Fortnite is Disabling Ranked Queue for This Game Mode Next Season

Ranked mode allows players to test their skill against other combatants, and it’s available for nearly every major mode in Fortnite. Battle Royale always has ranked, while certain secondary modes might begin to remove the competitive option soon.

Rumors have been swirling about for some time that Fortnite OG, the game mode that allows players to experience the older seasons of the game during its heyday, will lose access to ranked in the coming season. Now, Epic has officially revealed that the rumors were true and OG competitors are scrambling to understand what that means for the future of their favorite mode. Here’s what we know so far:

Chapter 6: Season 3 is set for a June 8th release, so it’s less than a week away. Epic hasn’t officially revealed all of the details, but the removal of ranked OG is now confirmed, and you only have until June 7th to enjoy the competitive OG mode. HYPEX and itsmeleaky both noted that ranked could be disabled in the next season of Fortnite OG prior to today’s official announcement.

Epic has stated that it will continue to host competitive in-game events for the mode “regularly.”

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Ranked is popular with the competitive community in Fortnite, but many fans prefer casual matches, so it’s not an option that every player utilizes.

Why Would Epic Disable Ranked in Fortnite OG?

Simply put, Fortnite OG has a smaller player-base than Battle Royale mode. Since not as many people are queuing up for matches, Epic Games may want to merge player pools together so that fans can find matches quicker.

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Additionally, maintaining servers that are rarely used will likely cost large amounts of money that may not be worth it for Epic, especially considering that Fortnite is free to play and there’s an option for Zero-Build in most of Fortnite’s game modes.

The final reason that Epic may want to merge players into one game mode is to cut down on the number of bots in each match, as there are currently unranked matches with dozens of AI enemies spread throughout the map.

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Though the esports impact will likely be minimal, the removal of a ranked mode for Fortnite OG could potentially cause a major influx of players to Battle Royale. Those who prefer to play ranked will be forced into the core game mode, so we might see more competition for online tournaments.

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Fortnite OG may also become less popular if Epic removes ranked, so it’ll be even less likely to see future competitions based around an OG format. Overall, the removal of ranked will probably be bad for Fortnite OG since it’ll lose players, though it may help fill up unranked matches with players instead of bots.