Forza Motorsport 7 Leagues are organized along scheduled timelines called Seasons. Each League Season will typically be four weeks in duration and each Season will be comprised of four week-long Series. Series are made up of Events – traditional multiplayer race lobbies – that operate under specific rules and use a variety of vehicles, from specific make and model races, to events based around division or class.
Leagues in Forza 7 will organize players along five skill Bands – from “Grassroots” all the way up to “Pinnacle.” Each Band will contain five Ranks – “5” being the lowest and “1” being the highest Rank within a particular Band. Players can move up (or down) in Rank and earn promotion (or demotion) between Bands by earning League Points in races. Players will always know which Band they are in and their current Rank by consulting the main Leagues screen in the game. Here’s an example:
As you can see, the Leagues home screen gives the player a lot of information. On the left side, you’ll see information on the current Season and Series, as well as the current active Events (note that there can be multiple Events open during a particular Series). You’ll also see information on what rewards you can earn for participating in a Series and for participating in the over-arching Season.
On the right side of the screen is information about you, including your current Band and Rank, the number of League Points you have earned in your current Rank, and the total League Points you need to earn to move to the next Rank. As mentioned earlier, you can move between Ranks and Bands. For instance, a Rank 5 player in Grassroots Band might move through to Rank 1 in the Grassroots Band; with enough points, that player could be promoted to the next Band (where she would start at Rank 5 in the new Band). Also, players can move down in both Rank and Band, depending on their performance in Events. That’s where scoring comes into play.
Scoring
After each League race, you’ll earn League Points that will increase (or decrease) your total League Points score. Scoring is calculated across three different areas: Finish Position, Starting Position, and Opponent Skill. As the names imply, Finish and Starting Position award points based on where you start and where you finish, and are scaled by the number of players that you start a race with. If players drop out mid-race, you’ll be awarded the points based on the number of players who were on the grid at the start. In addition, as a further deterrent to players dropping from races early, players who leave a race early will receive a last place (read: negative) points payout.
With Opponent Skill scoring, points are awarded to the player based on their Trueskill ranking (a behind-the-scenes rating number) as compared to the rest of the lobby. If a player’s rating is lower than average of the lobby, he’ll receive more points for higher race finishes than he would if his rating was at the average or higher than the average of the lobby.
Matchmaking
We heard loud and clear from League players in Forza 6, who complained about the lack of full lobbies in the upper echelon skill tiers. With Forza 7, each of the Bands will include a higher population of players per Band. By breaking players up into multiple Ranks within those Bands, we’re able to allow more people in, but also settle in to the skill level that is right for them. In terms of Matchmaking, players will first be matched to players in a similar Band and Rank, with players from adjacent Ranks sometimes filling in the gaps.
Rewards
As you can see, Leagues in Forza Motorsport 7 are designed to bring great racing to players of all skill levels. What I’m most excited about is the ways we can reward League players. It starts with credit rewards. Every day you log into Leagues and finish an Event, you’ll be awarded with a daily credit gift. You’ll also earn a credit bonus for your first podium finish of the day. If you’re promoted to another Rank, that’s another credit bonus and, should you move between Bands after an event, you’ll get an even bigger credit bonus. In fact, the higher you go up the Bands, the more credits you can earn for promotion.
It’s not just credits. As you can see from the screen above, we’ll be able to gift League players with awesome rewards, including exclusive cars, player badges, and Driver Gear.
