Shadowlands has seen tremendous participation in Arena with the number of unique players and total matches exceeding those seen in recent seasons. As some have noted, this level of participation has had some unintended effects at the very top of the ladder. The nature of our rating system means that the more people that participate, the more likely it is that the very best players in the world will reach extremely high matchmaking ratings. In this case, a number of players have reached the upper boundary of our rating system and as a result, they may achieve victories that don’t result in rating increases. Since the number of players capable of playing at this level is limited, if they choose not to participate, it becomes difficult for those players immediately below them to also gain rating.
We have two solutions to this problem, one of which is already in place and the other will take effect with weekly restarts on Tuesday.
First, over the past 7 years World of Warc...
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