holaaa ๐
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have you received this new update to Duolingo's leagues? ๐
I finally got it over the weekend on iOS
i've seen it being teased by a few Duolingo users over on the subreddit over the last couple of months
for the longest time I thought it was just some weird visual change
but then they discussed it at Duocon... and it looks like it's going to be quite a bit more than that...
new-look leagues
basically Duolingo is changing the way they organise their leagues.
the first obvious change is in the way the leagues look ๐
it's still the same 10 leagues - Bronze all the way up to Diamond ((and then the tournament beyond that)) - but they've switched up the aesthetics
before you had the classic shields at the top, whereas now you've got these funny looking trophies...
no biggie, just looks a bit weirder
((I definitely preferred the shields... but the new look is growing on me))
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so is that it then? just a visual tweak? ๐คจ
well, at the time of writing this email, that's pretty much it
but that's only because my league hasn't reset yet
when it does, I can expect a much bigger change, something that Duolingo discussed at Duocon a couple of weeks ago
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that is -- themed leagues
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you might remember me touching on this in my Duocon newsletter ((you can read it here if you missed it))
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traditionally, Duolingo has organised its leaderboards based on the following criteria:
- the league that you're in
- how active you are
- how much XP you earn
so if you're in the Emerald league, you'll get put into a leaderboard with other users in the Emerald league...
then, they look at how active you are -- are you smashing in the hours, or are you dipping in and out as and when you get chance?
finally, they check how much XP you're racking up. if you're raking in the XP, you'll likely get put into a league with other XP hounds.
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this was all about making the leagues more balanced and competitive
((this didn't always work, but it was the best formula Duolingo had))
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now, as part of the new themed leagues, Duolingo is introducing some new criteria:
- the language you're learning
- where you are in the world
for example:
if you're learning Italian, you can expect to be put into a leaderboard with other Italian learners ๐ฎ๐น
and if you're based in the UK, you can expect to be put into a leaderboard with other UK learners ๐ฌ๐ง
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I don't know yet if the original criteria is gonna stick around, as I can see it being difficult matching users according to every single one, every single week, so we'll have to wait and see
why the change?
Duolingo's goal with this update is to make the weekly leaderboards more relatable
knowing you're competing with people learning your language and living in your country will make it more of a shared experience ((or so the guys at Duolingo believe))
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I mean, I like the idea. it's definitely an interesting tweak. and I know some users have been asking for something like this for a while. I just dunno if most users are gonna care that much. ๐คท
i'm also interested to see if this has any bearing on how competitive the leagues are
like, will the previous criteria ((e.g. similar XP totals and activity levels)) be dropped in favour of language and location?
it's already gone a bit mad since they started dishing out Triple XP Boosts ๐ฎโ๐จ
if they ditch the previous criteria it might make the leagues even more imbalanced...
time will tell I guess
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anyway, the new league format is currently rolling out to select users and platforms
as I said, it seems to have been on Android devices for a while and it's now starting to appear on iOS devices as well. ((no idea what the crack is on Desktop))
hopefully I'll get put into a thematic one this week so I can get a better idea of how it works! ๐ค