Last year’s addition of the first inaugural six-month Ranked Season is soon coming to an end. Introduced on November 22, the first Season will be shipped “in the coming week or so“, as mentioned by Valve in an addition to their recent minor patch change log.
In just over six months of the seasonal structure being live, it’s effect on the Dota 2 popularity and general matchmaking is difficult to judge. MMR ranges have been significantly normalized (highest tiers dropping from 8-9k to ~6k) and rankings themselves were made visible through medals. However, it did not stop complaints of poor matchmaking quality on higher tiers and in general the update felt mostly visual and entirely superficial.
With Season two and its ranking reset being so close, will it be effective at dealing with smurf or boosted accounts? Will it return bored players by giving them another chance to re-calibrate? Will there be any other more intrusive changes? We will learn that in coming weeks.