Let's talk about the main Season 13 Ranked problem: It's not fun

The biggest changes that the new ranking system introduces are:

• Participation points
• Rookie rank
• Hard KP cap to soft KP cap
• Lowered KP at bad placement (-9 to -1). Essentially unchanged KP at good placement (+1 to +3).
• Demotions
• Increased Entry Cost
• Gradual increase of entry cost per division
• Lengthened each division by 200RP
• Rank up bonus 100RP

We can divide this into three parts:

1. QOL updates:
   • Rookie Rank
   • Demotions
   • Gradual increase of entry cost per division
2. Change grind length:
   • Lengthened each division by 200RP
   • Rank up bonus 100RP
3. Balance Updates:
   • KP changes
   • Participation Points
   • Hard KP cap to soft KP cap
   • Increased entry cost

QOL updates shouldn't really impact the grind itself that much.

• Rookie rank should be relatively easy to climb out of
• Demotions should only pull you out of ranks you don't climb in anyway.
• The gradual increase to entry cost should place you more finely into the division you belong in. It also smoothens the jump between ranks allowing for better acclimation to the higher rank.

Changing the grind length changes how much RP is needed to climb:

• +100RP per Rank from Rank up bonus
• -800RP per Rank from lengthing 4 divisions
• This is an effective increase of 700RP per rank.

Balance updates change how much RP you earn during a match:

• KP changes lower early KP and slightly increases late KP
• Participation points slightly increases RP gained
• Hard KP cap to soft KP cap decreases RP from moderate amount of kills, but slightly increases RP from large amount of kills
• Increased entry cost lowers RP gained.

The increased entry cost was probably introduced to combat the combination of soft KP cap and participation points, since those give more RP.

But as far as I know the soft KP cap works as follows: 100% KP for first 3 kills, 80% KP for next 3 and 20% for everything else. This means that exceeding the 125 KP is going to be difficult and further kills actually contribute very little (5RP at 1st place).

Participation is also strictly worse than assists, so it doesn't actually boost the expected RP from an engagement that much, it just stops you from missing RP from a fight.

This essentially means that the overall value of KP has decreased and you need more RP to stay equal.

You also need more RP to climb.

This also immediately highlights where there is space for design in my opinion. Tweaking KP distribution and entry costs to better compensate the higher entry costs and longer divisions. (I'm not saying perfectly compensated, or easier. Just differently balanced).

Ps.

I think most of the ideas introduced are pretty solid, from the gradual increase in entry cost to participation points and demotions.

I just think that the balance is highly wonky.

Personally I'd like the KP to vary between +5 and +15, with a weaker decay in the soft KP (maybe 50% for 7+ kills) and a higher placement RP (150 at 1st, 120 at second, 100 at 3rd, ...) To account for the increase in division length.

Removing the starting entry cost of 15 RP and increasing the Division increase from -3 to -4 would keep Platinum and above difficult, while punishing the lower ranks much less.