Zula Ranking System

This guide explains some of the main mechanics of current Zula Ranking System.

Basics

Zula Ranking System currently features 4 different game modes.
These game modes are:

• Competitive (Sabotage 5v5)
  
• Team Deathmatch (5v5)
  
• Battle Royale (Solo or Teams of 3, maximum amount of players per match: 32)
  
• Clan Wars (Sabotage 5v5) (Under maintenance, no ETA given)

You can access all of these game modes by going to "Quick Lobby" in the Servers List.
Certain Game Modes and Maps require certain player level. More about this below.
Once you're in the "Quick Lobby", with desired game mode selected, you can choose a map to start on. All of the Game Modes, except Battle Royale, feature variety of maps to choose from but it is reccomended to select RANDOM map for best and fastest matchmaking.

Ranks

History

First game mode that received Ranks was Competitive. In version 1.17 (05.01.2018) 9 ranks were released. (Rookie, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Emerald, Diamond, Elite, Master and Legend.)

In December 2020 Team Deathmatch ranks were added (ranging from Rookie to Legend), at the time they were exact same as in Competitive. The only difference was there were no seasonal resets as they were in Competitive (So users got no rewards for reaching certain rank, apart of the rewards from end of the match.)

In December 2021 two more special ranks were added, for Competitive mode only. (Champion and Leader)

Team Deathmatch ranks were given a visual makeover about a year later to set them apart from Competitive Ranks.

When Battle Royale was released in January 2022, it included ranks ranging from Rookie to Legend, which were visually identical to those in Competitive.

The most recent major rank upgrade was released in November 2023 and it included Champion and Leader ranks for Team Deathmatch and Battle Royale in addition to a complete visual overhaul of the existing Battle Royale ranks.

Special Ranks & Leaderboards

Special Ranks are ranks that are only available to certain amount of players.
Special ranks are Champion and Leader.
If we put ranks in order from lowest to highest we could arrange them in following order:
Rookie, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Emerald, Diamond, Elite, Master and Legend. After them come Champion and then Leader.

Champion rank is given to top 100 players with the most amount of elo in Legend rank at the end of the season.
Leader rank is given to top 1 player with the most amount of elo in Legend rank at the end of the season.

You can follow these placements by checking in-game leaderboards or online:

• Competitive Leaderboard[www.playzula.com]
  
• Team Deathmatch Leaderboard[www.playzula.com]
  
• Battle Royale Leaderboard[www.playzula.com]

Leaderboard button can be found in Quick Lobby, in top left corner underneath the stats button.
Leaderboards update every morning around 06:00 GMT+3.

Matchmaking

Matchmaking in Zula is based on Ranks and Levels of the players in queue. The game will try to match teams with similar rankings, but on rare occasions, you can find opponents with a much lower or higher rank than you. To avoid this, it is recommended to play RANDOM map within both TDM and Competitive game modes.

ELO points are earned or lost based on match outcomes and they determine matchmaking and rank progression. Players can team up with friends or be paired randomly based on ELO.

How much ELO you gain is calculated based on few different factors. Those are:

• your placement in your team (how many kills you had compared to your teammates / it matters if you were first or last in the team)
  
• how much ELO you already have (you will gain different amount if you have 1% or 80% of the same rank)
  
• the rank you have compared to the opposing team
  
• the ranks of your teammates

When we talk about ELO reductions besides losing matches, the most common case is due to cheating.

• If you win against a player, and they later on get banned you will lose % you gained from that match.
  
• If you start as a team of 4, and get a random 5th player. If that random player later on gets banned you'll lose the elo gained from that match.

The system is designed to detect when a player's internet connection is lost during a match. If this happens, player will see a pop-up on their screen.
If there is no internet connection for 10 seconds, the player will be kicked out back to quick lobby.
Once the player is kicked out of the server they have 5 minutes to reconnect. If they fail to reconnect they will receive an ELO decrease for that match and 5 minutes queue ban. (Queue ban is longer every time, if it happens frequently)

Competitive

In competitive server all matches are played in Sabotage (5v5) mode with victory condition "Win 10 rounds". In case of a tie, an additional 6 rounds will be automatically played to break the tie.

Competitive Mode is accessible to players with level 20 or higher, regardless if they're in a clan or not. The mode features Sabotage gameplay with victory conditions set at winning 10 rounds, with tiebreakers of 6 additional rounds if necessary.

Currently available maps in the Competitive Map Pool are:

• Wedding Hall
  
• Old Town
  
• Refugee's Camp
  
• Favela
  
• Castle

If you're intrested in callouts for each of these maps you can checkout our Competitive Callouts guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2943650966

Competitive Ranks

Team Deathmatch

In Team Deathmatch all matches are played in TDM (5v5) mode with victory condition being first team to reach 100 kills. There is a time limit of 10 minutes, and if no team reaches 100 kills within those 10 minutes, the team with more kills wins. In case of a tie no elo is reduced nor gained.

Team Deathmatch is accessible to players of any level but certain maps do have level requirements to be played.

Currently available maps in the TDM Map Pool are:

• Ship (No requirement)
  
• Junk Yard (No requirement)
  
• Construction Site (Minimum Level: 3)
  
• Nemrut (Minimum Level: 7)
  
• Gallipoli (Minimum Level: 10)

The duration of invulnerability begins when a player spawns and lasts for 3 seconds. Exception to this is Disco map, where invulnerability time is only 1 second.

Team Deathmatch Ranks

Battle Royale

Battle Royale is a survival mode played with up to 32 players.

Battle Royale features two maps:

• Desert (teams of 3)
  
• Kars (solo)

You start the game in the plane only with your knife and you glide freely in the sky.
You can open your parachute and land anywhere you want!
However, you should watch out for the danger zone shrinking as time goes on.
Staying out of the safe zone can end your adventure early!

Battle Royale ELO System

Teams

Compared to other game types, there are differences in the criteria that affect how much ELO you gain or lose in Battle Royale. They are as follows:

• your team's placement (based on which team survives the longest)
  
• the number of kills you have individually

Team placements are from 1 to 6, number 1 being the last team alive and number 6 being the first team eliminated. Depending on the placement you can gain or lose more ELO.

Solos

Solo placements are from 1 to 32, number 1 being the last player alive and number 32 being the first player to be eliminated. Depending on the placement you can gain or lose more ELO.

Battle Royale Ranks

Clan Wars

Clan Wars is a gamemode very similar to Competitive, but the main difference being that you do not queue with random players but instead with your own team (clan) against other clans. Instead of playing for individual rank you're playing for your CLAN rank.

It replaced the normal clan servers and all of the clan matches were done thru Clan Wars matchmaking.

It was only released for few months before being closed and placed under maintenance, where it remains today.

Highest rank reached before maintenance was Master, and first clan to do it was teamFORZE.
Other clans that followed soon were Beyler Beyi, Eastern Star and Turkish Royale.

In December 2024, in version 1.70 the Clan Wars section has been completely removed and only regular Clan servers remain.