Something like how the USCF ranks chess players, Blizzard now has a ranking system for multiplayer Starcraft 2. This weekend, I finally decided to take the plunge.
They give you 5 “placement games”, to determine which league you’ll be placed in, bronze, silver, gold, or platinum. (There’s also the elite diamond league, which takes time to earn.)
Now I know I’m not good. I’m (relatively) old and slow, running at 35-50 APM. APM is “actions per minute”, which gives a rough idea of how quickly a player can react. In comparison, there was a professional Starcraft 1 player who ran 280 APM and it was remarked that he was “kind of slow”.
All my opponents were low-level players. The two games I lost were due to rushes (once by Zerglings, once by Zealots). When the game was more standard, I won fairly easily. Overall performance was good enough to be placed in Silver (aka, “you kind of suck, but not utterly and completely”).
I’d be content with silver. So if you start out bronze or lower, is there a chance to upgrade to the next level?
If you perform well enough, you can be upgraded. (It works the other way too; you can be downgraded.)
There’s nothing below bronze, by the way. Bronze is for newbies, casuals, and the truly untalented who can only win by 6-pooling.
What’s 6-pooling? Is it like 8v1 comp stomp? BTW i love backstabbing 8v1 comp stomps 🙂
If you get close enough to the top of your league, you will face lower ranking people of the higher league. It just isn’t fair when they put you up against Diamond league…
@Q: Unfortunately, I think they prevented the backstab 7v1 comp stomp with the cooperative game type. A custom game, you can set it up, but others will probably expect backstabbing…
I’ll show my loss against the 6-pool later. It’s when a Zerg doesn’t build Drones and tries to win with quick Zerglings only.
@Allen: That’s how it should work. And the game against Diamond must have been fun…
However…although I’m low Silver, my second game was against a high Platinum. (I lost, but he wasn’t overwhelming.) And game 4 was against a low Gold, who frankly, was not very good.
No more backstabbing? Blizzard is a cheezball for listening to the masses.