Ranked play, leaderboards, and a new champion are coming to Quake Champions this week

A major Quake Champions update that's coming later this week will add the Quake 3 Arena heavy hitter Keel to the shooter's lineup. The dead-but-then-he-got-better cyborg brings a Grenade Swarm active ability to the fight (that one should be pretty obvious, it's a swarm of grenades) and a passive ability called Stockpile that reduces the Grenade Swarm cooldown every time he picks up an ammo box.   

Also coming in the December update is a new Duel map called Vale of Pnath, "a wickedly vertical shrine to the Elder God Ithagnal built atop treacherous acid-filled caverns." Ranked play and leaderboards are being added, as is a crosshair customization option with 40 different crosshairs to choose from. The launch of the update will also mark the kickoff of a Holiday Celebration event featuring "animated Champion shaders and festive weapons shaders, holiday decorations on Burial Chamber and Corrupted Keep, holiday hat vanities for Champions, and limited edition profile icons and nameplates." 

Keel will automatically go to players who own the full Quake Champions Pack, and will be purchasable with the Platinum in-game currency for everyone else. The new map is free for everyone, and all of it will be available on December 14. 

He looks cooler here.

He looks cooler here.
Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.