New Rating System

[Kamikaze28]

(07-17-2012 02:26 AM)MarkH Wrote:  I get that they don't claim to have a better system than ELO but they think they have a system that is different in order to accomplish that the player a) actually plays more (to get leaque points), b) still has some kind of competetion within his leaque and c) can get promotion/demotion based on a non visible skill ranking.

I like the system quite a lot. The thing that needs work IMO is the unvisible skill ranking system/leaque placement as some promotions/demotions seem somewhat strange.

1. (jokingly) by using the non-existent word 'leaque' you have immediately lost the argument

2. (seriously) People seem to expect these ranking systems to work perfectly from day 1, which is just preposterous. Firstly, there are programmatic mistakes which could not have been found, tested and fixed in a beta with at most 100 people (iOS restrictions) - which are now actively hunted by Alex, thus the unexpected league shifts. And secondly, these systems need to be trained for a while before they function as intended.
You start with, say, 10.000 players and you don't know the skill of any of them. Now they all play 5 placement matches randomly against each other and based on the results of these games you are supposed to place them in leagues. This initial placement is a rough guess at best and can only be refined with time and more data points (i. e. games).
Even the oh so highly revered ELO system would suffer the same fate if it started without any prior knowledge. Just because you could see your rating fluctuate wildly in the first days does not mean that the matchmaking is any better.