We all know that a lot of peoples uses to leave the ladder for 3 months, than join again, make a win streak, reach the pich and leave.


Now...i was watching some of the top players in the seasonal ladder. For example, i plaed 4 games and i have a rank of 2083. Unknownsoldier (i say him because it's the one i saw first and surprised me) played only one game and have a rank of 2013. Now we can easly imagine that when i will get ranked in the best case i will get a rank of let's say 2100-2130, but Unknownsoldier could get over 2300 2400.

My question is: is that possible joining the ladder a little bit later (when other people starts getting ranked) influence your possibility of increase your rank? If i join from the begin, everyplayer is ranked the same. But..if i wait, and i start beating players which have 1900 2000 rank, i should get more from that wins. Is my thught right? Or doesn't influence in any case when you join?

Seasonal ladder: join late or play slow to get easier games against lower rated players so you win more. Then at the end of the season, if you think you are ahead on points but have bad positioning or think you might lose, draw out the game so the other guy doesn't get a chance to win or overtake you on points (mathwolf vs ruthless?).

@red People get stupidly high ratings on the normal ladder after only a very few games too. I played with a player who was rated higher than me after 3 games not long ago. I think more games even if won bring down your rating if they are against low rated opponents. If you wait and start playing 1900-2000 ranked players you will get more from a win but you are also more likely to lose. Those players are ranked 1900-2000 because theyre better. It seems that the win % is what determines a winner not the people you beat to get it. The top 10 ends up being a bit of a round robin anyway.

@Gui playing slow doesnt affect your game count in seasonal, the games get given out every 3 days so long as there is someone for you to be matched with. Joining late is the only way to get less than 20 games. Uncompleted games are just given to the player who is winning, according to some formula at the end of the season.

I was referring only to the seasonal ladder. As i consider myself at least a good player to fly around top ten as i sometimes do, i don't have problems to play against people ranked higher. My only doubt was that if you start the seasonal a little bit later youo get more from wins. I don't know when unknown joined the seasonal, but it seems a little bit later, and i can't explain otherwise his rank compared with mine. He needs one more game to pass me out, with only the half of games i won. Maybe in the long run that will be assested?

Unknown beat Niko. So the system thinks it should rate unknown at least as high as Niko. So instead of comparing your wins to unknown's one win, you should compare it to Niko's 3-1 record.