Earlier today update 1.1.5.1 for Escape From Tarkov was released, and the corresponding patch notes really only featured one thing, the new League System. However, the system seems a little weird for a game like Tarkov .

The Escape From Tarkov patch notes for the 1.1.5.1 update almost exclusively focused on the new League System that has been added to the game, which will offer up rewards to players who play as a seasonal character, something that was added over the summer .

After your first raid as a seasonal character after the update has been installed, you will be placed into a 50 player league of players that are the same rank as you. Exactly how this grouping is decided has not been confirmed. Once you are in a group, you will be competing to earn XP through almost every in-game action you can think of, such as eliminating PMCs, Scavs, and Bosses, completing tasks, examining items, and so on. This XP will increase your position on the group leaderboard, and at the end of every week the league ends with rewards being handed out.

If you are in the top 25 players in your league at the end of the week you will rank up, the next 15 players will remain at their current rank, and the bottom 10 will be demoted. Whenever you reach a new rank for the first time you’ll unlock some rewards specific to that rank, which you will keep forever, even if you drop out of that rank in future.

To me the system seems like an odd fit for Tarkov at the best of times, but it seems its implementation has a fairly obvious flaw. As the leaderboard is based on XP earned, and you get XP for pretty much doing everything, this essentially becomes a leaderboard of who can play the most Tarkov in a week.

If I boot up once a week and only play a couple of raids, it seems fairly clear that I’ll have very little chance to rank up compared to others who might be able to play significantly more than me. As someone who doesn’t play Tarkov every night, and often only plays once or twice a week, this system seems like it is just going to punish me for that and I don’t particularly want to be involved with it.

There isn’t too much info on how each league grouping is decided, so there is a chance play time is factored in somehow, but at first glance this system seems like something I won’t be engaging with.

Of course, there were also some big fixes in the full patch notes for the Escape From Tarkov 1.1.5.1 update, which should make a bit of a difference, but for anyone who doesn’t care about this new League System, this patch is quite underwhelming. Fortunately the next one is just around the corner.