• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 00:33
CET 06:33
KST 14:33
  • 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
ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT29Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book19Clem wins HomeStory Cup 289HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview13Rongyi Cup S3 - Preview & Info8
Community News
Team Liquid Map Contest - Preparation Notice6Weekly Cups (Feb 23-Mar 1): herO doubles, 2v2 bonanza1Weekly Cups (Feb 16-22): MaxPax doubles0Weekly Cups (Feb 9-15): herO doubles up2ACS replaced by "ASL Season Open" - Starts 21/0258
StarCraft 2
General
How do you think the 5.0.15 balance patch (Oct 2025) for StarCraft II has affected the game? Team Liquid Map Contest - Preparation Notice ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT Nexon's StarCraft game could be FPS, led by UMS maker Weekly Cups (Feb 23-Mar 1): herO doubles, 2v2 bonanza
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament $5,000 WardiTV Winter Championship 2026 RSL Season 4 announced for March-April Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) PIG STY FESTIVAL 7.0! (19 Feb - 1 Mar)
Strategy
Custom Maps
Publishing has been re-enabled! [Feb 24th 2026] Map Editor closed ?
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 515 Together Forever Mutation # 514 Ulnar New Year Mutation # 513 Attrition Warfare
Brood War
General
Effort misses out on ASL S21 BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion Gypsy to Korea BSL 22 Map Contest — Submissions OPEN to March 10
Tourneys
[BSL22] Open Qualifier #1 - Sunday 21:00 CET [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 BWCL Season 64 Announcement
Strategy
Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2 Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers Zealot bombing is no longer popular?
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread Diablo 2 thread Path of Exile
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion The Story of Wings Gaming
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas Vanilla Mini Mafia TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine YouTube Thread UK Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
Formula 1 Discussion 2024 - 2026 Football Thread TL MMA Pick'em Pool 2013
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Laptop capable of using Photoshop Lightroom?
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Shocked by a laser…
Spydermine0240
Gaming-Related Deaths
TrAiDoS
ONE GREAT AMERICAN MARINE…
XenOsky
Unintentional protectionism…
Uldridge
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1631 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
Replay Cast
00:00
LiuLi Cup Grand Finals Playoff
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
WinterStarcraft378
RuFF_SC2 217
ProTech132
mcanning 132
StarCraft: Brood War
Sea 5181
GuemChi 679
Shuttle 409
ggaemo 210
Bale 44
Icarus 13
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm92
League of Legends
JimRising 807
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor95
Other Games
summit1g4697
C9.Mang0317
Tasteless77
Mew2King34
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV200
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 20 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 427
• practicex 59
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• Migwel
• IndyKCrew
StarCraft: Brood War
• RayReign 91
• Azhi_Dahaki19
• iopq 4
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
League of Legends
• Lourlo1308
• Rush1192
• Stunt416
• HappyZerGling97
Other Games
• Scarra1359
Upcoming Events
Ultimate Battle
6h 27m
Light vs ZerO
WardiTV Winter Champion…
6h 27m
MaxPax vs Spirit
Rogue vs Bunny
Cure vs SHIN
Solar vs Zoun
OSC
12h 27m
Replay Cast
18h 27m
CranKy Ducklings
1d 4h
WardiTV Winter Champion…
1d 6h
Replay Cast
1d 18h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
WardiTV Winter Champion…
2 days
OSC
2 days
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
OSC
3 days
Replay Cast
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-03-04
PiG Sty Festival 7.0
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Jeongseon Sooper Cup
Spring Cup 2026
WardiTV Winter 2026
Nations Cup 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual

Upcoming

ASL Season 21: Qualifier #1
ASL Season 21: Qualifier #2
ASL Season 21
Acropolis #4 - TS6
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
CSLAN 4
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
RSL Revival: Season 4
NationLESS Cup
CS Asia Championships 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
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.