Okay i'm going to try & explain it...

The first thing you should know is that there are five ranks total, with the first rank automatically achieved after you play your first match.

The second thing you need to know is that the Gears of War 2 ranking system is based on Microsoft's TrueSkill technology and that's why it is not as intuitive as those implemented by other games.

TrueSkill is like the chess ELO system, which tries to predict who should win the match based on the skill of the players. If you were predicted to lose and your team wins, then your TrueSkill goes up more than if you won and you were predicted to win. This holds true for the inverse scenario: If you were predicted to win and you lose, then your ranking drops more than if you were predicted to lose.

Also, keep in mind that each rank icon represents a specific range or bucket of TrueSkill values, so while your skill is fluctuating in very small increments from match to match, your rank icon will only change when your skill moves from one bucket to the next. Therefore, your rank is not just about number of kills or experience or the amount of time played. It's an aggregated representation of your skill level based on your wins and losses during Public Xbox LIVE matches. And yes, quitting will lower your rank.

So your rank is never stable - making jtaggin useless...


There's usually 5 ranks possible... i.e.