Patch 3.1

New and Improved Features

Brawl Pass Diamond Contracts

• Upon reaching Brawl Pass Level 100, owners of the Premium Brawl Pass will unlock Diamond Contracts. These contracts provide a new level of challenge for Knockout City’s top brawlers, rewarding the top tiers of Season 3 Brawl Pass trophies. Once players unlock these Diamond Contracts, they’ll be unlocked forever, so you can complete them after the season ends.
• Dev note: Diamond Contracts are meant for brawlers who really want tough, long-term goals to go after. For Premium Brawl Pass players that have already reached Level 100, don’t worry, because these new Contracts should already be there waiting for you the next time you log in.

Improved Matchmaking Times

• Most players should see some significantly reduced matchmaking times in both Street Play and League Play.
• Dev note: We are continually monitoring matchmaking data and community comments to find ways of improving our matchmaking system. We know that queue times have been a particular issue,and we are experimenting with different approaches to bring those times down without having too negative an impact on latency and fair skill matchups.

Skill Rating Decay Update

• For Diamond brawlers in League Play, Skill Rating will now decrease by 100 every week that the brawler doesn't play, down to a minimum threshold at which it will stop decreasing.
• Dev note: Previously it only decreased when a player logged in, so if a player got a top spot and then never logged in again, they could be hard to dislodge. We will be monitoring the leaderboards to find the right minimum to keep the top placements in the leaderboard competitive. Be sure to play at least once a week to keep your Skill Rating up!

Bots and Practice Match

• Bots have been added to Knockout City for the first time. For now, bots are restricted to some NEW players in Street Play ONLY, and only for their first few matches. Bots will never appear in League Play, and won’t appear for experienced players (or even new players grouped with experienced players). However, for any players who aren’t new, there is also a new Practice Match option in the Training menu for anybody curious to throw down against some bots, or practice your essential brawling skills. Bots are always marked with a new bot icon on their Player Card, so you know for sure whether you’re playing against another human brawler or not.
• Dev note: We want to bring as many people as we can into the game and get them brawling right away--the DJ just loves seeing new faces in town. We think an effective way to do this is for bots help them learn the basics in a controlled environment. We’ll be watching how this goes and comparing the results against new players who don’t play against bots. Writing AI bots is a tricky endeavor; they should be good enough to show new players how to play the game, but easy enough to let those players be successful and have a good introduction to the game. So, keep in mind that, for now, their behavior is intentionally limited. Who knows what they’ll learn in the future, though.

Deep Space Dispatches

• Lore fans, rejoice! The Deep Space Dispatches now feature voiceovers in English, French, German and Spanish.

Bug fixes

Audio

• Fixed some issues that caused audio distortion with headphones plugged into an Xbox controller.

• We know this has been plaguing many of you. We’re as happy to see it go as you are!

• Fixed an issue with text-to-speech on Switch.

Console

• Fixed an issue on PlayStation that would cause the game to crash occasionally during matches.

PC

• Fixed an issue that was causing the game to crash on PC if the game application was put in the background or minimized.

Camera

• Fixed an issue when spectating that could cause the camera to move to the wrong position when switching players.

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue that could cause players to be stuck in ball form if tackled when being Ultimate Thrown.

Groups

• Fixed an issue which could cause a Private Match to start before all players in the Group have loaded.

Maps

• In Concussion Yard, the “Save the School” sign will now fade when it gets between the camera and the player.
• In Jukebox Junction, a beam will now fade properly when it gets between the camera and the player.
• In Lockdown Throwdown, fixed some areas of the roof where a player being thrown could get stuck.
• Fixed an area in Lockdown Throwdown where players could get stuck after falling out of a corridor.

UI

• Fixed an issue where the Matchmaking status display could overlap with the Event timer display in the Hideout.
• Fixed a minor visual misalignment of the New Contract indicator in the mid-match Contracts display.
• Fixed a minor UI issue in the Contracts screen that caused invalid text and icons to appear briefly.
• Fixed a minor UI issue when viewing a Daily Items offer and clicking the keyboard shortcut to browse to the next item.
• Fixed a minor UI issue in Deep Space Dispatches using the mouse to move the scrollbar.