This post is to highlight the most important parts of the new announcement concerning weekend ranked.
https://blog.godsunchained.com/2022/02/03/weekend-ranked-play-and-earn-update/
In short, I think the new dev InFinitySquid has made a great first impression. The new incentives strongly discourage de-ranking while making it easier for new players to build up their collection. The big surprise: earning $GODS in addition to packs. This further incentivizes people to reach the highest ranks they can.
Packs
Last weekend, you needed 17 wins in Mythic to get a Divine Order legendary. This weekend, you'll only need 15 wins. Similarly, you only need 16 wins for a core leggy pack where before you needed 18. In addition, core card rare and epic packs have been greatly increased.
This is a welcome change that will definitely discourage de-rankers. Diamond players still need 20 wins! We'll have to see how the new match-making changes things, but it's almost certainly going to be easier to get 15 wins in Mythic compared to 20 in Diamond.
GODS
If there were still people thinking about deranking, the GODS reward structure will stop them. Getting just 1 win in Mythic gives you the same number of points (and thus same number of GODS) as getting 15 wins in Diamond. See highlights below.
Similarly, you only need 11 wins in Mythic to get more GODS than a perfect 25/25 player in Diamond. There is literally no reason to drop to Mythic. I'm pumped about this new reward schedule!
Bigger Picture
The bigger picture here is growing confidence that the new hire knows what he (or she?) is doing. P2E is critical to this game's success. The better that system, the more players will be attracted and retained.