Ranking System broken?

[Magnetkopf]

It seems like the system for calculating ranked points might be broken.

Example:
I (Bronze I, 1154 points) and a friend of mine (Silver I, 1386 points) played a ranked match against two Gold IV players. We lost the game and received a penalty of -13 points.

In another match, we played against two Bronze II players and received only +7 points for winning.

Can anyone explain how this is calculated? Why does losing against higher-ranked opponents result in a higher deduction than winning against a team of a similar level?

[Dimlhugion]

Exact formulas are unknown, but generally speaking, ELO is a weighted ranking system. It's only "zero sum" if the formula - which can be tweaked based on any number of factors depending on the person programming it - thinks the competition is "even enough" between all participants in a given match. Usually this magic "even Steven" number is 16.

Meaning, if your gain/loss potential is +16/-16 respectively, then the ELO system thinks everything's even. If you stand to gain more, you usually stand to lose less, and vice versa. The biggest two determining factors in this game, are "range differential" (how far away your ranking RANGE is from everyone else), and joining the queue in a pre-established party.

To wit, your 1386 Silver I friend is only 14 points away from Gold IV, and your 1154 Bronze I rank is only 46 points away from Silver 4, and you were presumably queued with your friend in a party. What this means is the game assumed you'd communicate, coordinate, and therefore perform or play, WAY better than your individual rankings would otherwise normally indicate, especially relative to people who solo-queue and just get whatever rando they get.

Which basically means the game saw small differences in individual rankings + duo-queue and said "you guys are basically on par, but if you lose, you technically lost against higher rankings so you won't get penalized quite as much."

Then on the second example, you're "borderline gold" and your friend is "borderline silver" and you're duo-queued, going against mid-level bronzies who might have been solo-queued. The game decided you had SIGNIFICANT advantage over them.

Worth noting through all of this, that your friend can gain/lose different amounts of ELO than you, even when duo-queued with you. This is because again, it's not necessarily zero-sum and the system tries to make it so higher ELO's need to face higher ELO's in order to make the gain/loss ratio worthwhile.