[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?