Apex Legends Season 31 introduces Ranked Legend Bans, weighted voting, and new RP entry-cost adjustments. Here’s how the systems work and what they mean for competitive players.
Apex Legends Cipher Ranked Bans: How Voting and RP Work
Picking your favourite Legend has always been an important part of Apex Legends. But with the Cipher update, there is something new to consider before entering a high-ranked match: your preferred Legend might not be available.
Season 31, launching November 3, 2026, introduces Ranked Legend Bans in qualifying Diamond-and-above lobbies. Players can nominate a Legend they would rather not face, and a weighted random selection determines which two Legends become unavailable for that match.
Respawn is also changing how Ranked Points (RP) entry costs work when squads are matched against significantly stronger or weaker opponents.
After comparing EA’s Cipher patch notes with its Ranked Roadmap, I think the important change is not simply that two Legends can disappear from the roster. It is that teams have to prepare for uncertainty before the match even begins.
Let’s look at the voting rules, ban probabilities, RP changes, and practical implications.
Apex Legends Cipher Ranked Changes at a Glance
| Feature | Season 31 Rules |
|---|---|
| Season | Cipher (Season 31) |
| Launch date | November 3, 2026 |
| Legend bans | 2 Legends per qualifying match |
| Availability | Matches containing Diamond+ players |
| Voting | One Legend ban request per player |
| Selection | Weighted random voting |
| Minimum ban candidates | 4 different Legends |
| Challenger Match | 30% lower RP entry cost |
| Goliath Match | 50% higher RP entry cost |
| RP adjustment threshold | 2 or more rank tiers |
| Additional changes | Ranked interface and RP information improvements |
These are the announced Season 31 rules. EA has indicated that it will monitor the changes and may adjust them in future updates.
How Do Apex Legends Cipher Ranked Bans Work?
The new banning system adds a dedicated phase before normal Legend selection.
Rather than immediately choosing a character, players first get an opportunity to nominate someone they want excluded from the match.
Here is the process:
- The banning phase begins. Each player can nominate one Legend.
- Requests are collected. When the timer expires, the system counts the nominations.
- Ban probabilities are calculated. A Legend receiving more requests gets a greater chance of being banned.
- Two Legends are selected. The system uses weighted random selection rather than automatically removing the two most popular nominations.
- Legend selection begins. Neither banned Legend can be selected by anyone in that match.
The system is enabled alongside Drop Zone deployment. EA’s Ranked Roadmap specifies that matches containing Diamond-or-higher players use this feature.
That distinction matters. It is a match-level rule, not simply a separate voting privilege for individual Diamond players.
Why Aren’t the Two Most-Voted Legends Automatically Banned?
This is where Cipher takes a different approach from a conventional majority-vote system.
Respawn wants to discourage predictable team compositions without replacing them with an equally predictable banning routine.
Imagine a system where the two most-voted Legends always disappear. Competitive players could eventually develop a consistent list of characters to remove before every match.
The resulting ban pattern might become just as repetitive as the original Legend-selection meta.
Weighted randomness makes popular nominations more influential without guaranteeing the same outcome every time.
I can see the reasoning, although it introduces a trade-off: a heavily disliked or dominant Legend can still survive the vote.
That unpredictability appears to be intentional.
How Does Ranked Ban Voting Calculate the Odds?
The first randomized ban selection uses each Legend’s share of the collected requests.
For example, imagine a hypothetical lobby where 20 requests have been submitted:
| Legend | Ban requests | First-selection chance |
|---|---|---|
| Wraith | 10 | 50% |
| Horizon | 6 | 30% |
| Crypto | 3 | 15% |
| Revenant | 1 | 5% |
| Total | 20 | 100% |
These are illustrative votes, not actual lobby statistics.
Wraith has the greatest chance of being selected first because half of the requests target her.
However, Horizon, Crypto, and Revenant remain possible outcomes.
EA also gives an example in which a Legend receiving 80% of the requests has an 80% probability of being chosen on the first randomized selection.
An important distinction: These percentages describe the first selection. They should not be mistaken for each Legend’s final probability of appearing among both bans, because a second selection also takes place.
The practical lesson is simple: voting influences the outcome, but it does not guarantee it.
What Happens if Players Vote for Fewer Than Four Legends?
Cipher includes a safeguard to prevent the ban candidate list from becoming too narrow.
If players collectively nominate fewer than four different Legends, the system adds candidates based on the previous week’s most-played Legends.
Each added candidate receives one request, ensuring there are at least four different Legends eligible for selection.
For example, if nearly everyone nominates the same two characters, those nominations will not leave the selection system with only two possibilities.
This gives the banning process additional variety even when the lobby strongly favours the same targets.
It does not mean the most-played Legends are automatically banned. They simply become additional candidates in the randomized selection.
Which Legends Should You Vote to Ban?
There is no single answer that will work for every match.
A character’s usefulness depends on the current balance update, your squad composition, the map, and how opponents use that character.
For Ranked teams, I would approach voting through three questions.
Which opponent disrupts our strategy most?
A squad depending on a particular positioning or defensive approach may find certain opposing abilities more troublesome than others.
Which Legends are influential in the current competitive environment?
Frequently selected characters deserve consideration, but popularity alone does not establish that a Legend is overpowered.
Can our squad adapt if our preferred Legend is banned instead?
This is arguably the most important question.
Consider a team where one player is comfortable with only a single Legend. That squad becomes more vulnerable when the banning system removes its preferred choice.
The safer approach is to prepare alternative compositions before queueing.
Why a Backup Legend Matters More in Cipher
I would recommend learning at least two or three Legends that suit your usual role.
The goal is not necessarily to master every character. It is to maintain a workable squad even when your first choice disappears.
A team might prepare:
- A preferred composition for its normal playstyle.
- A backup composition when an essential Legend is banned.
- An alternative that changes how the squad approaches engagements.
Those preparations matter because banning happens before Legend selection.
A team that adapts quickly may enter the match with a clearer plan than one still trying to replace its usual lineup.
How Do RP Changes Work in Apex Legends Cipher?
Legend bans are only one part of the Ranked update.
Cipher also introduces a scoring adjustment for matches where squads face opponents from substantially different Ranked tiers.
Respawn calls these Challenger Matches and Goliath Matches.
The system adjusts the RP cost of entering a match based on how the squad compares with the lobby.
| Match type | Qualification | Entry-cost adjustment |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Ranked | Squad is within one tier of Lobby Tier | Standard cost |
| Challenger | Squad is at least 2 tiers below Lobby Tier | 30% discount |
| Goliath | Squad is at least 2 tiers above Lobby Tier | 50% increase |
These adjustments target unusual matchmaking situations rather than every Ranked match.
Challenger Matches: Lower RP Risk Against Stronger Opponents
A Challenger Match occurs when your squad’s calculated tier is at least two full ranks below the Lobby Tier.
Suppose your squad is Bronze while the lobby’s median tier is Gold.
That difference qualifies your squad for the Challenger adjustment.
Your RP entry cost is reduced by 30%.
The reasoning is understandable. A lower-ranked squad entering a substantially stronger lobby faces an additional competitive disadvantage.
Reducing the entry fee acknowledges that risk without guaranteeing a positive RP result.
You still need to perform well to gain points.
Goliath Matches: Higher RP Risk Against Weaker Opponents
Goliath works in the opposite direction.
If your squad is at least two tiers above the Lobby Tier, the match receives a Goliath designation.
The RP entry cost rises by 50%.
For example, a Diamond squad entering a lobby with a Gold median would meet the two-tier threshold.
Respawn’s reasoning is that a stronger team should face greater RP risk when competing against substantially lower-ranked opponents.
I think this is the more interesting half of the adjustment. Lowering entry costs for disadvantaged squads is straightforward. Charging stronger squads more attempts to prevent favourable matchmaking from becoming an unusually easy route to progression.
Example of Challenger and Goliath RP Costs
The following example uses a hypothetical standard entry cost of 100 RP to make the calculation clear.
| Match type | Calculation | Entry cost |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | 100 RP | 100 RP |
| Challenger | 100 − 30% | 70 RP |
| Goliath | 100 + 50% | 150 RP |
These are mathematical examples, not actual rank-specific entry fees.
Actual costs depend on the player’s Ranked circumstances, and the exact adjusted amount should be checked in the match interface.
The published changes concern entry costs. They do not introduce a universal 30% increase or decrease to all RP earned from kills and placement.
How Are Squad Tier and Lobby Tier Calculated?
Two terms are essential to understanding these adjustments.
Squad Tier
EA calculates Squad Tier using the average RP of the squad members, but premade groups are treated differently.
Within a premade group, every member’s RP is treated as equal to the highest-ranked member’s RP for this calculation.
For instance, if two friends enter together and the higher-ranked player has 5,000 RP, both members of that premade are treated as having 5,000 RP when the squad calculation is performed.
A third teammate who is not part of that premade retains their own RP value for the calculation.
This prevents a higher-ranked player from artificially reducing their squad’s calculated strength simply by queueing with a lower-ranked friend.
EA also specifies that if a teammate never connects, the calculated Squad Tier decreases by one full tier.
Lobby Tier
Lobby Tier represents the median of all squad tiers within the match.
It is not simply the rank of the strongest player or the lowest-ranked participant.
Respawn compares your Squad Tier against that median to decide whether the Challenger or Goliath adjustment applies.
For me, understanding this distinction is more useful than memorizing entry-cost numbers. It explains why two players with apparently similar personal ranks might not encounter identical match conditions.
What Has Changed in the Ranked Interface?
Cipher also introduces several interface updates intended to make competitive scoring easier to understand.
The redesigned Waiting for Players screen shows more information before the match begins, including Squad Tier, Lobby Tier, entry cost, match type, and the squad’s relative position within the lobby distribution.
A dedicated Ranked tab is also added to the in-game inventory interface.
It provides information about scoring rules and relevant RP objectives, including the points required to offset entry costs or progress toward the next division.
The kill feed gains additional RP information. Players can see RP earned for eliminations, along with placement-point notifications when an entire opposing squad is eliminated.
The net RP indicator is also easier to interpret, using red for negative RP and white for positive RP.
These may look like smaller changes beside Legend banning, but I would not dismiss them.
Understanding the cost of a match and whether your squad has recovered that cost can influence how confidently you approach the remaining circles.
Clearer scoring information helps players make decisions without relying entirely on memory or waiting for the post-match breakdown.
Do the New Ranked Bans Affect Every Apex Legends Player?
Not immediately.
The Season 31 banning system is designed for qualifying Diamond+ Ranked matches.
Players participating in other game modes should not assume their usual Legend-selection process has changed in the same way.
EA’s roadmap also confirms a related Ranked access change for Season 31: Road to Ranked challenges are being removed, with Account Level 20 becoming the entry requirement.
New players should therefore distinguish between accessing Ranked and entering the higher-level lobbies where bans occur.
Those are two different conditions.
What Is Coming to Ranked in Season 32?
Cipher lays the groundwork for a larger Ranked restructuring planned for Season 32 in early 2027.
EA has outlined several future additions, including:
- Iron Rank replacing Rookie.
- Emerald Rank between Platinum and Diamond.
- Grandmaster above Master.
- Separate Open League and Pro-Am League structures.
- Further changes to rewards and competitive progression.
These are roadmap features for Season 32, not features that should be presented as already available in Cipher.
Their exact implementation remains subject to subsequent official announcements.
Final Editorial Thoughts: Will Cipher Improve Ranked?
I like the objective behind Cipher’s Ranked changes, particularly the attempt to make team composition less automatic.
When the same combinations repeatedly dominate competitive matches, players have fewer reasons to experiment. A weighted banning system introduces uncertainty without allowing one predictable vote outcome to control every match.
There is still a fair concern.
Randomness does not guarantee variety. Popular Legends might survive, and players could feel frustrated when their preferred character disappears while another heavily nominated Legend remains available.
The RP adjustments raise a separate question: whether entry-cost changes will make uneven lobbies feel fairer without creating new progression problems.
Those outcomes will require actual player data and further monitoring.
For now, the clearest recommendation is to prepare more than one squad composition, understand the ban probabilities, and check your entry cost before committing to a Ranked match.
Cipher is not only asking players to aim and fight well. It is asking them to adapt before the first shot is fired.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Many Legends Are Currently Banned in Apex Legends Cipher?
Two Legends are selected for banning in each qualifying Diamond+ Ranked match under the announced Season 31 rules.
Can every player vote to ban a Legend?
Each player in a qualifying match can submit one Legend ban request during the pre-match banning phase.
Does the Legend with the most votes always get banned?
No. Voting determines weighted probabilities. A Legend receiving the most requests has the highest chance of being selected first but is not guaranteed to be banned.
Can I select a banned Legend later in the match?
No. Once a Legend is banned, that character is unavailable during Legend selection for that match.
What happens if everyone votes for the same Legend?
If fewer than four different Legends receive nominations, additional candidates are introduced from the previous week’s most-played Legends, with one request added per candidate.
What is a Challenger Match in Apex Legends?
A Challenger Match occurs when your calculated Squad Tier is at least two rank tiers below the Lobby Tier. It reduces your RP entry cost by 30%.
What is a Goliath Match?
A Goliath Match occurs when your calculated Squad Tier is at least two tiers above the Lobby Tier. It increases your RP entry cost by 50%.
Are Iron, Emerald, and Grandmaster ranks available in Cipher?
No. Those rank additions are outlined in EA’s Season 32 roadmap and should not be confused with the changes launching in Season 31.
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