Back in January 2024 we announced an ESL World Ranking update that would be taking place with some of the changes happening instantly in January, and other updates happening in March. Due to some technical areas taking longer than expected, mosts of these updates in March that were to take place have been delayed.
You can find all rules for the ESL World Ranking that are in place as HERE.
Below you will be able to find a full overview of the changes that have happened so far this year, as well as the still to come updates that are being worked on.
Updates implemented in January 2024
1. Regional multipliers adjusted
Adjustment to better match today's regional strength and opportunity, which will also help protect the best regional teams from being distanced by weaker teams that play a lot locally due to increase of regional competitions.
AS 4.5% » 5%
NA 26% » 20%
OC 9.5% » 8%
SA 7% » 14%
2. Reduced number of pertinent teams in North America from 10 to 8
Originally the number of pertinent teams in North America was increased to 10 to counteract that a significant number of the top North American teams never played in local tournaments, a problem which over time has become less relevant.
3. Merging regions
We are merging the regions EU and CIS for more precise evaluation of tournaments there (they had only been split to match Valve’s competition in the past).
Updates that were implemented March, 2024
1. XXL size category increased to allow last place points and XXXL size category added
Extremely large tournaments with a huge number of pertinent teams will provide points for more participants and slightly more points per rank.
2. Last place no points rule removed & “unmerited invites rule” added
This change is put in place to combat that regional teams that are the best in their region and beat all regional competition used to go to big events and potentially get last place, earn no points and miss small regional events where their competitors earn points.
Updates that are planned to be released in 2024, date tbc.
We are currently still working on 4 more updates for the ESL World Ranking which are not yet ready to be implemented due to some technical issues.
1. Stepping away from the pure "player model" to a mixed model
Even an intended change ("this player is no longer good for the team so we are getting a better one, but the new player has less points") would always severely impact the team's ranking for the worse, instead the new model is allowing one change per 120 days without any reductions and reducing the impact of further changes.
Changes of more than one player are not happening very often, and as long as that does not happen, no changes in the teams' points will happen.
2. Improved recalculation method
If a team undergoes major changes, we have greatly improved the method of recalculation.
Previously we would just add the points of all players (capped at the old points that the team had), without any consideration of their composition, skill gap, experience together etc. The new method will take those things into account.
3. Grinding prevention
We are adding a mechanism to limit the positive effect of playing a massive number of competitions. You will still be able to increase your points by getting better (higher points) results after reaching that limit of 6 contributing competitions, but no longer just plain adding as many competitions as you play.
4. Website improvements
Added player pages and improved many details in terms of functionality and performance.
Understanding that the delays with release have come later than expected with some areas implemented whilst others weren’t. We would like to set a clear understanding of where the ESL world Ranking stands currently, and the expectation that there are still updates to come and will be communicated and implemented as soon as we can.
We will continue to monitor the scene to ensure our ranking reflects its reality. Your input is also very valuable for us as we balance the ranking, so be sure to let us know through social media and Reddit threads what you think.
