• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 23:02
CET 05:02
KST 13:02
  • 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] Finals Preview: Sweet Victory!12[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror6[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5
Community News
[BSL23] RO16 Group Stage14Weekly Cups (Nov 2-8): herO back on top?2Weekly Cups (Oct 26 - Nov 1): MaxPax, herO, Solar win0Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.175Evil Geniuses - shutting down23
StarCraft 2
General
Serral's getting trashed by New Catsle's Mind Weekly Cups (Nov 2-8): herO back on top? Liquibets sc2 season 30 No more SC2 streamers on team liquid? StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon
Tourneys
soO & FanTaSy return! SC2 Kevin Scrim 4v4 (Nov 16) RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 Tasteless Time Warp: SC Evo Showmatch (May 25) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament iNu's Battles #22
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
Starcraft 2 Advance [G] How to playtest arcade maps [D] the control group Simple Questions/Answers
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 551 Robotic Revival Mutation # 550 Graveyard Shift Mutation # 549 Endless Sparkles
Brood War
General
List of top players active on ShieldBattery BW General Discussion [BSL23] RO16 Group Stage screpdb: new Starcraft reporting tool [BW] Looking for Clan Thread!
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL23] Ro16 Group C - Sunday 21:00 CET [BSL23] Ro16 Group A - Saturday 21:00 CET 2v2v2v2 Tournament Stage 1: Community Poll
Strategy
Infested Terran strategies in 2026 Nuke strategy worked in K-League 2026-11-09 50,000-Word Terran Builds Memo 2026-10-22 Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy)
Other Games
General Games
The PlayStation 5 Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25!
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
Trading/Investing Thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Dating: How's your luck? European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread US Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
Fan Club Resource Thread Reynor Fan Club The Flash Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
The time I organised my…
AssyrianKing
Why I built Repalyzer (1.1.…
BlueStar
Innovate or Game Over?
TrAiDoS
ShieldBattery on Mac
Kraekkling
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 13631 users

Ladder makes no sense to me. (Numbers inside) - Page 4

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 All
ZapRoffo
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States5544 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-07 17:59:18
August 07 2010 17:40 GMT
#61
On August 08 2010 02:21 carwashguy wrote:
I have read that other thread. First off, I'm talking about the ladder, not the hidden matchmaking rating. Other than league placement and matchmaking, the two ratings don't influence each other. Of course we have no reason to believe that inflation will occur in the hidden rating.
Show nested quote +
On August 08 2010 01:15 ZapRoffo wrote:
... and non-inflationary (it will not grow over time).

Strictly speaking, bonus pool points will cause lasting inflation: meaning points increase but skill-value doesn't. Say a player earns 200 points. In two months, he could have 400 points without having improved his skill one bit. This is due to the bonus pool constantly pumping new points into the system. Points will grow over time. Where we agree: the ranking shouldn't alter, as everyone's points will grow equally in relation to one another--assuming they continue playing.

If the bonus pool keeps pumping new points into the system, I can't see how you can claim that people's points will go "back down." Where would the points go?


The games are not zero-sum with regard to ladder rating.

If my rating is 1000 but my hidden rating is 800, and your rating is 1000 and hidden rating 800, and we play and I win, it compares my rating to your hidden rating to evaluate my points: my 1000 vs. your 800, therefore I win less than default (12), +10 or so.

It compares your rating to my hidden rating to evaluate your points: your 1000 vs. my 800, therefore you lose more than default (12), -14 or so.

If we play again with the opposite result, I will lose 14 and you will gain 10, resulting in a net loss of 4 for both of us because we are both overranked.

As long as people play frequently, this correction will continuously happen to make up for the trickle of bonus points. This can even be controlled (not sure if it is) by having the rate of bonus pool awards be based on amount of activity rather than time.
Yeah, well, you know, that's just like, your opinion man
carwashguy
Profile Joined June 2009
United States175 Posts
August 07 2010 18:00 GMT
#62
On August 08 2010 02:40 ZapRoffo wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 08 2010 02:21 carwashguy wrote:
I have read that other thread. First off, I'm talking about the ladder, not the hidden matchmaking rating. Other than league placement and matchmaking, the two ratings don't influence each other. Of course we have no reason to believe that inflation will occur in the hidden rating.
On August 08 2010 01:15 ZapRoffo wrote:
... and non-inflationary (it will not grow over time).

Strictly speaking, bonus pool points will cause lasting inflation: meaning points increase but skill-value doesn't. Say a player earns 200 points. In two months, he could have 400 points without having improved his skill one bit. This is due to the bonus pool constantly pumping new points into the system. Points will grow over time. Where we agree: the ranking shouldn't alter, as everyone's points will grow equally in relation to one another--assuming they continue playing.

If the bonus pool keeps pumping new points into the system, I can't see how you can claim that people's points will go "back down." Where would the points go?

it compares my rating to your hidden rating to evaluate my points: my 1000 vs. your 800, therefore I win less than default (12), +10 or so.

It compares your rating to my hidden rating to evaluate your points: your 1000 vs. my 800, therefore you lose more than default (12), -14 or so.

[...]

As long as people play frequently, this correction will continuously happen to make up for the trickle of bonus points.

But is there any proof of it working this way? I hadn't heard any comments from Blizzard on this. If it does work this way, then you're absolutely right.
catamorphist
Profile Joined May 2010
United States297 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-07 18:11:48
August 07 2010 18:09 GMT
#63
On August 08 2010 02:40 ZapRoffo wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 08 2010 02:21 carwashguy wrote:
I have read that other thread. First off, I'm talking about the ladder, not the hidden matchmaking rating. Other than league placement and matchmaking, the two ratings don't influence each other. Of course we have no reason to believe that inflation will occur in the hidden rating.
On August 08 2010 01:15 ZapRoffo wrote:
... and non-inflationary (it will not grow over time).

Strictly speaking, bonus pool points will cause lasting inflation: meaning points increase but skill-value doesn't. Say a player earns 200 points. In two months, he could have 400 points without having improved his skill one bit. This is due to the bonus pool constantly pumping new points into the system. Points will grow over time. Where we agree: the ranking shouldn't alter, as everyone's points will grow equally in relation to one another--assuming they continue playing.

If the bonus pool keeps pumping new points into the system, I can't see how you can claim that people's points will go "back down." Where would the points go?


The games are not zero-sum with regard to ladder rating.

If my rating is 1000 but my hidden rating is 800, and your rating is 1000 and hidden rating 800, and we play and I win, it compares my rating to your hidden rating to evaluate my points: my 1000 vs. your 800, therefore I win less than default (12), +10 or so.

It compares your rating to my hidden rating to evaluate your points: your 1000 vs. my 800, therefore you lose more than default (12), -14 or so.

If we play again with the opposite result, I will lose 14 and you will gain 10, resulting in a net loss of 4 for both of us because we are both overranked.

As long as people play frequently, this correction will continuously happen to make up for the trickle of bonus points. This can even be controlled (not sure if it is) by having the rate of bonus pool awards be based on amount of activity rather than time.


Is there any evidence that it works this way? I assumed it was non-zero-sum in the other direction, because whenever I win, I get around 20 (before bonus pool), and whenever I lose, I only lose 2 or 3. I've played about 30 games (http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/profile/281144/1/catamorphist/), and I didn't bomb my placements or anything, so I don't think my rating should be absurdly inaccurate.
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/profile/281144/1/catamorphist/
Coeus1
Profile Joined May 2010
Finland160 Posts
August 07 2010 18:45 GMT
#64
I got promoted from bronze straight to gold after about 40 games of 60% win rate (most opponents from gold or plat).. got cheesed couple of times in my placement matches
xxx
SC.Shifty
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada135 Posts
August 07 2010 19:15 GMT
#65
i read this entire thread right after i woke and..

what i still dont understand, maybe i misread everything or just straight up forgot because i read in the morning and cant remember, is how placement matches work?

do i go against a bronze in my first, silver in my 2nd, gold in my 3rd, platinum in my 4th, and a diamond player in my 5th? i know everyones saying it doesnt take other statistics into account etc. bo, apm, whatever the hell.

i won 4/5 of my placements and ranked platinum, 1 other person i know said he won 4/5 and ranked silver. my cousin won 4/5 and ranked silver. and some other fellow won 4/5 and ranked gold. there has to be a secondary stat then just straight up wins that decides where you go after the placement matches?

or i could be completely wrong all together. all this is very confusing due to blizzards lack of info
We require more MINERAWLZZzz.
silencesc
Profile Joined July 2010
United States464 Posts
August 07 2010 19:19 GMT
#66
The numbers count games played, if you suck, but play a lot of games, eventually you'll get a high number. In Diamond, most people placed into plat, so they didn't have to play that many games to get into the high leagues, so less games = lower score.
Real Men Proxy Gate | TEAM LIQUID HWITINGGGG!! PROUD MEMBER OF UC DAVIS CSL TEAM | "If you don't give a shit about what gum you eat, buy Stride" - Liquid`Tyler on SotG 4/19/2011
Dionyseus
Profile Blog Joined December 2004
United States2068 Posts
August 07 2010 19:22 GMT
#67
On August 07 2010 22:37 carwashguy wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 07 2010 12:30 MichaelJLowell wrote:
Average Rating : 761.9, 619.4, 588.5, 672.2, 798.6
Average Games: 69.8, 54.3, 58.6, 38.7, 165.8
Average Win Percentage: 61.13%, 63.41%, 63.61%, 73.19%, 65.80%

I'd expect to see a greater rating disparity among the edges of the logarithmic distribution of players. Your top 50 stats confirm this. In other words, the very worse players are so bad that everyone can beat them, so the top bronze players have it easier. On the other hand, the top Diamond players are so good that no one can beat them, and they have it easier. So it makes sense that we'd see higher points in bronze and diamond.

Top diamond players play a lot of games, which makes a lot of sense, but does anyone have any ideas as to why the top platinum players play the least?


Because they get promoted to Diamond.
9/5/10 P acct: NA D 10,683 651pts 69w56L http://sc2ranks.com/char/us/290365/LetoAtreides T acct: NA D 16,137 553pts 70w67L http://sc2ranks.com/char/us/1560008/Khrone Z: NA G 16,058 465pts 28w26L http://www.sc2ranks.com/us/1997354/Omnius
PieShopPwner
Profile Joined June 2010
United States75 Posts
August 07 2010 19:41 GMT
#68
I am currently gold rank 1 and have beat about 5 platinum players and I have only lost 1 game in the last 10 or so. I am first by a lot in my ladder. WTF and the matches against the platinum were not even close. I rofl stomped them.
Calidus
Profile Joined April 2010
150 Posts
August 07 2010 19:51 GMT
#69
On August 07 2010 22:37 carwashguy wrote:
does anyone have any ideas as to why the top platinum players play the least?


I am going to make a guess that it is a social/Real life thing:

C&C was released in 1995. Warcraft 2 was released in 1996. The orginal sc was released in 1998. So their is a group of players that grew up playing RTS in their teen age years. Let say you where born in 1980 and play RTS though about middle school, High school and college. That would make you 30ish now, with a career and some relationship or family? So you have a good understanding of RTS because u grew up with them but not a lot of time to play games at this point in your life.

I could also see a large number of high plat players being in university(like myself)with limited time to play games.
Note:1100 Diamond take everything with a grain of salt.
ZapRoffo
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States5544 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-08 09:24:05
August 08 2010 08:03 GMT
#70
On August 08 2010 03:09 catamorphist wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 08 2010 02:40 ZapRoffo wrote:
On August 08 2010 02:21 carwashguy wrote:
I have read that other thread. First off, I'm talking about the ladder, not the hidden matchmaking rating. Other than league placement and matchmaking, the two ratings don't influence each other. Of course we have no reason to believe that inflation will occur in the hidden rating.
On August 08 2010 01:15 ZapRoffo wrote:
... and non-inflationary (it will not grow over time).

Strictly speaking, bonus pool points will cause lasting inflation: meaning points increase but skill-value doesn't. Say a player earns 200 points. In two months, he could have 400 points without having improved his skill one bit. This is due to the bonus pool constantly pumping new points into the system. Points will grow over time. Where we agree: the ranking shouldn't alter, as everyone's points will grow equally in relation to one another--assuming they continue playing.

If the bonus pool keeps pumping new points into the system, I can't see how you can claim that people's points will go "back down." Where would the points go?


The games are not zero-sum with regard to ladder rating.

If my rating is 1000 but my hidden rating is 800, and your rating is 1000 and hidden rating 800, and we play and I win, it compares my rating to your hidden rating to evaluate my points: my 1000 vs. your 800, therefore I win less than default (12), +10 or so.

It compares your rating to my hidden rating to evaluate your points: your 1000 vs. my 800, therefore you lose more than default (12), -14 or so.

If we play again with the opposite result, I will lose 14 and you will gain 10, resulting in a net loss of 4 for both of us because we are both overranked.

As long as people play frequently, this correction will continuously happen to make up for the trickle of bonus points. This can even be controlled (not sure if it is) by having the rate of bonus pool awards be based on amount of activity rather than time.


Is there any evidence that it works this way? I assumed it was non-zero-sum in the other direction, because whenever I win, I get around 20 (before bonus pool), and whenever I lose, I only lose 2 or 3. I've played about 30 games (http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/profile/281144/1/catamorphist/), and I didn't bomb my placements or anything, so I don't think my rating should be absurdly inaccurate.


In all the other blizzard games with this system it worked the same way, WoW and WC3, so this is an educated guess but everything I've seen has supported it, along with Blizzard saying there is a hidden matchmaking rating, so it's natural to believe it works the same as their other two hidden matchmaking rating games (where the system is fairly well understood, with rating points being determined by the your displayed vs. opponents matchmaking/hidden rating comparison).

In those games it was designed for you to have your displayed rating take 100-200 games on average to catch up to your hidden rating, which is very volatile (much more volatile even than the +40 you often see winning your early games) when you haven't played many games. Based on observation, it's the same way here. Remember you start at 0 points, but after only like 8-10 games if you perform well, your hidden rating (which determines who you match against) can be like 700 diamond or more (you will notice yourself playing against high diamond players, and I don't know what the average rating is set to be so I don't know what's high), so therefore there is a huge gap between your current displayed standing and your hidden rating which means you win lots and lose little. It was exactly the same in WoW and WC3, before you played many games you win huge sums and lose little. It's very easy to observe in WoW especially because they tell you your hidden rating there.

What you are experiencing (positive sum) is the opposite effect of being overranked because of bonus pool. You are severely underranked because you haven't played enough games to gain enough points to get to your rating (or even league, you are almost certain to end up in diamond).

Edit: OK read the featured 2nd part of the analysis for a more detailed and probably more correct version. It makes the leagues fit in well too.
Yeah, well, you know, that's just like, your opinion man
Prev 1 2 3 4 All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 5h 58m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RuFF_SC2 160
StarCraft: Brood War
GuemChi 1492
Artosis 507
ProTech141
Snow 91
Leta 66
Barracks 64
910 56
LuMiX 3
Britney 0
League of Legends
JimRising 654
Reynor32
Counter-Strike
fl0m3651
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox1167
AZ_Axe171
Other Games
summit1g9136
WinterStarcraft251
C9.Mang0244
Maynarde136
NeuroSwarm103
ViBE49
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV113
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• davetesta12
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• Pr0nogo 1
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Rush393
• Lourlo270
Upcoming Events
The PondCast
5h 58m
KCM Race Survival
5h 58m
WardiTV Invitational
7h 58m
Lambo vs Shameless
Rogue vs uThermal
Percival vs YoungYakov
TBD vs GgMaChine
OSC
11h 58m
OSC
18h 58m
ArT vs MindelVK
MiniZergUA vs TBD
Shameless vs TBD
Ultimate Battle
1d 7h
OSC
1d 9h
OSC
1d 19h
ByuN vs MaxPax
herO vs Krystianer
Percival vs Shameless
LetaleX vs YoungYakov
Nicoract vs Gerald
GgMaChine vs ArT
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
IPSL
2 days
TerrOr vs IJ_Terran
rasowy vs Hazorath
[ Show More ]
BSL
2 days
TerrOr vs OyAji
UltrA vs Gosudark
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
IPSL
3 days
Art_Of_Turtle vs KameZerg
Radley vs George
BSL
3 days
Artosis vs Dewalt
Ret vs Tech
WardiTV Weekly
4 days
PiGosaur Cup
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-11-11
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HCC Season 3

Ongoing

Acropolis #5
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
International ShieldBattery League
Individual League
BSL Season 23
IPSL Winter 2026-27
Calamity Cup Div. A Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026

Upcoming

YSL S4
Sector 591
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
StarCraft2 Weekly Open Tournament 2026 Grand Finals
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Underdog Cup 2026 Div 2-3
PGL Bucharest 2027
BLAST Bounty Winter 2027
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
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.