The online arena shooter LawBreakers will soon have the competitive ranked mode that developer Boss Key promised in early September. Called Boss Leagues, the new mode will be released as part of the All-Star Update, the game's "biggest content drop to date," which will also include a new map and map variant, "qualify of life" improvements, and the kick off of Beta Season 0.
Boss Leagues will feature six tiers—Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Boss—with solo and duo queuing, and progression based solely on winning, not kill-death ratio: "Win-loss ratio and the skill of your opponent is the only thing that factors into your league score," Boss Key communications director Rohan Rivas says in the video below. You have to be at least level five to take part in Season 0, and ten placement matches must be played before you're given a league ranking. And because Season 0 is a "beta test for the Boss Leagues," Boss Key is looking for feedback, and will "make adjustments" as it unfolds.
The new map, Gateway, is a Blitzball arena map set in a "mobile stadium, which floats effortlessly in the sky thanks to Hadronium's anti-gravitational properties," while Redfalls Blood Moon is a variation of the Redfalls map, "with a new, atmospheric time of day featuring the ominous Shattered Blood Moon overhead." Also on tap are improved tutorials, multi-region queuing, new Blitzball Sports-themed skins, profile icons and kick decals, and various sorts of balance changes.
The addition of competitive ranked play is a big step forward for LawBreakers (and one I think maybe should have been taken before the game went into full release, but that's a conversation for another day), but will it be enough to pull it out of the deep doldrums it's sunk to?
We recently ranked LawBreakers as among the best multiplayer FPSes you probably aren't playing, but it would be closer to the mark to say that you almost certainly aren't playing it: SteamCharts indicates that there are currently just 24 people playing the game, down from a daily high of 73; the player count saw a brief bounce in late September during a free weekend, but as soon as the freebie ended, so did the surge of interest. Good game or not, those numbers are simply not enough to keep the wheels turning.
The LawBreakers All-Star Update is set to go live on October 19. The full patch notes should be out then too.
