How Rank Skips Actually Work. (EXPLAINED)

[Blackcurrant42]

I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding but I found S is the highest possible rank you can skip to. I skipped A+ on my alt. I went from A to S then to S+9. I have video evidence of the latter but not A to S.

But in general I've seen people on youtube with cracks in there bar jump multiple S+ levels whilsts at times I've only lost 1 match with no crack and only go up 1.

 

[Red_Hero]

I've won every match in tower control before ( in regards to between rank c trying to get to b ), 20+ splats every match, majority of games end very quickly, top player on the board, and instead of skipping, it only bumped me up to C+. I don't know how "high" 20 splats is, just sharing my average experience if it helps anyone. I am also interested to see what the exact science is to this.

 

[MeTaGross]

I've won every match in tower control before ( in regards to between rank c trying to get to b ), 20+ splats every match, majority of games end very quickly, top player on the board, and instead of skipping, it only bumped me up to C+. I don't know how "high" 20 splats is, just sharing my average experience if it helps anyone. I am also interested to see what the exact science is to this.

It is very, VERY unlikely that Nintendo uses splats as a measurement for rank skip. When I first got Splat2 I was able to skip the C ranks and the B ranks in splat zones and tower control, but after they added clam blitz I skipped the C ranks but had to go through every B rank, despite losing very few battles. Also, 20+ splats is very high for a typical game in ranked, from my experience. In ranked the average splats on the winning team are around 10 or a little lower. Now, if you did that in turf war, then...

 

[※Zachary]

I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding but I found S is the highest possible rank you can skip to. I skipped A+ on my alt. I went from A to S then to S+9. I have video evidence of the latter but not A to S.

But in general I've seen people on youtube with cracks in there bar jump multiple S+ levels whilsts at times I've only lost 1 match with no crack and only go up 1.

Huh. You actually made A rank to S rank. I'd assume this is because you were in A rank for the skip. Skips in A rank have the same requirements as skips in S+. That's awesome you preformed that skip. I'll need to try it for myself.

Thanks for your input.

 

[MindWanderer]

If anyone does any further testing, I suggest making notes of the power ratings as you go. I strongly suspect that skipping ranks is related to the same mechanic as how fast your rank meter increases and whether it cracks, which is, as far as I can determine, a function of what your team's power rating is compared to your opponents'. I have no proof, obviously, but I think it's far more likely than counting splats.

 

[mercenariez]

This has plagued me for the longest time. Nintendo actually has a comment about rank skipping in the game instructions but it only says something like “if you have a really great performance” which is ambiguous.

I especially want to know whether splats matter or doesn’t.

I have seen a player skip by 10 ranks in S+ from S+40-50 with THREE cracks. That means he lost at least 3 matches (could have been more I don’t remember). But the player averaged nearly 20 kills every match. That lends credence to the idea that splats matter. Though I know, logically, they shouldn’t have made it matter considering some matches are won instantly. But we can’t jump to the conclusion that Nintendo played it 100% logical here.

I have also gotten NO cracks before and only moved up by 1 in S+. My kill count was not that high IIRC, maybe an average of 10 a match or less. Was that part of the reason I didn’t skip?

One top player I know named qM Zeroto skips ranks in S+ very frequently, and he also averages around 20 splats a match.

On the other hand, I skipped in S+ by 2 (not a lot but still a skip) and I remember near all the matches ending in instant KO (rainmaker) meaning I couldn’t have netted that many kills.

My younger sister skipped from C- to B- yet IIRC she lost quite a lot of games.

It’s really hard to say and we just need more solid evidence to determine conclusions.

...

To achieve near conclusive results regarding splats, I believe the following method is necessary:

Play and see if you can skip ranks with LOW kill counts yet with quick KOs and winning nearly every match or all matches (not that easy to do in low ranks but it’s necessary haha).
If you can’t skip ranks (at least not to the highest possible) despite winning every game with this method then splats MUST matter.

...

So far the potential factors (not all have been proven 100%) listed are:
- # of losses
- KO count/ratio
- Splats
- Power

It is possible that these are allotted a percentage each but the formula would be very hard to determine with just empirical results.

I suggest we gather results from a large pool with no lying or “I feel I got X kills or X losses”, i.e. with picture proof, and then we can draw conclusions from there.

...

Side comment on Power: The thing with POWER is that if you get bad RNG with enemies, i.e. if their power is lower than yours all the time, are you saying the game won’t allow you to skip? That would seem very unfair.

...

To OP: I appreciate the work you’ve put in so far. The factors you list are persuasive and I hope in time we’ll see that they are conclusive as well.

 

[Squidilicious]

I don't think this is correct. I believe that it isn't only about the number of wins or losses and I don't think your individual performance matters (beyond whether you cause a win)..... Instead I think that you get to skip ranks by consistently winning games (not every game necessarily) that the game predicted that you would lose. This means that if you happened to get a series of easy match ups and win them all you won't skip because you just won games you were supposed to win. It won't matter whether during these matches you killed 15 or 3. I've seen so many threads where people say I won all my A- matches... Why didn't I get to skip?

You can have some losses... I've skipped C- to B and then B to A- with two losses each and I'm usually not someone with a massive number of splats (recently I've had a sick CB run where I've won something like 11 of 12 matches in a row but for some reason my splats have been single digits /shrug/). I hazard a guess that if you lose any matches you were predicted to win that's an automatic disqualification - you won't skip.

I don't have hard evidence of this although I have hard examples contradicting some of what you're positing. I haven't managed a skip a rank in S or S+ so I can't speak to that.

 

[shani]

Wow that's stupid. Why is there no rank skipping in the ranks between B and S?
Yesterday I went from A+ to S without any cracks. I would've expected a rank skip to S+0.

It makes absolutely no sense to have rank skipping in the lower and higher ranks but not in the middle ranks.
Either have rank skipping in general or none at all.

 

[Marfie]

xxxxxxxxxx

 

[shani]

@Marfie I have no objections to what you wrote, but it still doesn't make sense to me to have rank-skipping only in some ranks. It's just inconsistent.
If someone is so good to the point that they rank up without any losses/cracks, they should skip a rank regardless of the rank they've been playing in.

Because if the ranks don't work the same, the whole rank system becomes meaningless.

 

[Gameboy224]

@Marfie I have no objections to what you wrote, but it still doesn't make sense to me to have rank-skipping only in some ranks. It's just inconsistent.
If someone is so good to the point that they rank up without any losses/cracks, they should skip a rank regardless of the rank they've been playing in.

Because if the ranks don't work the same, the whole rank system becomes meaningless.

The purpose for the existence of Rank skip is to get high skilled players out of lower ranks fast. Once you're in S, you're no longer in the "lower ranks". The difference between people in A+ and people in S is quite substantial, same too is the difference between people in S and S+. Once you reach S, you do have to actually prove you're worth ranking up beyond it, because that is the point where most people you'll encounter will have a fair amount of proficiency.

 

[shani]

Oh I had never thought of it like that. Well I guess it makes sense that way, the difference between those three ranks is definitely there.

Would've been nice if the game communicated it more clearly though, because that would avoid confusion/frustration for the player.

I actually was excited about and looking forward to my first rank skip since the early days and gave everything to achieve it. So imagine my disappointment when I didn't skip S (especially since I had already been there until the beginning of the rotation). :/

 

[Dessgeega]

Hey folks. Figured I'd necropost for once (GASP) now that we have a much better idea of how rank skips and ranked in general actually work.
https://oatmealdome.me/blog/an-in-depth-look-at-the-splatoon-2-ranking-system