• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 02:41
CEST 08:41
KST 15:41
  • 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
Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview9[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off7[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway132v2 & SC: Evo Complete: Weekend Double Feature4Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy13
Community News
LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments2Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw?39Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax6Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris48Weekly Cups (Aug 11-17): MaxPax triples again!15
StarCraft 2
General
Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw? Heaven's Balance Suggestions (roast me) Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson has passed away Speculation of future Wardii series
Tourneys
RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around Mutation # 487 Think Fast Mutation # 486 Watch the Skies
Brood War
General
ASL20 General Discussion BW General Discussion Pros React To: herO's Baffling Game BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BSL Polish World Championship 2025 20-21 September
Tourneys
Is there English video for group selection for ASL [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 [ASL20] Ro24 Group F
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
General RTS Discussion Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TeamLiquid Team Shirt On Sale
Blogs
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
How Culture and Conflict Imp…
TrAiDoS
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
INDEPENDIENTE LA CTM
XenOsky
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1135 users

Is the ladder getting harder? - Page 5

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 12 13 14 Next All
ffadicted
Profile Joined January 2011
United States3545 Posts
November 20 2013 15:43 GMT
#81
On November 21 2013 00:25 DinoMight wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 21 2013 00:19 iggym wrote:
The ladder is definitely harder, and the skill variance in gold is pretty wild.

That said... the talk about MMR decay is seriously overblown. It is nothing more than the hot new scapegoat for players trying to come to terms with dropping a league or three. "No way, I'm not REALLY gold. I'm ex-masters! And I'd be back there, but this stupid MMR decay means I have to play 500 games a season just to get there! Nothing to do with my play!" If you're wrecking your competition and coming in at a 75%+ winrate, then you have a beef with MMR decay... if you dropped to gold and have a 50% winrate, then you're where you belong. People complain about hitting "ex-masters" players regularly, but I suggest you check their profile beyond looking at their ladder finishes. My division has a ton of former diamonds who are right around 50% (myself included), it's just where the distribution is now.


Except when you're ex-Masters and playing other ex-Masters, your win rate isn't going to be significantly >50%.

Because of ladder decay/innactivity these people all got demoted from Masters to Diamond/Plat, from Diamond to Plat/Gold. I had a buddy who skipped 1 season (played only his placement, and won). He dropped 2 leagues by winning 1 game!

So now we're all in Plat, fighting other people of our skill level in Plat. We're not going to have significantly >50% win rate but we're all much more talented than what has traditionally come to be expected from Platinum players.


This is exactly what's happening from my personal experience haha
SooYoung-Noona!
iggym
Profile Joined September 2012
United States49 Posts
November 20 2013 15:43 GMT
#82
On November 21 2013 00:29 Ignorant prodigy wrote:
the distribution is that way BECAUSE of mmr decay.. not because the countless number or people complaining have suddenly got bad at the game.


No, it is because the bottom has dropped out of the ladder. My argument isn't that players have gotten worse — because that is absurd — but that they've gotten better on average. There is no doubt that MMR decay will cause some ladder deflation, but people spin it way, way, way too hard. It doesn't kick in until two weeks of inactivity, you drop about a league after four weeks of inactivity, and there has always been decay/reset if you take entire seasons off.
HeeroFX
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States2704 Posts
November 20 2013 15:46 GMT
#83
I think the people are playing to this day are better. I remember when it first came out I was crushing people with stupid things like widow mines and hell bat drops.......then they nerfed things, people got intelligent. So I would say overall the quality of players is much better than it was the noobs/people who don't wanna put effort in went to play other things. You will see similiar thing when LOTV comes out.
ffadicted
Profile Joined January 2011
United States3545 Posts
November 20 2013 15:48 GMT
#84
On November 21 2013 00:43 iggym wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 21 2013 00:29 Ignorant prodigy wrote:
the distribution is that way BECAUSE of mmr decay.. not because the countless number or people complaining have suddenly got bad at the game.


No, it is because the bottom has dropped out of the ladder. My argument isn't that players have gotten worse — because that is absurd — but that they've gotten better on average. There is no doubt that MMR decay will cause some ladder deflation, but people spin it way, way, way too hard. It doesn't kick in until two weeks of inactivity, you drop about a league after four weeks of inactivity, and there has always been decay/reset if you take entire seasons off.


Do you have numbers to support this though?
SooYoung-Noona!
iGn1t3
Profile Joined May 2011
Hong Kong73 Posts
November 20 2013 15:53 GMT
#85
wow. Looks like I am not alone haha. Definitely feel that the ladder is a bit wacky atm.

Thank god. I guess I should just focus more on my play than the stupid league system :p
I lose today to win tomorrow.
iggym
Profile Joined September 2012
United States49 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-11-20 15:56:49
November 20 2013 15:55 GMT
#86
On November 21 2013 00:48 ffadicted wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 21 2013 00:43 iggym wrote:
On November 21 2013 00:29 Ignorant prodigy wrote:
the distribution is that way BECAUSE of mmr decay.. not because the countless number or people complaining have suddenly got bad at the game.


No, it is because the bottom has dropped out of the ladder. My argument isn't that players have gotten worse — because that is absurd — but that they've gotten better on average. There is no doubt that MMR decay will cause some ladder deflation, but people spin it way, way, way too hard. It doesn't kick in until two weeks of inactivity, you drop about a league after four weeks of inactivity, and there has always been decay/reset if you take entire seasons off.


Do you have numbers to support this though?


For which part? The player base is smaller, and it makes sense that a higher proportion of people who have stopped playing were lower skilled. The decay info is straight out of Excalibur's post here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=429734
ffadicted
Profile Joined January 2011
United States3545 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-11-20 16:00:51
November 20 2013 15:59 GMT
#87
On November 21 2013 00:55 iggym wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 21 2013 00:48 ffadicted wrote:
On November 21 2013 00:43 iggym wrote:
On November 21 2013 00:29 Ignorant prodigy wrote:
the distribution is that way BECAUSE of mmr decay.. not because the countless number or people complaining have suddenly got bad at the game.


No, it is because the bottom has dropped out of the ladder. My argument isn't that players have gotten worse — because that is absurd — but that they've gotten better on average. There is no doubt that MMR decay will cause some ladder deflation, but people spin it way, way, way too hard. It doesn't kick in until two weeks of inactivity, you drop about a league after four weeks of inactivity, and there has always been decay/reset if you take entire seasons off.


Do you have numbers to support this though?


For which part? The player base is smaller, and it makes sense that a higher proportion of people who have stopped playing were lower skilled. The decay info is straight out of Excalibur's post here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=429734


I meant for the smaller player base. The numbers I'm taking are from sc2 ranks (not sure if there are more reliable ones out there), and they're showing a massive league % discrepancy with much higher number of players in lower leagues than there should be (reverse for high leagues). This phenomenon could be explained by what most ppl here are saying, where higher players have been pushed down to lower leagues due to decay and can't get back up because they're 50% with other players from higher leagues that also got pushed down.
SooYoung-Noona!
Douillos
Profile Joined May 2010
France3195 Posts
November 20 2013 16:02 GMT
#88
I'm an ex masters in Gold.

Lucky I don't give a fuck :D
Look a giraffe! Look a fist!!
Ctone23
Profile Blog Joined December 2012
United States1839 Posts
November 20 2013 16:05 GMT
#89
On November 21 2013 01:02 Douillos wrote:
I'm an ex masters in Gold.

Lucky I don't give a fuck :D



Why would you? Probably wrecking kids in Gold. Good for you xD
TL+ Member
-ForeverAlone-
Profile Joined June 2011
274 Posts
November 20 2013 16:10 GMT
#90
On November 21 2013 01:05 Ctone23 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 21 2013 01:02 Douillos wrote:
I'm an ex masters in Gold.

Lucky I don't give a fuck :D



Why would you? Probably wrecking kids in Gold. Good for you xD

As a goldie who keeps getting whipped by ex-masters, it gets me in the feelz everytime. But it does feel less bad to lose to someone who was at one point, very good.
omg terran is hard to play
Topdoller
Profile Joined March 2011
United Kingdom3860 Posts
November 20 2013 16:11 GMT
#91
If only we could travel back in time, so many potential GSL champions in Gold now hehe. FruitDealer wouldn't stand a chance
Douillos
Profile Joined May 2010
France3195 Posts
November 20 2013 16:11 GMT
#92
On November 21 2013 01:05 Ctone23 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 21 2013 01:02 Douillos wrote:
I'm an ex masters in Gold.

Lucky I don't give a fuck :D



Why would you? Probably wrecking kids in Gold. Good for you xD


It's a nice way to get back into the game :p
Look a giraffe! Look a fist!!
FFW_Rude
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
France10201 Posts
November 20 2013 16:23 GMT
#93
On November 20 2013 22:48 Psychobabas wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 20 2013 19:44 ZAiNs wrote:
On November 20 2013 16:52 Psychobabas wrote:
If you are playing on NA, there is a great deal of Korean and EU smurfs there. Not so much on EU server as the lag between Europe and Korea is too much.

You aren't going to play vs Korean pro smurfs in Platinum lol.


never said pro. just lots of smurfs in every league.


Hey at HSC they said that jjakji was silver on his EU account or something like that :p

Also yeah i'm in bronze right now with Diamond to GM spending skill and overing at 160-180apm playing zerg.
- I did my placement match and ended up in Bronze. I played till i was rank1.
- Get to sleep. Played 4days later. Got back 1 (i was like 50).
- Didn't touch the game for a week. Played one night and got rank1 bronze again.
etc...

I have like 40games or so played and 1 defeat. Still a bronzie :p

(I was plat before played a lot of diamond and low masters so i was maybe close to diamond). Some guys from a clan i know are in gold and was master the season before. They are slowing coming back to their league but it seems to take time because they lose a lot of games against silver/gold that are ex masters.
#1 KT Rolster fanboy. KT BEST KT ! Hail to KT playoffs Zergs ! Unofficial french translator for SlayerS_`Boxer` biography "Crazy as me".
Masada714
Profile Joined March 2011
United States89 Posts
November 20 2013 16:23 GMT
#94
It seems most people that have posted in here are saying the same thing. I also have been a mid-high diamond every season and have started out in plat right now. I've played every season and use all my bonus pool, so it can't be due to mmr decay. Since so many people are describing the same exact thing, I wonder if the ladder could be bugged, and I'm pretty sure that there has been an issue with the ladder in the past. There shouldn't be a sudden change like this for so many people all at the same time unless there is something wrong.
DstryrEU
Profile Joined November 2012
15 Posts
November 20 2013 16:30 GMT
#95
Hasn't this been happening since the MMR decay? I use to play Diamond end of WoL but went inactive in hots laddering only doing 1-5 matches at most per season which resulted in slowly dropping into silver last season. It put me off playing so I just don't ladder any more.
FFW_Rude
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
France10201 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-11-20 16:31:46
November 20 2013 16:30 GMT
#96
The problem is for people that wants to get into a team that requires only Masters or High diamond. (This is kind of stupid tbh) but some requires it. It comes to a point when you don't know how you can recruit someone (well.. you could watch him play) but if the guy is gold and is REALLY gold... Well you wasted your time.

Well it's bad... But not as bad as iCcup :p if you play there after a period of time you are going to have a lot more defeat than wins :p THAT is a hard ladder :p

But really yeah. The Decay or whatever this is is making the ladder look like shit right now. Maybe it will stabilize.
#1 KT Rolster fanboy. KT BEST KT ! Hail to KT playoffs Zergs ! Unofficial french translator for SlayerS_`Boxer` biography "Crazy as me".
Cortza
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
South Africa328 Posts
November 20 2013 16:33 GMT
#97
Inb4 everyone's masters in LOTV.
FFW_Rude
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
France10201 Posts
November 20 2013 16:38 GMT
#98
On November 21 2013 01:33 Cortza wrote:
Inb4 everyone's masters in LOTV.


Well... The points that it's quite the contrary. Masters are Gold, Diamond are Silver and Plat are bronze. It's the other way around.
#1 KT Rolster fanboy. KT BEST KT ! Hail to KT playoffs Zergs ! Unofficial french translator for SlayerS_`Boxer` biography "Crazy as me".
Fleuria
Profile Joined April 2011
England466 Posts
November 20 2013 16:46 GMT
#99
It's probably because SC2 barely has any playerbase any more D:
korona
Profile Joined October 2009
1098 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-11-20 17:17:15
November 20 2013 16:58 GMT
#100
On November 21 2013 00:43 iggym wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 21 2013 00:29 Ignorant prodigy wrote:
the distribution is that way BECAUSE of mmr decay.. not because the countless number or people complaining have suddenly got bad at the game.


No, it is because the bottom has dropped out of the ladder. My argument isn't that players have gotten worse — because that is absurd — but that they've gotten better on average. There is no doubt that MMR decay will cause some ladder deflation, but people spin it way, way, way too hard. It doesn't kick in until two weeks of inactivity, you drop about a league after four weeks of inactivity, and there has always been decay/reset if you take entire seasons off.

There are no predetermined quotas for different leagues. You get promoted when your MMR goes over league threshold. For example if all players who are currently in bronze MMR range would quit, it would have no immediate effect on other player's MMR. There would just be no bronze range players for a while. Bronze range would start filling slowly via MMR decay, players' MMR dropping to bronze range naturally by losing games and new players entering the ladder.

Player base is slowly decreasing, but the numbers are still healthy. For example for EU last season 64.2 k players had played their 1v1 placements after 1 week. This season 51.6 k players had played the placements after 1 week. For NA the numbers were 54.6k for last season & 44.2 k for this season. The player amount will increase during the season. When ladder lock started 1 week before end of last season 144.9 k players had played their 1v1 placement in EU (133.2 k in NA). After the first week, typically about 10k to 15 k people entered 1v1 ladder each week both in EU & NA last season. These numbers are based on data from sc2ranks (I have taken snapshots of the distribution regularly since start of last season).

MMR decay is the logical main reason why ladders are currently messed up. There are multiple other minor reasons that affect the ladders too, such as player base slowly decreasing, unranked mode, global play (as these accounts are played less, they also more likely face decay), new players, players who faced full MMR reset (did not play for full season), MMR abusers, etc.
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 12 13 14 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
OSC
03:00
Mid Season Playoffs
MaNa vs SHIN
SKillous vs ShoWTimE
Bunny vs TBD
Cham vs TBD
CranKy Ducklings169
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 2596
sSak 302
Leta 139
Noble 130
Free 69
Bale 36
JulyZerg 16
Icarus 6
NotJumperer 2
League of Legends
C9.Mang0299
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K808
Other Games
summit1g6306
shahzam802
WinterStarcraft576
JimRising 524
Maynarde116
NeuroSwarm50
semphis_21
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH329
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 3
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Stunt481
Other Games
• Shiphtur547
Upcoming Events
RSL Revival
3h 19m
Reynor vs Astrea
Classic vs sOs
Maestros of the Game
10h 19m
Serral vs Ryung
ByuN vs Zoun
BSL Team Wars
12h 19m
Team Bonyth vs Team Dewalt
CranKy Ducklings
1d 3h
RSL Revival
1d 3h
GuMiho vs Cham
ByuN vs TriGGeR
Cosmonarchy
1d 7h
TriGGeR vs YoungYakov
YoungYakov vs HonMonO
HonMonO vs TriGGeR
Maestros of the Game
1d 10h
Solar vs Bunny
Clem vs Rogue
[BSL 2025] Weekly
1d 11h
RSL Revival
2 days
Cure vs Bunny
Creator vs Zoun
Maestros of the Game
2 days
Maru vs Lambo
herO vs ShoWTimE
[ Show More ]
BSL Team Wars
2 days
Team Hawk vs Team Sziky
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 18: Qualifier 2
SEL Season 2 Championship
HCC Europe

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Qualifiers
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL Polish World Championship 2025: Warsaw LAN
BSL Season 21
BSL 21 Team A
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
EC S1
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
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 © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.