Ranking system needs improvement

Gears 5
1

The points awarded and deducted need to be adjusted in order to better place the players along the ranks and divisions.

For example, you can place diamond 2 and then drop rank due to the few points you are awarded for an easy win. If somebody quits on the other team, it gives you very little points to keep up with the moving train that are the leaderboards.

Last weekend when somebody quit on the other team it penalized you greatly by deducting a massive amount of points. That was a bug but it is kind of still penalizing you since you won’t earn enough points to stay in your position or move up.

How are you supposed to keep your rank like this? With this system, somebody who was never diamond in Gears 4 can get to diamond here in Gears 5 simply by playing a lot.

It’s like in sports games where people make the top 100 with records of 550-500 and are not actually good at the game. The difference is that in those games, someone like me who has a record of 145-25 can also be in the top 100.

That in Gears 5 cannot be the case because of the major difference in skill points awarded per match. They swing too much one way or the other. In those sports games, the skill points have boundaries. You could play 20 games and go 10-10 and get +80 points while someone could play 10 games and go 9-1 and get +95 points.

In this type of ranking/leaderboard, those who play a lot can kind of cheat their rank. That is something that comes with this system, but you shouldn’t be swinging up and down the leaderboard drastically.

I don’t know how many of you have seen it, but you can go from diamond 2 to onyx 1 real quick. Imagine making Masters only to drop drastically because you won but didn’t win/perform big enough because an opponent quit or it was just too easy of a game.

The boundaries of skill points awarded and deducted need to be set and/or tightened. If not, the leaderboard will never reflect correct positions.

Update:

In Gears 4, you could get diamond 5 and that was that but here in Gears 5 you can’t get Masters and maintain it without playing a lot. That is why it is crucial that the points don’t fluctuate so much, otherwise you will be a new rank every single day. It will not be a good measure of anything but play time and/or luck.

2

The constant fluctuations are stupid.

3

Yes, those erratic points are going to have you in a different rank every second.

4

I don’t understand how playing a lot while not genuinely improving will rank you up. Can you explain that so I understand your point?

Also if someone quits or you’re against noobs, I presume you will gain little to no points, but you won’t lose any either. So how are you unable to keep your rank? The only way I could see you losing your rank is if other people are winning challenging games where they end up surpassing you.

The only time I could maybe see that being a problem is if your team is so stacked that everyone always leaves on the other team and so you never get to rank up any higher.

5

I went from Onyx 3 to Onyx 2 with an MVP performance. Literally destroyed the other team. Someone quit. I gained points, but my rank went down.

People keep quitting too lol.

6

I know that was happening last weekend, but is it still happening now as well?

7

By playing a lot you can get scraps of points and those add up to move you up the leaderboard. It’s not like a noob will make masters but you can climb up by playing a lot since it is based on points.

The problem here is just that, that you can be on a full team and the other team can quit and basically throw you the middle finger. Them quitting will make stacked teams unable to get masters pretty much.

The crazy fluctuation of points can hurt you because let’s say I’m a few spots ahead of you but I only gain limited points for 3 games in a row. Meanwhile, you are getting big points and are able to leap me in just a few games.

You currently can place diamond and win win win but gaining so few points will be like your car still moving forward but at a low speed while other players hit the turbo lol

8

But all ranking systems are point based. Them getting scraps of points and adding up on the leaderboard means they’re beating people better than them and improving.

But yeah if people quit all the time and you never get points for it, I can see that being an issue.

9

The way it is right now, it pretty much goes off luck.

The thing about how this ranking works with the points is that you can be 10x better than them but only play 5 games a day but they will jump you in the leaderboard simply because they play more than you. Sure, they have to win to get those points but it isn’t a ranking like Gears 4. By playing a lot, they can almost cheat the performance measures.

I got diamond 5 several times in Gears 4 without playing a lot but it is a requirement to play tons in order to get and maintain masters in Gears 5.

It isn’t how good your car is but how many speed boosts you get and how many banana peels you avoid.

10

Wait but there is a max amount of points you can get in Gears 5, which is 20,000. If you are at 19,950, you are probably going to stay in Masters, unless there’s point decay.

11

Only time I rank up seems to be if everyone stays.

12

I think there is or there will be rank decay. I’m not sure.

It would be interesting to see what type of players get there but that would only be at the very top. Playing with a 5 man will have you favored in the majority of your matches which will reduce your earnable points and even worse if people quit against you. Play alone and risk someone quitting on your team and losing nearly every other game.

Even with those players at the very top, they will remain master rank but they will fluctuate a lot. Those at the very bottom of the masters rank will be fighting every day to stay there or get back to it.

For the majority of people, they will not like going up to onyx 3 then dropping even after winning. It looks like most people will earn and lose a new rank every day.

The points just fluctuate too much. If they were tighter like in those sports games I talked about then it would be much better or more consistent.

It’s not good to be on fire and winning but dropping rank. Imagine having that happen to you and then you lose your next match. Yikes, that would plummet you severely on the leaderboards.

Oh, well the rank decay will be self imposed. If you don’t play, you will get passed up on the leaderboards so rank decay doesn’t even have to be an actual feature… I mean, technically you can go up in rank while not even playing if those above you drop.

13

I placed in masters and kept winning but slowly kept going down. I’m down to diamond 1 now, I don’t understand this ranking system lol

14

Only thing you need to understand is that it doesn’t work properly. Not everything.

15

I understand that its pointless

16

Let’s say you are diamond 1 by having 95 pts and you win three games for a combined 10 points. You would then have a total of 105 points in your leaderboard placement.

Someone near you at around 95 pts could win three games for a combined 25 points, so that is how they would jump you and move your rank down.

Maybe then it would go from diamond 1 top 11% down to a lower rank. You could even drop to onyx 3.

It is a combination of winning and skill but also about playing time.

Can you win and get very few skill points? yes, which will make you drop rank

Can you play a lot and stack points to rank up? Yes, a player who was never ever diamond in gears 4 could force his way into diamond in gears 5 by simple playing time.

Can you lose and lose skill pts? Of course.

Can you lose and gain points? Yes, like an MVP on the losing team.

Can you lose rank by not playing? Yep, people will pass you up on the leaderboard.

So you gotta stack wins and play on a full team? Well, your points will be “nerfed” by playing on a 5 man as you will be the favored team to win.

Right now as it stands, you don’t get your max win when someone on the other team quits. I get it if they leave early and make it a 5v4 but what about if they leave in the third round? The majority of the game was 5v5 and you shouldn’t get you skill points scaled back.

It doesn’t reflect skill very well. The fluctuation/difference of points needs to be addressed so the ranks are more consistent. They gotta have boundaries for this.

If it doesn’t change, expect to win and lose rank as well as being a new rank just about every hour.

It isn’t just about winning or losing.

17

I feel like a lot of the issue TC is going through with the ranking system in Gears are similar to what Blizzard went through with Starcraft which now has possibly the best ranking system in competitive gaming. Starcraft 2 has a leader board and to be in the Grand Master league (top 200 players in a region, basically masters in Gears 5) you have to play 30 games in 3 weeks and be in the top 200 in Match Making Rating (MMR). The players on the leader board move up and down game by game but can’t be demoted and new players can’t be promoted, except at the daily refresh time . In all other leagues you can be promoted and demoted game by game.

The major difference with Statecraft is MMR is taken from the loser and given to the winner since there aren’t any large team ranked ladders (4v4 is the largest and rarely played as the competitive focus is on 1v1) . In Gears you can be on the winning team but not contribute to the win thus still lose points. You can also be on the losing team and play better than 4-5 of the players on the winning team thus gain points.

TC is trying to be more transparent by showing the skill point numbers after every game but it would be nice if they explained better what contributed to your gains or losses instead of just saying that it is based on your performance and that stats are weighted differently for different game modes. If they are afraid that explaining how each stat is weighted for each game mode is going to make players play differently or that skill points can be farmed by playing a certain way then maybe they need to reevaluate the ranking system.

With that said I would really like to see a 5v5 queue mode even if it is just for escalation. Or even an online tournament/ladder queue that is only open certain days or at certain times kind of like Fortnite has done in the past. These modes would promote team play and you wouldn’t have massive queue times because matchmaking would be dealing with essentially 1v1 matchmaking as the teams would be preformed.

Also have a way to bridge the gap between playing at an extremely high level in ranked into playing at competitive LAN events would be great, Starcraft has been doing it for a long time with their WCS ladder and online qualifier tournaments. Fortnite did it with the World Cup qualifiers online. It makes for more competitive LAN events and provides a means to compete for players who aren’t fortunate enough to afford to make it to LANs or who’s parents don’t understand competitive gaming enough to pay their way when nothing is guaranteed. If these players could get a taste of the competitive scene and possibly a little cash in their pocket to get to a LAN then the competitive scene would only grow stronger and the top teams would be more evenly matched.

Ultimately TC is moving in the right direction with ranked though coming from Gears 4 into Gears 5 but it still needs a lot of work. I’m looking forward to seeing what improvements are made before launch and grinding for that masters rank though.

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