14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard confirms that the new Heroes of the Storm closed beta stage that's set to debut later today on PC is going to include not just a new rank system but also a series of punishments for those who abandon games in the new Hero League competitive mode.
Heroes of the Storm spent a lot of 2014 under a closed alpha label, with Blizzard allowing a small number of fans the chance to try out the multiplayer title and share their feedback with the actual development team.
Today, January 13, the studio is set to roll out the Heroes of the Storm closed beta stage, which brings plenty of new features to the game, while allowing more and more people to get in on the multiplayer action.
After confirming that the main new features of the closed beta for Heroes of the Storm include the Hero League competitive mode or the draft mode that's set to make these matches that much more intense, the studio is now talking on its website about a few other things present in the test phase.
There's a new rank system
First up, players will be given a new rank as part of a fresh system that begins at 50 and ends at 1. Depending on their performances, they will progress through the ranks as part of the whole Hero League experience.
In the future, the studio also plans on introducing ranked seasons, in which players have a limited time at their disposal to see how high they can climb the ranks before the period ends. These events, however, won't begin until after Blizzard has time to collect feedback about Hero League.
New ways of punishing players are also present
Besides this new ranking system, Blizzard is also going to implement harsher measures against those who leave a match in progress.
More specifically, any player who leaves a match during the Hero League or Quick Match modes and doesn't rejoin before it's finished will be prevented from playing any Hero League ranked games until they complete a Quick Match.
Any player who leaves a Hero League game during the drafting stage will lose a "substantial amount of ranked points" and won't be able to play ranked encounters until they complete a quick match.
These penalties are always subject to change, according to Blizzard, depending on player feedback, so they might become harsher or less severe as time goes on.
