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Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

I've noticed a huge influx of forum posts, tweets and chat conversations recently about peoples' placements, and it has occurred to me that people don't quite understand how league promotion works. Now of course, you could go and look up Excalibur's four billion page article on Team Liquid. But I'm gonna try to explain it concisely.

So. Last season you were Gold league. You really powered hard over the last two weeks and felt like you've made some significant improvements. Your win ratio has improved from 48% to 57%. That's gotta be a promotion right?

So you play your placement match. Holy crap, it was against a Platinum player... and you won! But what the hell? Still in Gold?

Believe it or not, your chances of being promoted to a new league on "Placement day" are no higher than they are on any other day. If you were Gold league before Season 2 locked, you're probably going to be Gold league when you play your placement matches. Why?

Let's travel back in time two weeks, while I pull some random figures out of thin air.

• The ladder just locked.
• Lets say your MMR is currently 750.
• Lets say the MMR for being promoted to Platinum (at this point in time) is 800.

You're so close! Surely if you ladder like crazy over the next two weeks, you'll get promoted right? No - because the MMR requirement for promotion is a living, breathing, moving figure. It's based on the MMR of everyone in and around that league. So what this means is, the required MMR is constantly rising or falling depending on what everyone else is doing.

Now interestingly enough, everyone has this same end-of-season mentality. "Gotta ladder like crazy so I can get promoted next season!" So of course, this causes the MMR requirement to 'spike', escalating higher than usual. You might be doing better, but so is everyone else.

So here we are two weeks in the future. You achieved your 850 MMR, and you've played your placement match. But why weren't you promoted? It's simple. Due to everyone hardcore laddering over the last two weeks, the required MMR for Platinum is now 1050!

So what this means, is that you're actually less likely to be promoted during end/beginning of a season than usual. Because the MMR is rising so rapidly, that it would require significant (read: inhuman) improvement by a player in order to keep up.

Now of course, there are exceptions to this rule. There are some people who were so close to the MMR when the ladder was locked, that they were probably due to be promoted in 1 or 2 more games. So of course, you could expect those people to be promoted straight out of the gate.

But for everyone else, don't be discouraged. The ladder will stabilise again in two more weeks, and MMR's will stop spiking. If you continue at your current rate, you should expect a promotion soon after.

And as one final attempt to visualise how this works, imagine this.

• You're in a car, moving at 60 KM/h.
• You're driving towards a goal.
• The goal is 100KM away.
• The goal is also moving at 60KM/h.
• In order to reach the goal, you obviously need to increase your speed.
• Eventually, with enough acceleration, you'll drive through it.
• But then a season ends/begins. So you increase your speed to 80KM/h.
• But so have all the other cars, and now the goal is now moving at 90KM/h!
• Thus, you're still unable to reach the goal at your current pace.

I hope this helps anyone who finds themselves frustrated or disappointed in themselves after their recent placement results. Just keep at it.

And for those who have already managed to get promoted this season - congratulations!
That's quite a feat.

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

Very insightful post Dox A must read for the people who don't understand the Bnet 2.0 promotion / placement system.

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

My interpretation is the following

Blizzard doesnt show us our MMR.
Blizzard must die

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

heading home in 20 mins, looking into playing placement in some 40 mins, can't wait to be stuck in diamond for 3-4 more weeks

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

I had the opposite happen to me. I performed really well in Gold during the season, then during the last couple of weeks I was winning 1 out of 3 games, until I got depressed and stopped playing for the last 5 or so days.

Do my placement match, and get placed in Platinum.

:/ not sure how that works, but I'm not complaining. I now have a reason to start practicing again! ^_^

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

Good read. I'm happy though. Started season 2 as a mid gold. Worked on improving myself. Got to platinum. Continued to refine and understand the game... got matched up with a lot of diamond players and a few plats after a while. Subscribed to Grandmaster here. Stopped laddering for a while as I got busy/net played up... learned a bit from replays etc. Did my placement match for season 3 played a diamond dude. Being a little rusty with a bonus pool of 400+ points... I thought I'd lose and I was back to plat. I did lose because of said reason lolz... but GOT DIAMOND!

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

your answer right here! TGM = promoted after placement matches! haha but seriously alot of subscribers get promoted so fast

anyway that is a great analysis to a popular question dox, maybe you can post it as an article piece too so it doesn't fall off the page so fast!

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

To add to NirvAnA's point, I'm subscribed to TGM and I got promoted to Plat after my placement match.

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

I've never had to think about MMR for promotions.

It's like some alien world you're all describing and I can't relate at all.

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

i have a question, it may sound stupid but, season 2 NA server, i started silver after 4-5 games i was plat, i believe i have the same play in SEA, in SEA 2 iwas like gold, then slipped to silver eventually bronze,,

how can my MMR in NA and SEA servers be so far aprt?

i think i really need TGM, can this be paid thru CC?

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

The lower league skill level here on SEA is higher than on NA.
When I was gold here on SEA I was playing playing diamonds and plats on NA. A plat here could easily make Diamond on NA, silvers here could make gold plat there easily. Just cause there is so many players on NA, there is a lot more bad players there.

And thanks Nirvana!

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

Yeah same, I've never really given it much thought until the new season. Always somehow managed to find myself in the highest available league since beta (except GM lol). Noooooo idea how.

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

hmm..good read. it kinda explains why i managed to get back into silver after dropping into bronze. tho, i felt like i didnt deserve the promotion cause most of my games were with either bronze or placement matches players with the occasional game against top 50 silver. I feel my promotion was even more not deserved cause my placement match was with a totally new player (who absolutely knew nothing of sc2) who was playing his first placement match :/

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

This is not so much a difference in server skill as it is a difference in sever population, because the divisions represent a percentage. Due to the much larger amount of players, the divisions are 'scaled down' in terms of the caliber of players that fill them.

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

TGM helped me get from gold to masters in season two. (+ the help of some individuals to prac with obviously)

Just sayin.

Also, referring to the OP, I figured this would happen, this is why I laddered hard BEFORE the lock to make sure i was locked in masters hahah

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

Really enjoyable/informative read. I am happy I did get put up a league though >

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

TY for the clarification! =D

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

While I agree with what Dox said originally, I think that members of a forum like sc2sea are more likely to enjoy a higher percentage of people who are promoted on the start of a new season. Where others will get bored and quit, or possibly lack motivation to get their MMR going (no matter how high it is increasing), those participating in a community atmosphere are less likely to leave the game - hence when there are promotions on offer, we will claim a disproportionate number.

That doesnt mean it is a sure thing, but when there are resources around (whether that is TGM, cheap coaching or just someone to chat to in a channel in game) and friendly atmosphere, those players can only do better than the average sc2 player without access to those resources. Just sayin.

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

Whatever I still know I was cheated out of Masters!

Re: Surprised by your Placement Results?
 

I wonder how Bnet will place me after a 10 month hiatus. I honestly don't care about the leauge I will be in, I just want that sexy "W."