Sc2 how does ranking work

When a game is lost, points are subtracted from the bonus pool of the player. The Bonus Pool is the sum of all "bonus points" a player can get, which are added to the rating points a player earns after a victory or, in the case of a defeat, points are deducted from the bonus pool rather than the player's ladder points.

The Bonus Pool serves two purposes: to encourage players to play games so their points are always trending upward, and as a global decay mechanism since all players have equal access to the same amount of Bonus Pool. Players receive Bonus Pool points at a set rate per league. Before Season 3, all players received points at the Master league original rate.

Season 3 introduced a separate accrual rate for leagues below Master. A player joining StarCraft freshly after the start of a season instantly receives the Bonus Pool as if he started at day 1 of the Season. This change was made in Patch 1. Bonus pool accrual rates have been tuned for team matchmaking modes to make them more competitive: [4].

This rating decides which opponents a player will meet, and tries to quantify their skill level. Each play-season the visible points will be reset, while the skill rating, MMR, stays intact. Since Patch 3. There also is a value " sigma " that measures how uncertain the system is of a player's MMR. This is usually high if a player has not played many games recently, or if they are on a winning or losing streak. Sigma is used to calculate how wide a player's search range should be, and by extension how much their MMR will change as a result of playing rating-distant opponents i.

In Patch 3. MMR is now visible for players, each ladder league below Grandmaster is split into three tiers, and the post-game screen now shows specific information about a player's current skill rating, how close they are to the next tier, and the upper and lower limits of their current ladder tier. The MMR boundaries are based on a prior distribution from the previous season, and during each season roll, the values are recalculated for the upcoming season.

In Heart of the Swarm, if a player did not play any matches for an extended period of time, their MMR would decay, or automatically decrease. The details of the system are unknown, but it appears to be a linear decay, [17] and Blizzard has confirmed that decay begins after 2 weeks of inactivity, and decay stops after 4 weeks of inactivity.

If a Seasonal Placement Match was not played last season, then MMR and uncertainty are both reset to their default values and the system effectively "forgets" about that player.

A special note about this, though: Random Team MMR is linked with 1v1 MMR, which means that if no 1v1 games were played last season, but Random Team games were played, a player's 1v1 MMR would not be reset at the start of the next season. MMR decay was removed in April Every arranged pair of 2v2 players is given a single rating. In 2v2 random match-ups, an average rating of the two players will be compared to their opponents rating.

The information within this guide comes from empirical findings as well as Blizzard developers. Immediately noticeable upon searching for a ladder match is your remaining Bonus Pool.

The GrandMaster League is where the two hundred highest-ranked players in each region compete for the top spot. This list is updated in real-time, so you will always find the most up-to-date information about who is leading the pack here. Grandmaster League will open soon.

Every pair is ranked individually. Of course, only after finishing the 10 placement matches. How are ratings calculated for 2v2? Is it an average of the two players or cumulative? Each pairing of players for arranged 2v2 matches carries its own rating. If you participate in 2v2 random, you would have your own individual ranking. Matches that include 2v2 random players average the rating of the two players and compare it to their opponents rating.

Silentdeath wrote Sidonais wrote Starcraftnp wrote Nesis wrote Jher wrote Jame wrote Unreal wrote Kagegb wrote Sundeth wrote Page 1. Rate it! Great Good Okay Poor. How league and placement matches work in starcraft 2 by Silentdeath. After the first placement match, that new team or game type's MMR is separate. This allows players to immediately start playing against players close to their skill level from the very first game.

It is possible to be placed in any league except for Grandmaster, which requires a promotion. There are two types of placement matches: those where you have no prior MMR history you play 5 placement matches and those where your MMR is preserved from either the current or previous season you play 1 placement match. In the former case, placement is conservative, meaning the system is reasonably confident that you are at least as good as your assigned league, or perhaps better.

In the latter case, placement is more accurate using your previously-established value as a starting point. MMR transcends leagues. That means that even when you are initially placed in a league, your MMR is not necessarily at the bottom of that league.

Rating Calibration Phase Players with no rating history, normally characterized by 5 required placement matches, will have a greater rating variance per match as the system attempts to rapidly assess their correct MMR.

This is called their "rating calibration" or "provisional" phase, and lasts for 25 games. During those first 25 games, league promotions are inhibited.

In addition, initial league placement is very conservative, usually a full league below the initial estimate. Team Matchmaking It is believed that when a team is first formed, the MMRs of all members are averaged to form the team's initial MMR during the first placement match.

After that first placement match, the team's MMR is separate per normal. For Random Teams, it is likely that the MMRs of all members are averaged first, then an opposing team with a similar MMR based upon a degree of uncertainty is located.

Promotion By outperforming the rest of your league, it is possible to get promoted into a higher league. If you are in Bronze but playing against Gold players, you would expect to be promoted to Gold, but that doesn't always happen immediately. First, players in rating calibration cannot be promoted. The rating calibration phase makes it possible for players to potentially face opponents far beyond their current league, but remember that MMR is what matches opponents together.

Second, when your MMR crosses the lower boundary of the next league, you will be promoted into that league. Any in-game behaviors or statistics beyond winning, losing, and the opponent's MMR are not relevant to the system. This, along with the fact above about MMR transcending leagues, explains why some players early in a season may appear to have over a hundred points after only a couple of games -- they were placed just below the league boundary and were promoted, receiving the point reset.

Grandmaster League The Grandmaster League is a special league consisting of the top players in a region as determined by moving average of MMR. After one week has elapsed in a season, the top players with the highest MMRs will become Grandmasters. Slots are reserved for the highest-MMR players, but if a player surpasses a reserved player's MMR before the reserved player can win his promotion game at the time the league opens, his slot can be taken.

Contender League Contender League is a special parallel league introduced in Patch 3. Contender League has no unique badge or icon since it is possible to be in Contender League and Master League simultaneously. Unranked Play Players who elect to play Unranked are matched against both Ranked and Unranked players, except in the case of the highest end of the ladder where the player pools are separate. After your first Unranked game, your two MMRs will remain separate. Overview The last piece of the Starcraft II ladder puzzle is activity.

Blizzard always refers to their league populations in terms of "active players", and this is because they want a relatively even spread of players across all leagues again with the exception of Master which is designed to be smaller. Although the MMR requirements to join each league are constant, the skill level required to move into a higher league will change depending on the currently active population.

This allows it to function as an activity metric, and by extension determine whether a player is active or not for the purposes of league apportionment. The lower a player's remaining bonus pool, the more accurate his MMR. Furthermore, the league boundaries can be adjusted by Blizzard on the fly in the event that populations need to be normalized. League Tiers Patch 3. The League Promotion Indicator that appears after playing a game denotes your progress to the next Tier. Tier 3 is the lowest, Tier 1 is the highest.

If a player is in Tier 1 and gets promoted, they are moved to Tier 3 of the next-highest league. The one additional requirement to getting promoted is that you must play a game, because league changes only occur after a game.

Seasons last several months. During a season transition, bonus pools and points are wiped, but MMR carries over to the next season. MMR is only carried over for one season. If players do not play any matches in the current season, and are not placed, the MMR will not carry over into a third season, effectively starting them fresh in the system.

This means that if you did not play any 1v1 for one season, but did play a Random Team game, your 1v1 MMR would still carry over to the next season, and vice versa. League Lock A week before the end of a season, promotion and demotion will be disabled. This is known as a "league lock," the purpose of which is to allow players to establish a final division rank for themselves. During a league lock, bonus pools will stop accumulating but players may spend their remaining bonus pools until the end of the season.

Milestones At the time of the season rollover, you will receive an end-of-season Feat of Strength based upon your final division rank in each game type and team. Players conduct a single match. The match is primarily to determine which players are still active. One's ranking is based primarily on one's MMR from last season. Seasonal placement matches place players in a league depending on their current MMR following the placement match, and do not require crossing a confidence buffer.

This can mean that some players may find themselves close to the top of their new league, and can be promoted in as little as one game after their placement in the new season. Players who only have to play a single seasonal placement match are not subject to rating calibration.

This will resolve itself the next time that player plays a game. There is a bug where occasionally, a player's Master league bonus pool amount will be shown, rather than their actual consumable pool. This is only a display bug. Relogging usually resolves it. Pre-game and Post-game Favoritism Discrepancy Fixed in 2. The accurate information can always be found on the score screen. Blizzard is aware of this bug, but it cannot be consistently reproduced.

The fix for this was to remove the pre-match "Favored" display. NOTE: This post will be updated with additional information as it becomes available.