After Zero Build let players experience combat without contraptions last year, Epic Games has announced Fortnite's next major shakeup to matchmaking: Ranked play across multiple modes will be available for everyone beginning with this week's v24.40 patch, which has now been pushed back to Wednesday, May 17.

　　Season Zero of ranked play will be available in both standard Battle Royale and Zero Build modes, and it will run until the end of Chapter 4 Season 3 later this summer. The timing will allow the Fortnite team to "to make any adjustments to issues and concerns that arise, while also working on additional features and overall improvements for when Ranked starts following the normal Battle Royale Season schedule.

　　The Fortnite Ranked chart.Standard Battle Royale will allow ranks for solos, duos, and squads, while Zero Build will only allow ranks for duos in Season Zero. Ranks will also be separate between Battle Royale and Zero Build, which means players will be able to rank up independently in one format without being affected by the other.

　　When Ranked Mode is activated, a player's rank will increase or decrease based on the following criteria:

　　Match placementNumber of eliminations both by individual and by team Eliminations later in the match will count more than eliminations earlier in the match.Ranks of opposing players eliminated will be taken into account.A team's rank will be assigned based on the highest-ranked player on the team A team of a Gold 1 rank, two Silver 1 ranks, and a Bronze 2 rank will be assigned Gold 1, for example.All players will begin at Bronze rank, and they will ascend through the ranks in the following order: Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Elite, Champion, and Unreal. All levels from Bronze to Diamond will have three ranks each, while Elite, Champion, and Unreal will have one each.

　　When a player reaches Unreal rank, they will remain there for the remainder of that season. However, they will also be given a number designating their standing amongst all other Unreal-level players around the world, which they can also track on the special Unreal leaderboard. If you don't want to be shown on the leaderboard, you'll be able to hide yourself from the list via privacy settings.

　　Finally, special cosmetic rewards will also be available in this new mode via Ranked Urgent Quests, which must be completed in a single match. The final reward of Ranked Season Zero is the Burn Bright emote.

　　Fortnite is available to download now for free on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile devices. Ranked mode will be available with the implementation of the v24.40 patch on May 17.

　　Jason Fanelli on Google+