• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 20:24
CEST 02:24
KST 09:24
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach4[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sept 21-27): herO and ByuN double1Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple3BSL Season 2313Weekly Cups (Sep 7-12): SHIN, ByuN, MaxPax double down1StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon105
StarCraft 2
General
Stellar Fest 1 Replay Pack Recent patches and the Future StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon Weekly Cups (Sept 21-27): herO and ByuN double Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16)
Tourneys
2026 GSTL Grand Finals ScienceCraft (October 24-25) - Live Event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20)
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Sweltering Sands [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 545 And Drops and Rifts Mutation # 544 Double Trouble Mutation # 543 Enhanced Defenses
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion Bot on ladder [ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach PLAYzone Challenge - open offline tour in Prague an AI researcher's take on the ladder bot
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro8 Day 3 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL22] Ro8 Day 2 [ASL22] Ro8 Day 1
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Total Annihilation Zero Nintendo Switch Thread EVE Corporation
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25! Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread All you football fans (soccer)!
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Violent-Cooperative Play and…
TrAiDoS
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Regacy Esports:Our Goa…
regacyesports
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8700 users

Ladder Woes

Blogs > Cham
Post a Reply
Cham
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
797 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-15 20:58:24
August 15 2011 20:40 GMT
#1
Still upset that I am not a Diamond caliber player anymore after my 8 month deployment, I have been trying my hardest to get out of Gold these passed few days. I've been sick of playing at the lower level ladders because I can't really get back into learning "normal" play because so many of the players just like to 1 base and try for tier 3 or build a bunch of pylons after you beat them and just stay in game.

After stomping on a ton of these players, I play a competent Zerg player. After eventually losing a close game with him, I am demoted into Silver. Now I have read all the posts on MMR and how all this works, so I'm not complaining about something being broken or whatnot, I am just utterly confused how I can go on a 7 game killing spree and lose 1 close game and be demoted?

I'm just sad that now I have to get through yet another league before I stop seeing all this play that makes the game pretty boring. I can't wait until I get back to where I was but until then it is going to be a boring road :x Hopefully next time I post I won't be back in Bronze.

*****
Blazinghand *
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States25562 Posts
August 15 2011 20:53 GMT
#2
On August 16 2011 05:40 Cham wrote:
I am just utterly confused how I can go on a 7 game killing spree and lose 1 close game and be demoted?

I'm just sad that now I have to get through yet another league before I stop seeing all this play that makes the game pretty boring. I can't wait until I get back to where I was but until then it is going to be a boring road :x Hopefully next time I post I won't be back in Bronze.


First, don't worry about your league-- it makes no determination in who you play against. League is meant to represent, in broad strokes, your MMR-- but it lags quite a bit due to the moving average effect.

Here's how the moving average works:

Let's say you're in gold league, and the gold league average MMR is 300. The average MMR in Silver League is 200, and there's a range from about 240-260 where you see people who have stable MMRs in both leagues.

You're a gold league player with 300 MMR. You lose 30 games and your MMR drops to 180. However, your average MMR over the course of your last 50 games is still well above 240; you had about 20 games at an MMR of 300, and then about 30 games with an MMR falling to 180.

You start winning again, since you're matched against pretty unskilled opponents. over the course of the next 30 games, your MMR gradually rises from 180 to about 250. However, the system sees your average MMR over the last 50 games is now like 210. Even though you're on a winning streak, you've spent so many of your last 50 games with a low MMR that your moving average of your most recent 50 MMR data points is well into the silver league. You are therefore demoted.

But none of this really matters; league is meaningless relative to MMR, which is what determines the caliber of your opponent. There is functionally no difference between who you were playing 2 games ago and who you're playing now, because your MMR has not drastically changed, even though your league is different.

So take heart! and keep on laddering. 5/5 for effort.
When you stare into the iCCup, the iCCup stares back.
TL+ Member
Cham
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
797 Posts
August 15 2011 20:57 GMT
#3
On August 16 2011 05:53 Blazinghand wrote:
You start winning again, since you're matched against pretty unskilled opponents. over the course of the next 30 games, your MMR gradually rises from 180 to about 250. However, the system sees your average MMR over the last 50 games is now like 210. Even though you're on a winning streak, you've spent so many of your last 50 games with a low MMR that your moving average of your most recent 50 MMR data points is well into the silver league. You are therefore demoted.

So take heart! and keep on laddering. 5/5 for effort.


Ah, I guess I missed reading that part! Makes sense, for about 10 games I was trying to learn how to play Zerg and lost about 8 of them, so apparently that made my average for this season bad (Probably only about 30 games so far). Thanks!
YOzah
Profile Joined March 2011
Canada18 Posts
August 15 2011 21:40 GMT
#4
Hey man, if you're Terran I wouldn't mind going over some of your games with you. I'm a masters player and helped someone else out previously who had some troubles with ladder, he went from bronze to gold pretty quickly. If not, good luck!
Fortis
Profile Joined August 2011
Estonia63 Posts
August 16 2011 03:00 GMT
#5
I say this as a BW player, so I don't know exactly how relevant it might be for you, but I was C- on ICCup for about 5-6 seasons in a row despite showing a lot of improvement both mechanically and strategically over that period of time. It was insanely frustrating, but there's a very simple mechanic at work here - EVERYONE IS GETTING BETTER. This means if you take an 8 month break, you probably got a bit rusty, nothing too serious. But, everyone who was equal skill to you back then is much farther ahead now, and due to the league structure, everyone in Diamond is much stronger than Diamonds used to be! Don't be too down on yourself! Keep practicing and worry only about improving yourself, not your rank or league!
Cham
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
797 Posts
August 16 2011 08:53 GMT
#6
On August 16 2011 12:00 Fortis wrote:
I say this as a BW player, so I don't know exactly how relevant it might be for you, but I was C- on ICCup for about 5-6 seasons in a row despite showing a lot of improvement both mechanically and strategically over that period of time. It was insanely frustrating, but there's a very simple mechanic at work here - EVERYONE IS GETTING BETTER. This means if you take an 8 month break, you probably got a bit rusty, nothing too serious. But, everyone who was equal skill to you back then is much farther ahead now, and due to the league structure, everyone in Diamond is much stronger than Diamonds used to be! Don't be too down on yourself! Keep practicing and worry only about improving yourself, not your rank or league!



What I was going for though is not that I am upset I am in Silver because it is Silver, I am upset because people in Silver generally don't know basic mechanics of the game so I end up playing people who try to mass thor or cannon in like a moneymap. I just don't find games like that very entertaining because I don't feel like I am improving when I play against players like that.
shannn
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Netherlands2891 Posts
August 16 2011 09:06 GMT
#7
Try customs if you don't like to play in silver league against those kind of players.
Then come back to ladder after 4-6 weeks of customs and you'll stomp everyone and get promoted = win?

I personally don't do the above but I know people who did and they went fromt bronze to diamond because of this I just hit the ladder search button and just play as much as I can on ladder.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=6321864 Epic post.
Sm3agol
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States2055 Posts
August 16 2011 12:57 GMT
#8
On August 16 2011 18:06 shannn wrote:
Try customs if you don't like to play in silver league against those kind of players.
Then come back to ladder after 4-6 weeks of customs and you'll stomp everyone and get promoted = win?

I personally don't do the above but I know people who did and they went fromt bronze to diamond because of this I just hit the ladder search button and just play as much as I can on ladder.

Do what this man says. That and work on random opening builds in team games. I don't know why, but team games really let me focus on easy timings and such, and I like racing my allies for the first 4 gate warp-in, etc. Sometimes just playing customs isn't good because people that play customs generally want to improve, and hence never cheese you or do weird one-base all-ins, etc. So I find things like random low level 4 v 4 to be very interesting. And doing easy things like a well executed 2 base collosus will dominate most <diamond players, so it lets you get a little more reward out of it. Nothing like rolling over 4 people in a row single handedly because they all decided to go mass marine/zergling vs your 3/3 chargelot/colossus build.
Fortis
Profile Joined August 2011
Estonia63 Posts
August 16 2011 14:14 GMT
#9
On August 16 2011 17:53 Cham wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 16 2011 12:00 Fortis wrote:
I say this as a BW player, so I don't know exactly how relevant it might be for you, but I was C- on ICCup for about 5-6 seasons in a row despite showing a lot of improvement both mechanically and strategically over that period of time. It was insanely frustrating, but there's a very simple mechanic at work here - EVERYONE IS GETTING BETTER. This means if you take an 8 month break, you probably got a bit rusty, nothing too serious. But, everyone who was equal skill to you back then is much farther ahead now, and due to the league structure, everyone in Diamond is much stronger than Diamonds used to be! Don't be too down on yourself! Keep practicing and worry only about improving yourself, not your rank or league!



What I was going for though is not that I am upset I am in Silver because it is Silver, I am upset because people in Silver generally don't know basic mechanics of the game so I end up playing people who try to mass thor or cannon in like a moneymap. I just don't find games like that very entertaining because I don't feel like I am improving when I play against players like that.

I see, I apologize for the misunderstanding. Wouldn't the logical thing to do then be noobstomp until you are clearly going to get promoted, then play custom matches vs better players, or finding practice partners on TL? Sounds like it should be fun ^^;
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 9h 36m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 2235
Artosis 683
White-Ra 109
910 44
Dota 2
monkeys_forever580
NeuroSwarm183
Counter-Strike
m0e_tv212
Super Smash Bros
AZ_Axe155
Heroes of the Storm
Trikslyr111
Other Games
summit1g8398
shahzam603
JimRising 543
C9.Mang0339
ArmadaUGS47
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick783
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream324
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 113
• davetesta22
• Letter148
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Upcoming Events
Sparkling Tuna Cup
9h 36m
Afreeca Starleague
9h 36m
Leta vs Soulkey
PiGosaur Cup
23h 36m
Kung Fu Cup
1d 10h
The PondCast
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
4 days
Online Event
4 days
FEL
4 days
BSL: Ladder Tournament
4 days
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
BSL Open Qualifier
5 days
BSL Open Qualifier
5 days
WardiTV Weekly
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-09-27
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Calamity Invitational

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
BSL Season 23
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Custodian Cup
Copium Cup
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.