Splatoon 2 How does Rank Skipping work?

[Pupsik]

Hi there!

Im really confused with the Rank Skip mechanic, since I don't know how it works.
I heard people say you need to achieve a knockout every match, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
I got told you are not allowed to have cracks on your bar... but that also turns out to be untrue.

Im only asking because I seem to skip pretty consistently...with the Inkbrush no less and I want to know what im doing "right" in the games eyes.

 

[Mar$el]

People have made theories on how it works to no true avail. It remains a mystery.

 

[vanille987]

Hidden mechanics calculating your power and stuff.
In other words: I don’t think anyone nows the maths behind rank skipping, other then it being (or looking?) extremly random.

 

[Mar$el]

Okay well I just experienced my very first rank skip in S+ which defeats my first theory that you can't skip after having missed an opportunity to do so. However, it was after I lost my rank in SZ for the first time since like January. So I went down from S+16 to S+11. Then I went 5-2 in my campaign back up and skipped from S+11 up to S+13. I haven't come to any conclusions other than if the game was testing me to see if I deserved the derank or not or something I don't know. Just thought I'd report my unusual findings. I've been ranking up by 1's ever since B-.

 

[Flammie]

I'm guessing Nintendo hated dataminers so hard, they just randomized the rank up system so dataminers would give up.

 

[Mr.HawK]

Speaking of dataminers.

One of the individuals who has been involved with the splatoon weapons datamining as of recent, Lean, shared a piece of info a while ago about rank skips. To quote, "Rank skip is decided on mmr of people you played. The game stores a history of people you played and then there is a loop and they adjust your new rank/mmr value for each rank up you get until the game thinks you are good"

To clarify, Ranked mode has a hidden mmr value (similar to league/splatfest power, and is used for the purpose of ranked matchmaking) and depending on whatever value your mmr happens to be, if it's greater than the threshold (whatever power/mmr level is associated with each rank tier) you will skip a rank and be placed in the spot you're supposed to be. if you fall below the threshold you will not skip you will only climb normally.

Also, no it's not random

 

[Flammie]

@Mr.HawK

Can you define what "mmr of people" means?

 

[Dessgeega]

Also, no it's not random

So not random in terms of mechanics, but random in terms of matchmaking. I don't see anything there about the allies you get. Honestly, that might even be worse than if it were random. Hoo boy, this game...

 

[Flammie]

So not random in terms of mechanics, but random in terms of matchmaking. I don't see anything there about the allies you get. Honestly, that might even be worse than if it were random. Hoo boy, this game...

So the only reason it's randomized is because it collect all data of all your teammates and opponents together, whether you won or lost those matches?

In all honesty, that actually doesn't matter in the long run anyway, if that's true, cause if you're S+0 or S+50, you're still randomized playing with people between those two ranks anyway, so even if you rank up, you still play with the same random people as before...

 

[Mr.HawK]

@Mr.HawK

Can you define what "mmr of people" means?

mmr is "Match Making Rating", so mmr of other people just means the rating that person is given. it's a specific number that the game uses to match you up with people of a similar rating

 

[AC1]

Your new match making rating; your old match making rating + x + y

x is base points (absolute value of x is fixed unless certain situations is meet)

y is bonus points (positive if the last match you faced had a average match making rating that is higher than your old match making rating, negative if the last match you faced had a average match making rating that is lower than your old match making rating)

absolute value of y is less than the (absolute value of x)*0.8

x + y = 0 in certain situation (number of teammate in your team is less than the number of teammates in opposing team)

 

[Flammie]

mmr is "Match Making Rating", so mmr of other people just means the rating that person is given. it's a specific number that the game uses to match you up with people of a similar rating

Your new match making rating; your old match making rating + x + y

x is base points

y is bonus points (positive if the last match you faced had a average match making rating that is higher than your old match making rating, negative if the last match you faced had a average match making rating that is lower than your old match making rating)

absolute value of y is less than the (absolute value of x)*0.8

All of these makes perfect sense now, but it makes less sense due to what kind of people i'm facing.

First time i got into S+, the first thing it lists me with is people from S+30 to S+50 and it happens more often than i can count, i don't even remember the last time i had someone FIVE RANKS within my own rank that i got to play with, and the skill gap is waaay too harsh for me to even play in.

So if this Match Making Point system is supposed to balance me out to people with equal rating, why am i getting 50+ players in half of my lobbies, when i myself are S+0 to S+2 and stuck there (recycling and losing the rank constantly) ?

 

[InklingJoe]

I have a theory that S+0 players are constantly placed against S+25 and up because of the amount of people who hit S+0 and then stop playing ranked, effectively stunting the player pool you're supposed to be facing off against.

This seems to be the case to me, as the first few times I've made it to A- or, for a hot second, A, I immediately hit a wall of A+ players who I couldn't even begin to compete with. It seems to me like the people who would inhabit S+10-15 are being regularly kicked back to A+, due to a lack of S+0-10 players. This would really make skipping behave oddly. If an, S+0 player, either by skill or by carry, scores a few wins against an S+30-50 player, then the algorithm has a large leap in MMR to account for.

I don't have any quantitative data to back this up, but, simply reading the air in the room, social media in the fan base seems thick with players who hit S+ and then stop. It's my hope that rank X takes you guys out of the same queue, and the spread of player skill evens out over the gap between A- and S.

 

[Mar$el]

When I was in the 0-2 range in S+ I mostly got paired with people around my rank in my 1800 lobbies. I didn't start consistently playing against +50's until I hit 2000 and 2100 lobbies. Maybe you're a +2 player with a high power level. It's a struggle now but the game believes you belong there and is testing you to see if you belong. If you show your worth those will become your normal lobbies. They might still be hard at that point but that's the process we go through when we rank up (unless you are a S1 vet ranking up in the beginning of the game). You may not be a high +number but your power level indicates how good you are.

 

[LiX]

As pointed out above, skipping is all about getting that secret score you can't see over a certain thereshold you also cannot see.

I performed my last skip yesterday a few hours before the update dropped. I went from S+17 to S+19. That made it three consecutive skips. I jumped from 10 to 13, from 13 to 17 and from 17 to 19. I wonder if you can skip more than three consecutive times if you just keep your secret little number high up by consecutive wins. How many KOs you get or how many cracks you get seems to not influence it. I've skipped with 1 or 2 cracks. The fellow above did it with 3. My skip yesterday was after a rotation in which we never KO'd. But we did beat strong players.

Now that rank X is here anyway, skipping will most likely be less important. Though, I do wonder if it is still a thing.

Has anyone skipped on S+ in 3.0 yet? Has anyone maybe even skipped from S+ to X? Would be interesting for science.