Maintenance for the week of December 1:
• PC/Mac: No maintenance – December 1
• NA megaservers for patch maintenance – December 3, 3:00AM EST (8:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
• EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 3, 8:00 UTC (3:00AM EST) - 17:00 UTC (12:00PM EST)
Allow playing any ranked NPCs with higher rank points awarded as a result
There is already some "continuity" in-game as proficient NPCs are playing novice ones, but refuse to play you (as a novice) until you rank up.

I'd understand if it were easier to rank up quickly, but I figure I have played (and won most of) 35+ PvP and NPC matches, understand the game, and think the novice NPCs are too easy but cannot yet play the proficient ones...