[2021] Gold Rank Sadness

Ranked is not under Skill Based Matchmaking. Ranked is a "Seperated Queue" system.

Everyone starts in the Bronze Ranked Queue, but after ranking out they can Opt In to go to Silver Ranked Queue. This is done by completing the Silver Qualifier challenge.

After passing Qualifiers to Silver, Players only play in the Silver Ranked Queue, but after ranking out they can Opt In to go to Gold Ranked Queue. This is done by completing the Gold Qualifier challenge.

Once in the Gold Queue, you will place only in the Gold Queue until the end of the season.

There is no background Skill Assessment. It's purely about which Queue a player wants to reach and play in.

Gold being the hardest to reach also has less players. As well, there are other factors:

Submarines and Superships being tested in Ranked has lowered interest for some


The Gold Grind isn't small, so the grind itself has lowered interest for some


Once Ranking Out, there is no further Ranked Play until Sprint Reset

Ranked Mode being "always on" means there's consistently a "competitive-style queue". That being said, you can Rank Out which means the mode is done until refresh, so the playerbase dwindles over time even when played by many.

This isn't correct.

Many games have a "Casual Play" and a "Ranked Play" mode for users to choose a basic or more competitive experience. Ranked Battle being always on allows us to be closer to that standard.

Our Ranked Battles are different, however, in that you can only play so many times until you Rank Out and have to stop. Other games have no "end point". This allows us to maintain Random Battle's Queue Health, so that play experiences are matched faster without a consistently spread out playerbase.

As for resources, there's no need to spend money or flags on anything. Many people rank out in tech tree ships and don't use flags. The grind is the time/effort spent, which rewards a special resource, Steel.

There is no "Player Assessment" at any point in Ranked. By this, I mean that the matchmaking system acts the same as Random Battles in selecting players and assigning them across teams in matches.

The only seperation that exists is in the form of Queues.

Imagine a situation where you had 3 Ranked Battle buttons. One Bronze, one Silver, and one Gold. Only Bronze is lit up and clickable as the start of a season.

If you Rank Out and qualify for Silver, the Bronze Button greys out and the Silver becomes clickable. You are now only able to play "Silver Ranked Battles" and you are matched using Random Matchmaker for this queue, just like you were with Bronze Ranked Battles.

In short, a different League is a different Queue.

It's unfortunate, but this is needed for lower population times to keep the other Queues healthy.

Your "Source" is me. And I have never said Ranked was Skill Based Match Making.

Why haven't I said that?

Because RANKED IS NOT SKILL BASED MATCH MAKING.

Old-style Ranked (2.5-1.0 years ago is what I have knowledge on) also used separated queue structuring, in the sense that once you passed a certain Rank you would deal with others in the newer, higher bracket. Which is the same concept as now.

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Perhaps you aren't aware of what people mean when they say "Skill-Based Matchmaking"?

The idea is that a formula will take into account a player's statistics and figure out a number to represent their "skill" or capability. This is used to determine a "probability of winning" and they are matched with others that provide what should amount to a fairly even chance for either team to win. In reality, this number is best used in 1v1 situations as teamplay can alter the capabilities of a group by a LOT. Also, the more players that are in the game at one time, the more variables exist that can skew/alter the outcome.

At best, the "skill" number representation is a formula's best guess based on the characteristics it looks for.

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As Ranked has never cared about any statistic of any kind, it is NOT Skill-Based Matchmaking. Again, NOT SBMM. Previously it was also NOT SBMM.

This is Post #27 in the other thread and it has nothing to do with me or Ranked.

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My comments referred to Clan Battles as Skill Based Matchmaking, and to Brawls as Skill Based Balancing.

Clan Battles is a format where the "Team's Current Placement" is used as its "skill" number for placement purposes. It is matched with another team based off of that "skill" number, and points are won/lost according to the difference in the "skill" between teams.

Brawls used a test format where Win Rate and Avg Base XP was assessed in the creation of the matches.

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Brawls are not Ranked. They have never been Ranked. They are Brawls.

Clan Battles are not Ranked. They have never been Ranked. They are Clan Battles.

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Please, stop giving wrong information on this topic. Ranked IS NOT Skill Based Matchmaking, and has not been for as long as I've ever known.

Luck can certainly be part of any team you get matched with, but the ability for skilled folks to Rank Out sprint after sprint remains.

My best suggestion is to play off the team you have, not the team you wish you had. Plays and opportunities can be found in almost every match (I DID say almost~). In general, solid play will win more than it loses.

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Having Ranked Out like 12+ times on Stream, I can confidently tell you that consistent play will result in more wins then losses. Just like higher-end players win more often in Randoms, the same can happen in Ranked.

DD, CV, and BB thus far. Never Cruiser'd to the win as of yet.

Other folks Rank Out in all types and stream their matches as well.

Ranked Queue is just a separated group of Random Battle queues with altered maps, less players, and preset tier rules.

The difference in Leagues comes from the amount of effort people want to put in. While that doesn't necessarily translate to skill, it's still a sign of player effort/interest and does have a relation to investment in the game.

Ultimately, if you have as much or more skill than the average players in the League, you should expect to advance through consistent play and decision making.

It's not to say everyone can or will Rank Out. It's not designed to be a free experience that is simply achieved with a grind, though there are players that choose to approach it that way.

Why would you feel winning and losing Points would be vastly different from winning and losing Stars.

Ultimately, you must win X amount of Y to Rank Out.

There's a problem in equating Clan Battles to Stars. Namely that Clan Battles are not considered "fair matchups" and there is a weighting to the Point Gain/Loss depending on the Advantage/Disadvantage assumed in the matchup.

Example: A Typhoon 1 Clan Team is matched against a Storm 1 Clan Team.

If the Storm Team wins, the Typhoon Team loses MANY Points, and the Storm Team gains SOME Points.


If the Typhoon Team wins, the Typhoon Team gains FEW Points, and the Storm Team loses FEW Points.

In other words, the gain/loss is dynamic to the matchup/situation. Or said another way, every team is at a different position, so every outcome is weighted differently.

This is not how Ranked Leagues work.

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ALL Players in Silver... are Silver. While you may recognize someone as Super Purple or Super Red, they are all "Silver". Why? Because as far as the Ranked Battle league is concerned, that's how far they've come in the current Sprint/Season. If they want to be higher, they should push for Gold. If they didn't want Silver, they should have avoided finishing Qualifiers and waited for the Sprint refresh.

The experience you have isn't a full SBMM "skill number vs skill number" system... you have a Random Battle queue that only includes players from the League in question. So you are using the same situation as exists in Randoms to differentiate yourself and influence a team to win.

Is it possible for poor play to keep a player in "Elo Hell"? Temporarily, yes. That's the nature of Randomized Matchmaking. However, in the long run, no. Consistent performance will overtake the odds and place them in your favor, because statistically higher-the-average play will result in higher-than-average Win Rate.

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This can be explained in a few ways.

1) The average skill of Bronze is equal or lesser to the skill of that player.
-- Which seems unlikely due to such a poor win rate.
2) The small amount of sample sizes needed to get through Bronze and Rank Out allows for Outliers and "Carry-Throughs"
-- This is entirely possible as a few Win-Streaks from lucky matchmaking could certainly result in a trend that drags the player up and sees them Ranked Out

Similarly, the "Carry-Through" could have happened in the Silver Qualifiers as well as only 5 Stars are needed to advance.

Silver has more Stars overall needed for Rank Out, which makes a significantly below-average skill (for their current league) more unlikely to be able to Rank Out/Advance due purely to Luck/Team Draw.

Gold has even more still, which makes it even more unlikely for "Carry-Throughs". However, there are legends told of people grinding hundreds and hundreds of games in high-end Ranked Battles to eventually push through and Rank Out.

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There have been multiple ideas floated as to how to avoid such issues.

Base XP being related to Star Earning


Lowest on the Winning Team doesn't Earn a Star


Losing Team cannot "Save" a Star


Limited Attempts during Qualifiers


Limited Attempts during Sprints/Leagues

The larger issue is that this is a game, and while having teammates that can make you question if you are, in fact, not dreaming... it's still just a game. Ranked is there to be played, and the better your "A Game" the faster you move up and Out.