XP, Levels and Ranks

As you play and improve you will start moving up the rankings. This section is aimed to familiarise new players with the rank and XP system.

## XP (Experience Points)

Lets start with **XP**, which stands for Experience Points. You earn XP for every game you play be it 'Custom Game', 'Play Now' or future possible gamemodes.

* XP is collected in two forms, Win XP and Loss XP.
* For a win you gain 150 experience points.
* For a loss you gain 100 experience points.

## Levels

But what is XP used for? This brings us to **Levels**.

* When collecting XP you will level up.
* The levels are numerical, ascending as you collect more XP.
* With future updates, levels will contribute towards the unlocking of items/cosmetics/avatars etc.

*Levels have no effect on matchmaking.*

### Where can I view my level and XP?

* In the main menu look to the far right hand side
* Starting at the top is your rank and rank name
* Then your username.
* Followed by total XP collected and your current level.
* Beneath that is a progress bar showing how close you are to your next level.

## Ranks

**Rank** is used by the matchmaker to find a fair match-up. There are 8 ranks, with the top 7 each being divided into 3 divisions.

The ranks are as follows:

* Floor (unranked)
* Bronze
* Silver
* Gold
* Plat
* Ultra
* Ace
* Obsidian

Bronze upward are divided each in to I, II, and III, so you progress from Bronze I to Bronze III to Bronze III, then SIlver I, and so on.

### Gaining ranks and moving up the leaderboard

Win games in "Play Now" to move up the ranks.

You can see your rank in the game menu:

* In the main menu look to the far right hand side
* Starting at the top is your rank and rank name
* You can also look at the leaderboard, it has 2 sections 'Global Top' & 'Close to you'

Some people have reporting not being able to see their name on the LB, this is being investigated and will be fixed in an upcoming update (TBD)

### Rank MMR - PLEASE DON'T SKIP READING THIS

The game uses a system found in many competitive games called skill based matchmaking. This means the game keeps tracks of all your wins and losses, and if you lost/won to a higher or lower rank player.

If you beat a higher level player you will move up the ranks faster, same for if you lose to someone in a lower rank than you, you will move down the ranks faster.

I honestly recommend to not watch your MMR, it may only lead to confusion and there are plans it may not always be there to view. I have only made this section as I get asked a lot about it.

To decide your rank the game uses a number called **MMR**, this is what you earn or lose in matches.

* Skill-based matchmaking is designed to find you matches at your skill level
* It is NOT a system that can be grinded/gamed to rank up as this can lead to frustration when one loss brings you back down.
* By playing more and improving your skills you can improve your rank

#### How do I check my MMR?

* Main menu.
* Right hand side of the Leaderboard standings.
* The little number.

#### Strange MMR behaviour?, I won but lost MMR!, I got 1 MMR for that win? I got disconnected and lost MMR !?

[This section has been removed as it's information was no longer up to date]

[If you have any questions about strange MMR behaviour please contact Towellie#0706 on discord]

Does lagging out due to packet loss count as a loss?

* If you get disconnected it will count it as a loss.
* We're working on an update to sort that out,
* But if you leave the match explicitly it will also count as a loss.

Unfortunately there's no way for the server to know if you lost your internet or just quit the game, as I mentioned, if you lost MMR it's from disconnecting, or due to a previous loss.

#### I got 001/010 MMR for winning!?

* The lower the rank of your opponent, the lower the potential gain, but it doesn't go negative
* If you beat a player that is a lower rank than you wont gain as much compared to beating a higher rank player.
* The matchmaking algorithm we use is explained in this paper written by Ruby C. Weng and Chih-Jen Lin: "A Bayesian Approximation Method for Online Ranking" (PDF). Definitely worth a read if you want to get into the details.

#### My MMR went up when I lost?

* This is Purely coincidence, MMR being applied for a previous win.
* My best advise for everyone playing the ranks game, please don't focus so hard on the MMR number!
* I know it's hard to when the metric is right there for you to see, focus on your game, narrow down where you can improve and you Rank will take care of itself.

Help the new players you encounter! They may be your challenger one day, but at least they will remember who got them there.