Mortal Kombat 11's Kombat League mode adds ranked play and seasonal rewards

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Mortal Kombat 11's ranked Kombat League gets underway tomorrow with the beginning of the Season of Blood, a four-week spineripper of competitive fun and games that offers exclusive skins and gear for advancing through the ranks.

Kombat League contests (or kontests, probably) are best-of-three fights leading through nine seasonal ranks ranging from Apprentice to Elder God. Each rank has its own unique rewards, and when the season concludes, players will also earn an icon and background signifying the highest rank they achieved, even if they ultimately finish at a lower rank.

There are also daily and seasonal quests, with rewards for completing tasks like playing ranked Kombat or spilling 10,000 pints (which works out to—good lord—4732 liters) of blood.

The Kombat League update will also add a new meter to the game that provides a quick look at the match odds before the action begins, but publisher WBIE said the "optimized" matchmaking in MK11 ranked play "will ensure players are matched with opponents at or near their same skill level," so blowout beatdowns should (hopefully) be a relative rarity. Once the Season of Blood is over, a new season (Season of Guts, maybe) will begin, with all new rewards up for grabs.

The Mortal Kombat 11 Kombat League kicks off on June 18, so if you want to squeeze some practice in before the blood starts to flow, you better get cracking. June 18 is also when early access to Shang Tsung becomes available to owners of the Kombat Pack.

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.