Dota Underlords: Ranked Play Explained

ESTNN's Veselin Ignatov walks players through the newly introduced Dota: Underlords Ranking System.

Dota: Underlords has added a ranking system to Valve's brand new autobattler, and we've got everything you need to know to climb the ladder.

Dota: Underlords' Ranking System Explained

In most games, players earn more MMR points when they finish a game in first place. In the case of Dota Underlords, however, the top four players in any match are considered as winners. Of course, the higher players place, the more points they get. On the contrary, if you find yourself to be in the bottom four, prepare to lose MMR points.

Currently, Valve considers every single match in Multiplayer a ranked match. Having said that, the beta season itself will only last a couple of months. In fact, it is scheduled to end as soon as the official competitive season starts which will most likely bring tons of changes such as new heroes, rotations and so on.

Dota Underlords Ranks

There are a total of eight ranks which have different tiers.

• • Upstart
  • Grifter
  • Outlaw
  • Enforcer
  • Smuggler
  • Lieutenant
  • Boss
  • Big Boss

Players can climb the ranked ladder whenever they finish top four in their matches. However, in order to escape the “elo hell” called “Upstart,” players have a bonus – a top six finish. This means that, in Upstarts, the game will award MMR to the top six players in the match instead of the usual top four. This allows players to climb out of Upstart more quickly.

Each rank mentioned above has five tiers. Players can check how high an opponents rank is by looking at a small symbol under their banner. The more elaborate the symbol, the higher rank the player will be!

The good thing is that the ranked system works in a similar way to the one in Dota 2. However, instead of getting starts, you get symbols. What’s more, once you reach a certain rank, you won’t be able to drop below it, even if you wanted to. This is yet again another similarity to Dota’s ranking system, even though it’s always been somewhat controversial.

Valve Speaks Out About The Ranking System

Here is what Valve’s statement about the ranking system:

“Underlords internally tracks your skill for matchmaking using a modified GLickoi 1 score. To present your rank, we calibrate a rank score that converges to your GLicko over a calibration period that’s on average around 25 games. This rank score is what gives you a badge so you`ll see your badge level rising fairly often during this calibration period.”

Expect more information regarding this as soon as the new updates start kicking in. In the meantime, make sure to catch all the upcoming qualifiers for TI 9 because they are definitely going to be deadly. If you don’t want to miss any of the latest esports news, make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Image VIA: Valve