[ohashi]

From what I think I've noticed...

It tries to match you as evenly as possible to start.

If you get hot, it will find better players.

If you lose a bunch, it will try matching you with worse ones.

(based on ranking)

I play platinum 2v2 and gold 1v1 and that's been what i've noticed. It feels like it's sorta testing out where you belong and fit in at every point in time. It also widens the matching if it can't find anyone rather than waiting... those games can get ugly fast in any direction.

PS - cheesy strats sometimes work on really good players because they forget how silly they are. I cannon rushed a guy sitting in the top of platinum league yesterday and I haven't seen anyone rage that hard in a while.

[mattmaroon]

I'm pretty sure it's just using a slightly modified Elo rating, and the updating the ladders on a weekly cron. The reason I say this is that when I first signed up, it assigned me to Silver league. I lost a bunch (it was before the beta was opened more widely and everyone there was good) at first. Then I got considerably better and won something like 17/20 games, but got bumped down to Bronze.

I can't think of any reason why I could get bumped down after a considerable winning streak other than a cron, especially since it always told me my opponent was a favorite over me and was presumably a higher Elo. It had to have been accounting for the 20 or so games I lost before I figured out what I was doing, otherwise I would have been bumped down far sooner.

(Bronze was a cakewalk, I won most games in a few minutes.)

Then they did a reset and now I'm in Silver and winning more than not. I might actually make Gold whenever the cron runs next.

[ohashi]

I don't think it's a cron, I've been promoted instantly the first time I was playing after winning a lot and getting ranked #1 in the division.

[div]

Indeed, if the system is really elo based then updates should be basically instant. A cron job is only required for rankings in which everyone scores relative to eachother.

[mattmaroon]

The elo is updated instantly. The leagues do not seem to be. The ladders within the division (ie. rank 1-100) does seem to update in real time and takes more than just elo into account.

I say this because I rapidly advanced in my division (from 95 to 35) and yet got knocked down. Perhaps I am reading too much into it and they just did a one-off division restructuring.

[ohashi]

There is most definitely an underlying ELO system. I don't know why they have the double system though... points and elo. It's matching against ELO I believe but the points and bonus pool crap it to encourage people to keep playing perhaps?