Splatoon 2 Power levels In ranked

[Hamachiカマ★]

Would anyone mind explaining power levels to me? I'm S+ except tower control I'm B rank because I hate tower control. But I've noticed sometimes the power level in B rank will be the same as an S rank battle. Why is this? This was happening way before I got to S+, I thought it was indicative to skill but I've had good players in 1700 and horrible in 2000. Or the skills in a B rank battle will be greater than a S+. Like sometimes I'll have a harder time in those B rank ones and it's just funny to me. Does the power level mean anything? Also why is it possible to have a power level the same in an S and a B rank battle? It seems silly that I get 2000+ in S+ and then random battles I get to do 1600-1800 lol.
Also it's not an indicator of how much I win either, I could win 4 in a row and still get a low power level.

 

[mercenariez]

It doesn't reflect your power level. It represents either your team's (what most people believe) or all 8 players (what I believe).

I think power level is ALWAYS prevalent even outside of Splatfests. That should seem obvious since it shows the dang number every match.

The one displayed is also the AVERAGE of all 4/8 players. Meaning some players can have high ones and some can have low.

To answer your question: if you play splatfests you'll know you can achieve a higher power level than another person even if you play less matches than they do (example: Player A plays 7 matches and wins every match. Player A power level: 2200. Player B plays 30 matches and wins the majority, but loses some matches against teams with Lower power levels. Player B power level: 1900.)

In the above hypothetical Player B would technically most likely have a higher RANK (eg A- or A or whatever) simply because he played more matches. Even if you win 7 matches in a row you can't be like S+ immmediately. However, player B obviously has a LOWER POWER LEVEL than Player A. So that's why you can see higher power level averages in lower ranked lobbies.

Ultimately I do believe S+ players (who maintain and play S+ a lot) will tend to be better players on average regardless than lower ranked players because they play against higher level players more often, meaning it's not as easy to maintain high power level or move up.

Bonus: I also agree with what someone else said that the game lists you on the results page by highest to lowest power level. It obviously doesn't use kills/turf inked, and I notice top big name players tend to always be at the top.

 

[Ansible]

I've had such interesting occurrences as well. There have even been times when I've had higher power level matches in a lower rank (1800s) but then have lower power matches in the next rank (1600s). And splatfest can get more confusing when I'm on a team with a lower power level than I have by myself and we face a team with a power level lower than us. Wut.

I'm still thoroughly confused by it myself. There's almost a dozen different power level ratings scattered across the various modes yet we only have fan theories of how the damn system operates--it frustrates me to no end! Hate such inscrutability that leaves us to guesswork!

Bonus: I also agree with what someone else said that the game lists you on the results page by highest to lowest power level. It obviously doesn't use kills/turf inked, and I notice top big name players tend to always be at the top.

If that's true, thank you for that. I'll keep a better eye on it to make some sort of estimate where I am.

 

[Jon914]

I posted some observations about power level in another topic after starting an alt and seeing drastically different battles in the alt.

Nobody knows exactly how power levels are determined, but in practice, power tells you how "skilled" the players in a match will be.

When I started my alt, I skipped from C- to B- in each, and the bar filled quickly after each match. In B, I've been consistently tossed into 1600-1800 lobbies depending on the mode. That's different from my main, which gets placed in weaker 1400 lobbies.

The players in the 1600-1800 lobbies are simply... better. Better map awareness, frequent flanking, constant pressure from subs, more varied weapons, knowing when to push and when to hold the line, establishing control of the map, etc.

I'm holding my own in these battles, and I've learned so much more from them... versus the lower lobbies, where most players have weak fundamentals (they do none of the above), and matches have to be carried.

Exactly how power is determined remains a mystery, but based on my observations, Nintendo has a good idea about how good each player is. My personal theory is that it's a combination of many factors such as wins (especially versus good opponents), kills vs. splats (especially if you take down better players), specials used and turf-inked. Power is your "true" rank, rather than the letters.

Based on screenshots I've seen online, these are approximate ranges for each rank. So yes, that means that some B-rank matches can be equivalent to lower end S-rank. That's some serious divergence.

C: 1000 - 1600
B: 1200 - 1800
A: 1400 - 2000
S: 1600 - 2200
S+: 1800 and up

As for the results screen, the order is based on your win-loss ratio for the last (10?) games.

 

[mercenariez]

^Yeah upon further observation it looks like they probably just transferred over the old last 10 W-L ratio from Splatoon 1 over to 2

 

[J'Wiz]

I'm curious how they determine power level. I started the last Splatfest with both my main and alt. character. With my main, I used the weapon I use most often, and I had alright results. Mediocre as always. With my alt., I used the weapon I'm trying to train myself with, and didn't do so great. Admittedly I had one match where my accuracy was on point. After the level was determined, my alt's power level was 200 more than my main!

 

[Jon914]

I'm curious how they determine power level. I started the last Splatfest with both my main and alt. character. With my main, I used the weapon I use most often, and I had alright results. Mediocre as always. With my alt., I used the weapon I'm trying to train myself with, and didn't do so great. Admittedly I had one match where my accuracy was on point. After the level was determined, my alt's power level was 200 more than my main!

Splatfest and League power level are determined just by winning in those modes as mercenariez described above. If you won against better opponents, you'll get higher power regardless of how you performed in those matches.

That's different from solo ranked power level, which I theorized about above.