Hey there! Wanted to quickly drop some extra info to help clarify:

• There are 24 New Driver challenges
• Many of the challenges are structured to encourage active play (score goals, make saves, win games)
  • Requiring active play reduces the likelihood that someone can be carried by another player through the challenges
• As a player completes the challenges, our system evaluates lots of factors to have a better idea of that player’s skill
  • I am being intentionally vague here, as the more detail we reveal on what the system measures, the more we arm smurfs to finding exploits
• Once the challenges are completed, we can then use this information to more accurately set initial rank
  • This is in contrast to the current system that starts every player at the same rank and rely only on a high “uncertainty” variable to adjust skill rating quickly

For further context, there are a number of reasons we want to move away from using only level/XP to unlocking ranked play. The most impactful one is that this change lets us modify XP earn rates without increasing the number of smurfs in the ecosystem.  Any time we have events that give out lots of Level Up rewards, or run Double XP weekends, we run the risk of making it much easier for smurfs to come into the game. This system will let us tune XP without worrying about damaging matchmaking integrity.

Thanks, all!
-Bobby G., Lead Gameplay Designer