When a Starcraft 2 ranking algorithm goes drinking

Today features a guest blog-post by my good friend Søren Houen about one of our experiences while playing StarCraft 2.

Myself and the owner of this blog, Søren C, play Starcraft together. A lot. Recently, we have improved our game severely, and started ranking against better and better players. The secret to our recent success? Scouting.

While this success has registered with our egoes, and it damn well has, Blizzard ranking mechanism, however, has started a severe drinking binge.

It started quite innocently. While we are currently in Gold League, Rank 13, every time it says “Even Teams”, we find ourself head to head with two Platinum players. Matches we have begun winning more and more often, I might, proudly add.

However, recently, the ranking algorithms alcoholic exploits took on a sinister turn. We were thrown into a match in which we were favored. We lost the match. Not by a lot, but certainly by enough. The defeat screen is at the top.

Okay, we lost a match in which we were Favored. It hurt our ranking, and we move on. However, if you consider the players, I think it is hardly fair:

Holy Zergling! Two players in 1v1 Diamond, and Master. MASTER FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. Telling two Gold 2v2 players that they’re favored against them is, while an incredible boon, like telling a crippled porcupine it’ll “Totally win for sure” when its facing off against a howitzer.

WTF Blizzard?