- SHADOWSTRIKE10
- |
- Exalted Legendary Member
Posted by: I Mad Larkin
I was never into skill, I play Halo for fun. I picked Field Major and thought "There's me, not too much skill and a lot of games". I got an xp ban for mucking around in Rumble Pit so I decided to head into Lone Wolves to try and hit some achievements, not thinking I could earn skill... then I won and went to 35.
Now, I'm set on going for something a little higher, but I have a problem.
Team Doubles, playing with my cousin (a 40 in LW). I was 11 in TD, he a 14, and after several easy wins he was 22 and I was 14... even though I would get +9 etc and he would get, at times, -K/D.
Then, we started playing second accounters.
Do you have any idea (this isn't directed at anyone personally) how annoying it is to find a random lieutenant with a 50, or something in your game, with other people who are similar levels to myself?
Or in Lone Wolves. Even with priority on Skill, it usually turns out something like this.
Major 33
Major 34
Commander 35
Commander 36
Me 35
Commander 37
Colonel 41
Brigadier 47
or even sometimes a General.
Kinda annoying huh.
Well, ranking does not depend on K/D spread, MVP, flag caps, ball time, number of headshots, etc. All that trueskill knows is WINS and LOSSES. You have your Mu and your Sigma, both trueskill factors. Mu is roughly your actual level, and Sigma is the level range it could be in.
For instance, your Mu could be 35, and your sigma be 30-43. This means, your skill rank is between level 30 and 43, and your current level is at 35.
Now, as you play more games, your Sigma decreases, and sort of "locks in" your Mu. Many eventually find themselves with a Mu of 46, and a Sigma of 45-47. This makes it very hard for them to rank up. The only way to do so is to win constantly. This is what many refer to as "rank lock" and causes them to want to go and make separate accounts.
Is there any way to view your Sigma? Yes and no. No, because you cannot actually view any information in the TrueSkill system. That's kept to them. Yes, because you've got your EXP. See, EXP does this marvelous thing, where it tells you how many games you've won. If you've got a lot of games played, and a lot of EXP, chances are, your Sigma is pretty small, as the ranking system is finding exactly where to put you. Now, if you've got say... 2000 games, but have only won 900 of them, chances are, your Mu and Sigma could look like this-
27...32...34
This means that since you are below 50% win/loss ratio, you've got a higher chance of going down. Plus, since you've played a lot of games, your Sigma is pretty small.
Let's move on. Before the game starts, the match will decide who wins and who loses. Yep. But those decisions are not final. It's just what should happen. So, based on your different Mus and Sigmas, the game could think that you should win, and your teammate should lose. Weird, huh? But what's this? You win?!? Nothing out of the ordinary for you, but for your teammate, woa. Level up. This is what helps boosters rank up. The system thinks the lower level player should lose, but he doesn't, so it's instant 5 level ups.
Now, as for you playing Generals. You see, when high level players lose multiple games, TrueSkill gets mad. It gets so mad that it decides to test them. It will put them with lower rank players and say "you should win." But if they dont, they go down, and it looks good for you. If they do win, TrueSkill simply says "Alright. You get to keep your level... for now..." These are what I like to call "Trial Matches."
TrueSkill is the king of all. Learn it. Obey it. Live by it. 'cuz knowledge is power!