Hallelujah. Since the announcement in mid-January that cosmetic crowns would be awarded based on your Season 1 rank, I've been too afraid to play Rocket League competitively lest I slip from my precarious score of 400—the very edge of Silver. Now the silver crown is mine, however questionably, and the entire ranking system has been thrown out the window for the start of Season 2, in addition to some welcome PC-specific changes.
No longer will players climb the ladder based on points separate from the hidden MMR score that attempts to match rocketeers based on skill. Instead, we'll be split into divisions, and it'll take more than a handful of losses to bump you one lower. Ten placement matches must be played to be assigned a division in each of the competitive playlists. You can read Andy's breakdown of the new system here.
In big news for people not keen on smack talk and widespread spite, a beta player-reporting feature has been added which submits the match's full chat log to Psyonix. Hopefully it'll water down some of the more poisonous 'What a save!' spamming, but I also expect each and every goal to be followed with a cry of 'Report!'
Performance has been improved overall, which is excellent considering the notoriously taxing Wasteland arena is now part of competitive playlists, and, most excitingly, the framerate can now be uncapped. Previously it was limited to 60fps. And good news for those of us running at 1440p and above: the UI has been made scalable to offset its unaccountable expansion after the last patch.
On top of all this, the experimental Rocket Labs playlist has been patched in, uncommon loot has been added and bugs with the hand-braking of a number of cars has been fixed. All in all, one heck of an update. Full notes here. Gl;hf.
