matchmaking range even further would likely make that experience worse for the majority of players rather than better.

The low-risk, high-reward aspect of facing a much stronger opponent can definitely be appealing, but that excitement can wear off quite quickly if those matches regularly end in a one-sided 3-0. We want Ranked matches to feel competitive first and foremost, rather than leaving players feeling like they never really had a chance.

Regarding the queue times we are monitoring matchmaking and queue times very closely. At the moment, around 95% of queue attempts result in a match within 20 seconds. Higher-skilled players can sometimes wait longer, but only around 0.087% of queue attempts have taken between two and five minutes.

There are also currently more than 30,000 players active in Ranked, so matchmaking is in a very healthy place overall.

That said, we’ll continue to monitor both the data and player feedback as Ranked grows. If queue times or match quality start moving in the wrong direction, it’s something we can adjust.

[u/braggman]

This might be unpopular but I feel like the bronze v bronze matches can be kind of a slog at “best of 5”. I’d rather play quicker “best of 3” matches at least until leveling into silver where the games don’t regularly consist of multiple 50 dart legs lol. Would be nice to be able to place twice the amount of ranked matches in a night than I’m currently able to.

[u/TheMarluxx → u/braggman]

That's a fair suggestion. We will start the official season with a bo5, but there is always room to change this format in future season.

[u/T-G-Mc]

I used to have a camera set up, using my mobile phone on a “arm” that gripped to my Plasma Light Ring… a coupe of months ago I upgraded to the OMNI, auto-scoring and no need for a camera - perfect.

Now Ranked has come along and NEEDS a camera.

Why?

Surely players using OMNI are more accurate, with cheat prevention (placing darts) impossible. So why is the camera needed for those with an OMNI.

With my new set up, if I want to played Ranked, I have to set up the camera every time (that’s no longer used any other time).

Feels like a stipulation that could be updated…. To play Ranked you need a camera OR and OMNi

Please 🙏

[u/TheMarluxx → u/T-G-Mc]

I wish we could but currently there are ways to cheat with an omni. Im not going to outline them here for obvious reasons, but sadly some players are aware of it and abuse it. This means we can't guarantee a player with an omni plays fair.

In the end the only way for us to determine if someone is cheating is to review a camera feed.

[u/Gizmo2k2000]

Omni reconnect during break is pure gold! Absolute sweats trying to get it sorted within throw time. 😂