Can someone explain the ranking system to me?

[IronMagus]

I'm so confused. I'm in the Gifted league, Strong Beads division. Ranked #46 with 105 points. The leaderboard goes from 0 points for 100th place up to like 750 or so for 1st.

My opponent in a match I just finished is also in the Gifted league, but they're in the Grey Rock division instead. They are ranked #49 with 137 points. Their leaderboard goes from 0 points again up to around 1150.

What does any of that mean? They have more points, but are ranked lower, and in a different (higher? lower? who knows...) division altogether. How do I rank compared to this opponent, and how am I supposed to know that?

[Kamikaze28]

Points (and Rank): Points are currently more a reflection of activity than skill. The resulting ranking in a division is therefore also a reflection of activity compared to others in the same division.

Divisions: Divisions are there to give you a comprehensible and meaningful leaderboard of 100 people. So instead of being ranked #13,458 of 84,514 you are #13 of 99.
They are not meant to be comparable to each other in regards to skill, although this could happen by accident. A more reliable indicator of skill is the League.

Leagues: Leagues are a skill based division of players into 5 groups. Your skill is tracked by the server and not displayed in the game to keep you from worrying too much about the outcome of matches and prevent cheesy behavior. Promotions and demotions are tied to this hidden matchmaking rating. Once you demonstrate to the system that your current league is too easy for you, it will match you against players from the league(s) above you and test your wits (pun intended) against them. If you prevail, you will eventually be promoted.

[IronMagus]

That's...a bunch of crap. Comprehensible and meaningful leaderboard of 100 people? How is it meaningful to compare myself against 99 other random jack-offs, and ignore the whole rest of the player base? What about the thousands of other people just in my league, even? If I was 13,458 out of 84,514 then at least I could just shave off a couple orders of magnitude and know that I would rank about 13th in a room full of 85 random players. But what do I know right now? Only that I have about the same skill level as a group of players who were chosen based on the fact that they have about the same skill level as I do...what? You don't say!

[Kamikaze28]

(08-08-2012 06:05 PM)IronMagus Wrote:  That's...a bunch of crap. Comprehensible and meaningful leaderboard of 100 people? How is it meaningful to compare myself against 99 other random jack-offs, and ignore the whole rest of the player base? What about the thousands of other people just in my league, even? If I was 13,458 out of 84,514 then at least I could just shave off a couple orders of magnitude and know that I would rank about 13th in a room full of 85 random players. But what do I know right now? Only that I have about the same skill level as a group of players who were chosen based on the fact that they have about the same skill level as I do...what? You don't say!

I'm not saying that the current system is perfect for everybody, but most casual players look at a 4-digit ranking and completely ignore it. That's what I meant with meaningful - or perhaps it's better called 'useful'.
Plus: imagine you would have no divisions and could scroll through the entire league at once - that would be a usability disaster.

I can understand that you want to compare yourself to others at a glance and I must admit that this is currently not easily possible if at all. You can look at the total number of wins of your opponent and their points to see how active they are, but the only visible indication if skill is their league assignment, like I said. I didn't design this system, I just explained it as best as I could.

[Eijolend]

(08-08-2012 06:05 PM)IronMagus Wrote:  That's...a bunch of crap. Comprehensible and meaningful leaderboard of 100 people? How is it meaningful to compare myself against 99 other random jack-offs, and ignore the whole rest of the player base?

The system is actively discussed atm.

You might want to take a look at those threads:
New Rating System
Ranking Nonsense - Living in Parallel Universes

[IronMagus]

Yeah I found those threads after posting this one. Could we get this one merged into one of them?

[worldfamous]

(08-08-2012 07:00 PM)IronMagus Wrote:  Yeah I found those threads after posting this one. Could we get this one merged into one of them?

+1 on merging. Merge and sticky one thread discussing only ratings system, be it complaints, suggestions, or explanations.