Starcraft 2 news » 2016 Season 4 Lock Incoming

The 2016 Ladder Season 4 is coming to an end, and the ladders will soon be locking in order to determine final placements for the season. The new season will also allow us to enable the new separate MMR per race feature.

Here’s what this means for you:

• During the season lock, you can’t be promoted from your current league or tier and your bonus pool stops growing.
• Though you’ll be locked to a league and tier, you'll still be able to play out your remaining bonus pool and compete for standing within your division until the end of the season.
• If you're pursuing a league or tier promotion, you still have a chance to get there. The 2016 Season 4 lock will go into effect for the Americas region of Battle.net on October 11.

During the 2016 Season 4 lock, your MMR will continue to update. Remember, your games during the lock still count—if you play significantly better or worse than your assigned league at the time of the lock, you may find yourself in a different league or tier when Season 5 begins and you’ve completed your placement matches.

Season 5 of 2016 will begin on October 18. Season milestone rewards will be locked in at this time, and bonus pools will reset. Matchmaking and league/tier placement will continue using results from the previous season.

Season 5 also applies a free character name change to all accounts that do not have one available at that time. Character name changes do not stack (you can only have one free name change at a time), so if you’ve been thinking about changing your name in StarCraft II, you’ll want to do so as soon as possible.

Good luck on the ladder!