The Elo System - DeBunked (How you really rank up)

The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the individual skill levels of players in Player-Versus-Player games.

Over there years there have been many speculations and conspiracies over the actual workings of the Elo System and after countless hours of competitive chess and CS:GO I think I have finally come up with an answer.

Please note that many of the values and information here may have changed when valve incorporated the system to CS:GO. What I have proposed here is based off the traditional Elo system when it was first released by Arpad Elo. So is important to note that values may have changed when valve has adapted the System.

What is the Elo System

In short the Elo System is a unique ranking system which is designed purely off the comparison of ranks between two players (or 10 if we are putting this into CS:GO terms). The ranks of these two (or 10) players serves as a predictor of the outcome of a match. If players with equal ratings who play against each other are expected to score an equal number of rounds. therefore the system expects them to draw.

Simply put the Elo system takes the rank of one player and puts him/her against another player of a relatively even rank. Due to the players being the same rank then the system expects the match to end in a draw.

How does the system work?

To tell you the truth I personally don't know how I can express this without killing someone with the sheer amount of mathematics involved so I will do the best I can to keep this short, concise and math free.

Let us assume team A has a collective Elo of 900pts therefore team B will have a a collective Elo of APPROXIMATELY 900. This means that the system expects the game to result in a draw or slight win. Valve's Match making servers do their best to balance the ranks of the match evenly so the two teams will have equivalent ranks.

Overall only a few factors actually affect the Elo System:

• Rounds Won/Lost
  
• Overall Match Result
  
• Your Rank
  
• Your Team Mates Average Rank
  
• Your Team Mates Individual Ranks
  
• Your Score
  
• Your Team Mate's Scores (relative to their ranks)
  
• Your Team's Average Score
  
• Your Opponents Average Rank
  
• Your Opponents Individual Rank
  
• Your Opponents Individual Score (relative to their ranks)
  
• Your Opponents Average Score

Notice:

• MVPs
  
• KDR
  
• Kills (total)
  
• Deaths (total)
  
• Assists (total)
  
• Plants
  
• Defuses

DO NOT AFFECT THE ELO SYSTEM

Regardless the amount of kills/assists/plants/defuses don't affect Your Elo the points rewarded for doing so do.


In case you were wondering:
The formula to determine Player A's rankings is expressed as
expE_A = \frac 1 {1 + 10^{(R_B - R_A)/400}}.

Similarly the ranking for Player B is
E_B = \frac 1 {1 + 10^{(R_A - R_B)/400}}.

And each rank is TRADITIONALLY separated by 400 points of Elo

The Competitive Ranks

It is important to note that the competitive ranks are simply a place holder for the amount of Elo your account contains. As ranks are separated by 400 points of Elo then the system will most likely match someone with 399 points with someone with 400.

Here is a table showing the ranks and the amount of points separating each rank.

Rank- -Elo Points

Silver 1: 0-399
Silver 2: 399-799
Silver 3: 800-1199
Silver 4: 1200-1599
Silver Elite: 1600-1999
Silver Elite Master: 2000-2399
Gold Nova 1: 2400-2799
Gold Nova 2: 2800-3199
Gold Nova 3: 3200-3599
Gold Nova Master: 3600-3999
Master Guardian 1: 4000-4399
Master Guardian 2: 4400-4799
Master Guardian Elite: 4800-5199
Distinguished Master Guardian: 5200-5599
Legendary Eagle: 5600-5999
Legendary Eagle Master: 6000-6399
Supreme Master First Class: 6400-6799
The Global Elite: 6800+

Every rank has a variation of 400 points. This makes the ranks a simple place holder that we can understand. Due to this if you are a Legendary Eagle and when you solo que get matched against Distinguished Master Guardians then you should take this as an indication that your Elo is fairly low and you are close to ranking down. This also applies vice versa. If you are a Distinguished Master Guardian and are being queued with Legendary Eagle's then you are probably due for a rank up soon.

However this being said it can be hard to tell as you may be in a game and have a highly ranked DMG or poorly ranked LE when your Elo is perfectly normal. Due to this I would not recommend using this as a consistent method for determining the amount of Elo you have but it is still good to use as a rough estimation.

Unranked Players

Unranked players actually do have Elo. That is why after 10 games it is possible that you can go straight to global elite (It's Actually LEM, you cant rank past LEM until you have atleast 150 wins. It is also why you still see unranked players in the higher tier matches. As I said before the rank that is displayed is only a place holder for us (the players) to understand. This also applies to lobbies. If an unranked player is queued with a ranked player then the game will average out the total amount of Elo and place them in a game respectively.

Lobbies

Lobbies are a touchy subject to consider. However I believe the most logical way they could operate is if the Average Elo was calculated and the lobby was placed into a game accordingly. The Elo system then assumes that a global elite will be able to compensate for a silver 1, a supreme will be able to compensate for a silver 2 and so on. This would then make the middle/average ranks: Nova 3 and Master.

This also applies when you solo que if the game can't find a match of the exact same approximate skill level in Elo points (almost guaranteed variations in every match). Therefore a rank bellow and above will be implemented. The easiest way to think about this is the ying and yang where the balance between ranks must be equal for both teams.

Varying time/wins to rank up

This is another issue that stumped me whilst writing this guide. To tell you the truth I personally have no idea why some ranks are harder to achieve than others. The only real reason/logic I can think of is that Valve has edited the values to make these ranks harder to achieve or Elo is gained at a slower rate between different ranks. Unfortunately there is nothing in the foundation mathematical formulae of the Elo system to support this so we are left to determine this for ourselves.

How to rank up

Well by far the easiest/quickest method is to play against people of a higher rank/more Elo than you! It really is that simple.

But how do you do that you ask? True, everything I have told you has been focused around how the Elo system balances out ranks in an attempt to make the game fair. Well if you have a friend that is a higher rank than you then play with them. This ultimately will lead to higher ranks and more Elo. It is important to remember that the ENTIRE Elo system revolves around how you do against other ranks. This includes ranks, lower, higher and your own. If you win a game and anchor then it is unlikely that you will gain much Elo (however you will gain some from winning). And if you loose a game but top then it is unlikely that you will loose much or any at all. You can actually gain Elo on a loss if you do well enough but you can never loose Elo from a win.

If you constantly top frag in matches against similar ranks to yourself then you are fast tracking yourself to a rank up. If you constantly beat some higher skilled ranks then you are doing the only benefiting yourself. Now here is the bit where I contradict EVERYONE. Worry less on the outcome of the match and more on your individual performance. In short be a filthy kill ♥♥♥♥♥ and a rank up will come your way in no time.

In Conclusion...

In conclusion the Elo System is a remarkably complex and advanced system which compares the ranks of individuals and assesses, makes a prediction based on these assessments and then ranks players according to their ability. A reminder to you all that this is all based of the traditional/original Elo system and numerous values may have changed when valve adapted and implemented the system for usage in CS:GO. Regarding how to rank up, it is not necessarily how it should be done as:

1. no one likes a kill ♥♥♥♥♥
and
2. There are other ways to rank up

I hope you learnt something today and if you wish to support me you can donate (oh wait im not a ♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ so no dont donate please), and remember to please like and favorite the guide so others can see it.


Feel free to add me on steam or comment down bellow if you have any further questions and as always: Go Pwn Sum Nubs!

[Aspect]

@Shroud one can not say for certain

[Soeharto]

is elo on csgo works the same as dota 2 mmr???

[Aspect]

hmmm thats interesting. My hunch is that your performance was alot lower then that of who was in 3rd place and his rank was most likely silver 3. So youe performance warranted a silver 2 rank as your performance was alot lower in comparison to the one above you.

[Fikret Abdić]

I was playing against MGs and Novas with my friend after losing my rank after inactivity.

We DECISIVELY beat them, as they only won around 4 rounds.

I got Silver 2.

How is this possible? I was 4th fragger, but my friend was 5th. Does that have anything to do with it? My rank was silver 4 before I went inactive.

Please respond

[Aspect]

you can narrow it down and get a rough estimate by using some guess work. Your MM rank will give you a 399 point gap. Like i mentioned in the guide, if you simply look at the enemy team's ranks and take note if you are consistently playing against higher or lower ranks then you can also narrow it into the higher or lower spectrum of your rank. Your previous wins/losses in relation to your performance against higher/lower ranks should give you a rough indication on how close you are to a rank up. Due to the nature and secrecy of the system your EXACT elo ranking and the amount of elo gained/lost in a match is unknown. However it isnt that hard to do some accurate guess work. This is why when you hear people saying: "This is my rankup game" they dont actually know if they will rankup but they only believe that because of their previous performance that it is likely that they will.

[Fi(e)rceShadow]

but how do you know what your current elo rank is and your average of elo points each round

[Aspect]

@Burnt_Toast Good on you mate! :D

[xd]

My smurf got ranked on a tie, so I was ranked with 9 wins, i played 3 more games, I lost two, i tied another one. I carried all 3 games so I still ranked up. Then i got 2 more losses then 5 wins and i ranked up again

[Aspect]

@Jumpy yes

[Jumppy1]

You can rank up in comp if u get a tie.