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CSGO Ranking System Explained
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CSGO Ranking System ExplainedPosted:
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Joined: May 14, 201113Year Member
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Status: Offline
Joined: May 14, 201113Year Member
Posts: 1,032
Reputation Power: 43
NOTE: I do NOT take any credit for this. This was made by a person of the name RetriButioN and wanted to share it with you guys because it was very good and in depth.
Also this post WILL BE VERY LONG!
Are you confused by the obscure description provided by Valve regarding how ranking works? Do you not know how Elo works? Have you struggled to rank-up from Silver to Nova? Are you stuck at a particular rank and unable to rank-up even after a lot of wins? You've come to the right place.
In this guide, I will try my best to explain how ranking works in CSGO and what you need in order to increase your rank. Bear in mind that everything I describe is based on my personal experience with countless alt accounts and smurfs; in other words I do not have any official citation for my claims. However, I do believe what I write is true due to the fact that I have owned and played on more than 50 different alt & smurf accounts (I bought many CSGO gifts during sales) in the past and have gained ranks from Silver to Eagle.
Elo Rating System in CSGO
One might ask, if Elo Rating system is used in 1-Versus-1 game sessions, how can it be implemented in a team-based 5v5 game such as CSGO? The answer is simple, every round (please bear in mind every ROUND, not every game) will be treated like a single game of chess wherein the team with higher Elo Points is expected to win. Each team consists of 5 players which may or may not have the same rank, therefore their total Elo Points will be considered for the purpose of prediction. Consequently, a player with less Elo Points than the rest of the team would lose (give to the enemy team) less points than one with more points in case of a Round Loss and vice versa.
Please bear in mind, that each Rank covers a seemingly wide range of Elo Points. For instance, two people with the same Rank may not have the same amount of Elo Points. A player close to promotion would obviously have more Elo Points than one close to demotion, even though both have the same Skill Group (Rank). A skill group is more like a tag on a certain range of Elo Points.
One other thing worth mentioning is the fact that the Elo Point range considered for deciding a player's Skill Group is NOT relative. What this sentence means is that for example if players with Elo Rating of 1000-1500 are considered MGE, when a player with 1450 Points gains 51 more points, he will advance to DMG but he WILL get demoted back to MGE if he loses the exact same 51 points in the next games. I explained this because another guide claimed that the seemingly slider used for deciding ranks gets "reset" on each promotion and/or demotion which I believe is false. The reason it's rare to derank on a loss immediately after gaining a rank is because it's unlikely to lose enough points to cause it NOT because the points are reset.
In order to shed some more light on this subject, I would provide you the following example, please bear in mind that the numbers and information provided is just for the purpose of this example and may not (and probably aren't) exact:
MG2 = 500-999 Points
MGE = 1000-1499 Points
DMG = 1500-1999 Points
LE = 2000-2499 Points
Team #1 consists of 4 MGEs and 1 DMG with a total points of 6900:
Player A = MGE with 1200p
Player B = MGE with 1350p
Player C = MGE with 1050p
Player D = DMG with 1850p
Player E = MGE with 1450p
Team #2 consists of 3 MGEs and 2 DMG with a total points of 6600:
Player F = DMG with 1600p
Player G = MGE with 1100p
Player H = MGE with 1050p
Player I = DMG with 1650p
Player J = MGE with 1200p
As we can see Team #1 has higher total points than Team #2 even though they have lower ranks. Consequently, Team #1 is expected to win rounds until they lose enough points to have less total points left than Team #2. Team #1 will gain less points on Round Wins than Team #2 because they are expected to win, but if Team #2 turns it around and Win Rounds they will take more points from Team #1 than the other way around. All points won and lost are taken from the oposite team, you don't get points out of thin air. If a player gains points, another most lose.
Even though Team #2 gains more Total Points if the win rounds, the points are NOT evenly distributed among its members. The member with less Elo Points gets a bigger share than one with more. Consequently if Team #2 wins a round and takes for example 100 Points from Team #1. Player H will get more points than Player I because he had less points. Each player will NOT get 20p.
The game does NOT predict if a Team is supposed to win a game or how many rounds a team is supposed to win. Every single round is treated as a chess match. The Team with more points is always expected to win until they lose enough to the opposite team for them to have more points. So a Team with more points always loses more points on Round Loss and gains less points on Round Win than the opposite team.
However, there is another factor taken into consideration which is MVP. MVP is given to a player which has done the most work for their team. Please note that a player with 5 kill can still lose the MVP to a person who defuses or successfully detonated the bomb. The reason for this is because, CSGO is a team-based game, a player can kill the whole enemy Team but still lose the round because he may not have the defuser to defuse the bomb in time.
A player with most point on each team is expected to take the MVP each round until someone else gains more points. If the player with most points gains the MVP, he will receive his predicted share of Elo Points deducted from the enemy team, however if another player receives it, that player will take some of the gained (those added because of the win, NOT his original points) Elo Points from the player with most points. In other words, any play who gains an MVP will get a SIGNIFICANTLY larger share of Elo Points than other players.
MVP does NOT generate Elo Points out of thin air, it only grants a larger share of the won points. If the player with most Elo Points scores the MVP, he will may or may not receive more points than the other players because it all depends on the setup of the team and how much points each player has. But generally speaking, scoring an MVP will have a huge impact on how much points a player receives for a Round Win.
Factors affecting Elo Points
There are two and ONLY two factors that can affect a player's Elo Points (either gain or loss):
The first and foremost is Round Win/Loss:
You and other players on your Team will always lose points if a round is Lost. How much point each player loses depends on how much points they had in the beginning. A player with more points would lose more than a player with less points in case a round is lost.
You and other players on your Team will always gain points if a round is Won. How much point each player gains depends on how much points they had in the beginning. A player with more points would gain less than a player with less points in case a round is Won.
Bottomline: It is impossible to gain Elo Points on Round Loss and lose Elo Points on Round Win.
The second important factor is MVP:
The player who scores an MVP is rewarded a significantly larger share of Elo Points than the other four players (which COULD HAVE but didn't score the MVP). However if the player with most points gains a MVP he will always get less points than a player who does not have the most points. Please do not confuse this sentence, he will still get a lot more points than the other four players that didn't get the MVP.
Bottomline: The player with most MVP will most likely gain more Elo Points than others.
Anything listed below does NOT have ANY effect on Ranks & Points unless it leads to a MVP:
Kills, Assists & Deaths
Teamkills or Suicides
Headshots
Accuracy
Grenades kills, knife kills, stylish kills or anything of this sort
The time each rounds takes (to win or lose)
Losing/Winning with or without the bomb planeted
Soreboard position and/or Score
Achievements gained during each round (if any)
Hostage rescues or shots
Damage given and/or Taken
etc. (Anything else you can imagine)
So what affects your rank (points gained or lost) in a nutshell is:
Current Elo Points (rank)
Round Win/Loss
MVPs Gained
How Skill Groups (Ranks) Work
Each Skill Group (a.k.a Rank) covers a wide range of Elo Ratings (a.k.a Points). For instance, two players with the same rank do NOT have necessarily have the same skill and Elo Points. Players closer to a promotion (a.k.a. rank-up) will posses more points and players further away from it. If a team of 5 Eagles is matches with another team of 5 Eagles, it does not necessarily mean that it has 50% chance of winning and each team will take the same amount of Elo Points in case of a Round Win.
What I mentioned above is the most crucial fact that people seem to not consider. In order to gain a rank you will need to accumulate enough Elo Points that is set as the minimum requirement. Same applies for deranking. Let's assume a player with Elo Points ranging from 1000 to 1499 is considered MGE. A player who has 985 points will need at least 15 more points to be promoted to MGE, it does NOT matter how much points he loses and how much points he gains in the process. As soon as he fulfills the 1000 requirement, he will be promoted to MGE in the system. The actual display might be delayed for a match or two for various reasons, but he WILL still be matched against players of similar Elo Points (i.e. he will be matches against MGEs even though he is MG2).
What I'm trying to say is, there is no delay or miscalculation regarding the actual Elo Points. That is the reason we sometimes see players of lower skills groups and even unranked players matched against those of higher ranks. The reason is because their Elo Points are similar and they're very close to promotion. The system does NOT match people based on their Skill Groups, it finds matches based on your actual and exact (yet invisible) Elo Points.
Promotion-on-Loss Dilemma
There are many claims of Ranking-Up on a Game Loss and Deranking on a Game Win, some are with screenshots and/or even videos. So one might ask if it's possible. Mathematically speaking, it is possible to derank on Game Win and/or rank-up on a Game Loss (please note that I wrote GAME not Round), however it's extremely improbable and rare.
Based on how Elo Rating works in CSGO, it is possible for an individual player to hypothetically gain enough points through Round Wins in order to neglect all the loss and advance to the next Skill Group. However, the skill group difference has to be very vast (i.e. he has to be matched against players of higher skill groups on enemy team and players of lower or same skill group on friendly team) and he also has to score most or maybe all of the MVPs. In that case, if his team loses very closely (14:16 i.e.) and he is VERY close to advancing to the next Skill Group, he might be able to get promoted. Because he will gain a little bit more points than he loses since the enemy team was not supposed to lose that many rounds.
Please bear in mind that it is only impossible to gain points on ROUND Loss, but it is mathematically possible to win enough rounds to gain points while still losing the Best-of-30 Round game. However, I am unsure if it's currently possible after the recent matchmaking tweaks and updates.
The exact opposite can also be true, one player might be able to lose enough points to derank even if he wins a 30 round game.
What happens on Tie or Draw
A tied match or a draw would not have any significant or special difference compared to a win or loss because it's all based on Round results. Both a promotion and demotion is very possible when a Draw happens.
Please note there is no such thing as Round Draw, the only thing that exists is a Game Draw. One side will always lose some Elo points to the other team everytime a round ends. The only exception is if all 10 players abandon (NOT disconnect) at the same time. If all 10 players abandon before the game starts, no points with be transferred.
Effect of Surrender on Elo Points
Another seemingly confusing matter, is surrendering and how it affects the ranks of Players on each team. You can only surrender if a Teammate leaves (and receives cooldown for doing so), and there are people claiming that if you surrender you will not lose any Elo Points which is not true.
This subject can be observed from two different point of views, first I will describe what happens to the player who leaves a match. A player who leaves a match will keep any changes to his Elo Points until the points round he leaves. For example if a player loses the first 3 Rounds of the match and rage-quits, he will only lose the points for those 3 rounds and how his Team performs afterwards will NOT affect that individual at all. Same is applied if he wins some rounds and disconnects for any reason. So in a nutshell, if a player wins a round and leaves, he will get some points (although very little) and vice versa. Please note that the finished game will still show up as loss in history, the extra rounds won or lost whatsoever have no effect on his Elo Points.
But what happens to the remaining players is a bit different than normal matches. From the round a player leaves, they will have the extra Elo Points removed from their total points and all points gained will be distributed only among 4 players. The BOT will have 0 Elo Points, and will never gain or lose points. An MVP gained through a BOT control will result in Elo Points being normally distributed among the 4 players (the game will assume no one gained an MVP and thus no one will gain the EXTRA BONUS). Please don't confuse this with less points gained, they will still take the full amount of points from the enemy team, however it will be more evenly distributed among the 4 remaining players.
So if a player leaves, the remaining 4 players of that team will gain significantly more points for Round Wins and the enemy team loses a significantly more points for Round Losses. That is because, it is highly unlikely for the 4 player team to beat a 5 player team (based on Elo; BOT is not considered). So in a sense, it's not really a good idea to surrender IF you're strong enough to Win ROUNDS. However, the moment your team surrenders, any extra rounds out of 30 will be forfeited and all players will keep the changes to their Elo Points.
To sum it up, if you lose against a team with a leaver, you will lose a lot more Elo Points and if they surrender everyone would keep their current ratings. Thus, it's not uncommon for someone to derank even if they win through a vote surrender. Because they might have lost enough rounds and thus enough Elo Points for a Demotion. Everytime a player leaves, the Elo Rating System will be revised for the remaining players, no matter how many they are.
Effect of Kick on Elo Points
The effect of Kick is the same as a normal leave, the only difference it that it won't unlock the option to Vote Surrender. So if a Team votes of an individual player, they will only lose the advantage of keeping their current points through a surrender. They will however, gain significantly more points if they Win Rounds which is unlikely.
The voted-off player (doesn't matter if he receives cooldown or not) will keep any changes made to his Elo Points until the round he was kicked and the rest of the match will have no effect, even though it shows up as a loss in history. If a player is kicked by 4 other players who queued together, the whole match will be nullified.
Rank Difference in MM Lobby
Matchmaking is based on total (NOT average) Elo Points of each team, when a player with low rank queues with a player of high rank, he will contribute little points towards the total because the player with a higher rank would have a lot more points than the player with a relatively low rank. The system however, still matches them with a team of similar Elo Points (Points NOT Rank).
For example, let's assume a Silver IV player with 100 Points queues with a MGE with 1200 points and no one else. These two players with have 1300 Elo Points in total. The server tries to find three teammates and 5 enemies which results in a fair match with as little Point difference as possible as quick as possible. So the team it finds will most likely be like:
Team #1 consists of 2 MGEs, 2 MG2s and 1 Silver IV with a total points of 3800:
Player A = MGE with 1150p
Player B = MGE with 1200p
Player C = MG2 with 700p
Player D = MG2 with 650p
Player E = Silver IV with 100p
Team #2 consists of 1 MGE, 3x Mnd 1 MG with a total points of 3900:
Player F = MGE with 1150p
Player G = MG2 with 800p
Player H = MG2 with 850p
Player I = MG2 with 650p
Player J = MG with 450p
It's considerably more likely to get matches with people of higher rank rather (still with fair Elo Points) than lower rank UNLESS the other team has a low-ranked people queued with a high-ranked one too. As you can see, the match above is still fair based on Elo Points even though the Team #1 has a Silver IV and every member of Team #2 is MG+.
Another fact worth mentioning is that every time Team #1 wins a Round, Player E will gain significantly more points than others because of the Elo Points difference. This is the reason lower ranked people tend to get "carried" to higher ranks by queuing with high-ranked people.
Please don't misunderstand this, queueing with low-ranked people WILL NOT make you lose more points upon a Round Loss because each match will be fair based on total Elo Points (once again this is NOT average, people who think it's average got it wrong) but it WILL make them gain more points and rank-up faster. This is fair because you're obviously less likely to win against MG+s with a Silver IV on your team anyway.
Unranked & Expired Ranks
Every new account will display its skill group after 10 Wins (NOT 10 games) and every expired rank due to inactivity will be displayed after a Win (again, not a game). The Skill Group displayed is based on Elo Points, not the other way around. This is the most important thing to remember.
Unranked people will start with default Elo Points and will gain/lose those points based on how the perform, once they have reached 10 wins, they will display the Skill Group in which (range) their Elo Rating is. Please bear in mind that being Unranked is NOT the same as being Low Ranked. It's possible for an unranked account to accumulate enough point to be matched against Eagles in its 10th game so it's safe to assume that the unranked person you see at the game of the game has close Elo Rating to the other players.
Same rule applies for Expired ranks due to inactivity, they will have the same Elo Points as before and only have their displayed Skill Group removed. As soon as they win a single game, they will display the current Skill Group their Elo Ratings is in.
One might ask why a WIN and not a game? That's a good question. The reason is because they tend to lose (most likely) Elo Points and ranks as long as they don't win and get matched against player with lower Elo Rating. The team they win is the team which is most likely to have members of the same skill so they will gain the same ranks as the team they won against. In other words, they keep playing against easier and easier opponents until they find a fair match.
It's been pointed out that expired ranks can also be possibly redeemed through a DRAW (Tie), however it wouldn't generally make much of a difference anyway.
How to Rank-Up Fast
Queue with 4 friends who have higher rank than you and have them let you get the MVP for Plant/Defuse whenever possible. You still need to be able to win a lot of rounds from the enemy team.
Regarding "developer 1" rank information
If you enter "developer 1" into your console, you will be able to see a number related to your Rank (or Elo Points) every time you finish a round which counts as an evidence towards the fact that your Elo Rating is changed every time a round is finished.
EDIT: An Official Valve Employe has confirmed that these variables presented in gamefiles are NO LONGER VALID and have no direct effect on ranking calculatings. I didn't claim they were related, but Valve has just confirmed these data are obsolete and irrelevant.
Clarification of "leaderboardsconfig.txt" information
Inside your "csgo" folder you will find a template for Global Leaderboards which mentions the word Elo. Some people argue that the factors presented in this file have a seemingly unknown effect on the actual Elo Rating used for matchmaking.
Some (not all) of the mentioned stats included in this file are (THEY HAVE NO EFFECT ON RANK):
Kills\Assists\Deaths\Damage
Score\Stars (MVP)
Wins\Losses
Plants\Defuses\Rescues
etc. (some other stuff)
As we all know, the factors mentioned above are what we actually see on the Leaderboards page, therefore these stats might only be collected for the sole purpose of being put up on the leaderboards. Inclusion of any factor in this file does not count as evidence towards them having any effect on Elo Rating points of players.
DevElopers have clearly stated that the algorithm is Elo-Based, inclusion of any unpredictable and irrelevant (to a TEAM-based game) factor such as Kill\Assist\Death would be against that idea. However, MVP (in a totally team-based game) is a different area.
EDIT: An Official Valve Employe has confirmed that these variables presented in gamefiles are NO LONGER VALID and have no direct effect on ranking calculatings. I didn't claim they were related, but Valve has just confirmed these data are obsolete and irrelevant.
Extraction of Ranking Information from Gamefiles
Please READ THIS CAREFULLY
Valve is more clever than to accidentally release unnecessary information through updates, therefore I wouldn't take any claims to have successfully extracted ranking algorithm from gamefiles seriously. If anyone claims to have extracted the EXACT SAME algorithm, it couldn't more more false than someone that claims he has found the algorithm of case opening items.
It's pointless to go through all the game files a thousand times in an attempt to find out how Ranking works because it's simply server-sided. There is absolutely NO reason to include anything relevant to this in gamefiles. You simply can't find something that isn't there. It's crystal clear and vivid that Valve treasures their Ranking Algorithm dearly, if they wanted it out it would've already been out.
If you want to know why I think Valve doesn't want to release this information, please refer to the relevant section of this guide.
Why doesn't Valve officially release the Algorithm?
My guess is because of Boosters & Smurfs. I mean, haven't we got enough of those already? I'm not talking about boosters who get into lobbies with hackers, I'm talking about people being carried to higher ranks. Currently, the subject of what affects the ranks is highly debateable and everyone says something different.
Someone says K/D has a lot of effect, another falsifies it by mentioned than people with negative K/D get carried to higher ranks all the time. Another person says only W/L ratio matters, then someone else falsifies by mentioning people might derank on win. So it's best for Valve to keep it all as shady and obscure as possible in order to keep away smurfs and boosters from getting exactly the rank they want.
I might have even helped smurfs and boosters by publishing this guide because now they can even boost more effectively knowing the only thing that affects is Round Results and MVP. Tomorrow, we may have ten times more hackers 0-16 carrying noobs with negative K/Ds to Eagle and beyond. I'm not claiming my guide is 100% true and accurate, I'm just saying that based on my experience since the day Ranks were revealed until now, I truly believe this is how it works.
If Valve releases the exact algorithm and unveils how ranking works, I promise you, the day after we're gonna have an a dozen times more Eagle & Silver 1 Accounts trolling matches; then smufs & boosters will get EXACTLY the rank they want. Right now, all they know is, win to get higher rank.
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