Splatoon 2 Rank "X" is ahead: Discussion thread

[LiX]

Hey all. For those of you who don't know what I am on about:

Take a few minutes to watch the Nintendo Direct about upcoming Splatoon 2 content. This thread is specifically dedicated to the announced "Rank X" which will become available in April's coming update.

In the video, you can see somebody rank up from S+9 to rank X, showing "Calculation 0/10". So it apparently is going to be possible to move up even higher than S+ soon. When I saw this, two thoughts came up:

1. Will this finally destroy the skill gap in S+? You often have crazy good players on the one side and inexperienced S+ newcomers on the other who really aren't quite there yet and drag down teams. With Rank X coming at the end of S+9, you have a new distinction between the good and the really good players. Only the really good will rank up past S+9, or so Nintendo hopes. I'm quite glad to see it and hope it will be as good as I expect it to be.

2. Will any rank above S+10 be rendered useless?? What is up with all the people who put work in ranked and got to S+50? Will they just be teleported to X and not get any benefits? I'm sure Nintendo would get a lot of complaints then...

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Apart from the aforementioned, we don't know anything yet. But it was said in the video that new information is coming soon. This thread is here for speculation about it, rants by S+50 players, rants by S+0 players and of course for amassing the new facts once they become public. Feel free to share what you know and think.

***UPDATE***

There has been new information dropped on rank X which can be viewed in detail HERE!

As expected, we will operate with power levels from then on. Everyone who is already S+10 and above will immediately promoted to X once the update goes live. If there will be benefits or reimbursements for those who have worked towards S+50 remains unknown. But what is certain is that rank X will be reset by the end of each months and the top 500 players for each ranked mode will be published on the Splatnet App!

 

[Danger Ed]

Things I saw. The X rank likely has some kind of league power mechanic by the Calculating /10 screen. There may be no X+ 2 or whatever it may be some sort of power ranking so they don't have to keep adding tiers. Likely there will be a drop in skill in S+ likely to where it is closer to S in skill at least initially as the S+50 players all make X. With most S+0 players moving up to maybe the S+8 range. Also from what I can see the X rank is extreme :D

From the rest of the video it is hinted that Agent 8 is possibly not an octoling. As they said she looks like one, not that she is an octoling. I also like the kinda Matrix vibe not sure why the Octo font is a miami vice style font. But looks cool.

 

[Mar$el]

Rank X will not be extreme if they make it too easy to stay in. Like yeah I guess it takes some time to get to S+10 but if it's too easy to not lose your rank there's almost no point. I figure a great way to make it extreme is that if you have your individual X power level, then if you drop below say 1900 or something then you lose your rank and go back to S+5 or S+9. Or if there's still a bar put the okay line at 60% or something. Though I don't think it'll become like that. My best guess is that once you hit X you're basically playing solo league. Your power level will not only be visible to you but hopefully they clean up matchmaking so that you're not paired with garbage teammates (hence deranking those under 1900 or maybe even 2000. Or if you get to 2000 or 2200 or if you can get up to like 2600 then you can't get paired with people too far below. Like if you hit 2000 you can't be paired with 1900's.

As for other predictions, I'm guessing Piranha Pit will be our DLC map for April, then Wahoo World in May, and Camp Triggerfish in June. Then if the pearl and marina amiibos are hitting stores like what July 21 or something, maybe that's when the Octo Expansion releases. Then our DLC weapons will run out by that point too. So then Octo Expansion should hold everyone at least until Fall or possibly they wait until Holiday to release some new info (aside from patches). Along with Octo Expansion, you see the people holding different weapons like the hydra splatling and the S1 skin of the splattershot, so I wonder if there's levels for each type of weapon (like instead of just a charger you get levels for E-liter, squiffer, goo tuber). Also betting you can get S1 skins of things or at least the splattershot seeing as someone was holding it. Anyways after a while I think we'll get more paid DLCs and then like Sheldon's picks eventually and stuff. Hopefully more paid DLCs expand Inkopolis and give areas use like assuming the subway area in the top right of inkopolis leads to the Octo subway. All in all very excited.

 

[Sifu]

Along with Octo Expansion, you see the people holding different weapons like the hydra splatling and the S1 skin of the splattershot

I didn't realize that was the S1 skin... okay, that's cool

Edit: Actually, I'm not seeing it. I can only see the S2 model for the Splattershot here

 

[seaWEED]

Maybe, you will get a counter like in league or splatfests and you will get paired with people of similar powers.

 

[Mar$el]

I didn't realize that was the S1 skin... okay, that's cool

Edit: Actually, I'm not seeing it. I can only see the S2 model for the Splattershot here

https://www.google.com/search?q=spl...=629&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=esRINNoS7ZcEdM:
This is the S1 skin. Trying to find the hydra pic again.

https://www.google.com/search?q=spl...=629&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=9FjpoY8j5iB1-M:
Here we have dualie squelchers... I guess this proves my point anyway that you play more than just the basic versions of each class.

 

[Sifu]

Ah, the enemies get the octoshot. Yeah, that would be cool to get in multiplayer. Like the red variants too

 

[LiX]

I second the thought about the power score. I just wonder how deranking will work then. It would be strange if you could forever stay Rank X and just decrease your power/increase it back by winning. On the other hand, if you got to S+9, you have proven you're worthy of the rank as you play consistently well enough to get onward on S+. I suppose we can only speculate on how deranking works then.

 

[Mar$el]

I second the thought about the power score. I just wonder how deranking will work then. It would be strange if you could forever stay Rank X and just decrease your power/increase it back by winning. On the other hand, if you got to S+9, you have proven you're worthy of the rank as you play consistently well enough to get onward on S+. I suppose we can only speculate on how deranking works then.

But if you got to X and couldn't derank you could meme and party all you want without deranking. Maybe before the actual update we'll see leaks of what it looks like after 10 battles.

 

[LiX]

But if you got to X and couldn't derank you could meme and party all you want without deranking. Maybe before the actual update we'll see leaks of what it looks like after 10 battles.

Exactly that is a concern. I hope Nintendo doesn't think that people are mature enough to not do this once they got good enough at the game. I've got to know some really good players and some of them are just the silliest squiddos...

Well, in the end, we can always report people.

 

[Sifu]

Especially since rank X is supposed to be "extreme", it would be weird if you couldn't derank. I imagine the power level ties into who is allowed to stay, like others have mentioned

 

[J'Wiz]

Okay guys. I figured it out!

You get into X rank by getting over 3000 points in turf. You're welcome.

I'm sorry. I couldn't help it.

 

[Drew Sebastino]

@J'Wiz Imagine if Nintendo actually went on this website and named it after him...

 

[Dessgeega]

All I want from rank X is for the ranking system to be revamped in some fashion, a very real possibility considering the addition of a new rank. I don't care if I have to start over from C-, if rank was made more intuitive and transparent I'd be overjoyed!

 

[mercenariez]

It could be if you hit a certain power you enter it. That way regardless of whether you’re S+9 or S+50 you could get in, since I don’t see them revoking people’s S+50. They would have to make individual power more explicit though, since it kinda seems unfair to have people shooting blind in their attempts to make it to X.

It then seems to calculate some sort of power, either for matchmaking or to determine whether or not you can stay in X I guess.

I agree that it shouldn’t be easy to stay in or else it just becomes the new S+. My guess is it will be a lot less forgiving than the current rank system in terms of loss punishment, yet ironically with more even matchmaking.

It’s hard to say tbh, there’s a lot of different ways they could do this. It comes down to their goal(s), which I believe is to invoke a more competitive system in response to people’s complaints that S+ is too easy. At the same time, if they make matchmaking more even, that would also make X a lot easier haha

 

[Spaceswitchmars]

It could be if you hit a certain power you enter it. That way regardless of whether you’re S+9 or S+50 you could get in, since I don’t see them revoking people’s S+50. They would have to make individual power more explicit though, since it kinda seems unfair to have people shooting blind in their attempts to make it to X.

I would love for all rank to be tied to power level. I'm not sure exactly what would be fair, but something like:

X: 2200+
S+: 2100-2199
S: 2000-2099
A- - A+: 1800-1999
B- - B+: 1600-1799
C- - C+: 1400-1599

I'm not sure where they'd put the dividing point within A-, A, A+ and the like, but these power levels seem like they're where people should be at those ranks.

Ultimately, I think it would be cool to do away with letter grades altogether and ONLY have power levels. Then the focus on rank could be literally ranking people on global and regional leaderboards (similar to what league does, but this would be a running tally).

They could also use such leaderboards to run different leaderboard challenges with in-game rewards.

That's all a pipe dream, but I like to dream, so.

 

[LiX]

The original post has been edited to include the update we got on Rank X!

I think this will really do ranked a favor. Being matched with players around your Rank X power level will ensure you get a fair chance to improve at the game and fight players your strength. No more being a S+10 guy yourself and getting S+0 teammates while the enemy has two S+50 players.

What I'm just not sure of is if you can be demoted from Rank X for not playing the 10 calculation games for a straight month. Right now, as it looks, you can get demoted at the end of a month if you are below a certain power level that places you badly compared to the vast majority of the other rank X players. And you can also get demoted for falling below a certain, very low power score.

I'm also curious how Nintendo will determine who ranks down at the end of a month. It would be interesting if it always demoted like the 10% worst scoring players to ensure quality in Rank X. That way, whether you rank down would depend on how good you did in comparison to everyone else. That's how it should be, in my opinion.

 

[Mar$el]

If the top 500 is regional I can't imagine not being in the top 500 I doubt there's that many people honestly...

 

[Dessgeega]

Ugggh, so much grind... I gotta grind up my ranks to S+10 to have X access, and then I gotta win consistently enough month by month to maintain it. It's kinda nice having Nintendo tell me I'm ONE OF THE ELITE with those rank statistics though.

 

[LiX]

If the top 500 is regional I can't imagine not being in the top 500 I doubt there's that many people honestly...

Well, on the site I linked to there are also very interesting statistics, showing player distribution throughout all the ranks. And only 1% of the playerbase is at S+10-S+50 right now. If it's regional as you you suggest, then yes, it may be easier to get into the top 500 than many people would think.

Tell you the truth, I'm also kind of worried about the time matchmaking will take. Waiting 3 minutes before every game until it found you rank X players close to your power level is a worrying image. But then again, I suppose balanced games have to have trafeoffs, eh?