I welcome you to a new age for YGO Omega’s ranking system!
For a background on the old ranking system, you can read here
This post will go over the changes we’ve made, how they differ from the previous ranking system, and how we hope that these changes will improve the overall ranking experience! YGO Omega’s New ranking system keeps elements from the old system, tweaks them, and introduces new features to supplement the experience.
As many of you know, Yu-Gi-Oh is a game of high variance. Between the random element choosing which player decides to go First or Second, the fact that a format can radically change over the course of weeks or even sometimes days, or simple luck of the draw, there is a lot that can prevent even highly skilled duelists from maintaining a perfect record. Because of this, we’ve decided to lean into this and focus on helping identify the major difference between duelists, consistency. This is the major theme with this overhaul of the Ranking System.
Color Code for Ease of reading
Orange Headers highlight Core Changes
White Headers Outline Additional Information or Charts
Blue Header Outlines TLDR at bottom of Page
Rating Points
Previously there was a sliding scale determining the points you won or lost based on what rank YOU were then modified by your opponent’s rank relative to you. A Silver winning against a Silver may have awarded 30 rating points, but an Omega winning against an Omega only awarded 20 points. A set of complex charts was provided to help communicate the points each rank was awarded or lost based on the rank the opponent was.
We have now simplified this system to a standardized point system. The new system uses 25 points as its standard against an opponent of the same rank, for every rank. If you are paired against an opponent of a different rank, a much simpler chart is used to modify the point value if you win or lose.
We understand that your time is valuable and have tried to create a point system that shows that. When points would result in half points, Winning points are rounded up, from 22.5 to 23, while losing points are rounded down, 22.5 to 22. While this rounding results in only a minor difference, over the course of time this can add up: a trend you may notice throughout this overhaul.
In addition to this, winning is linear with the opponent’s rank, being reduced by 10% for each rank lower your opponent is, and 20% increases the higher your opponent’s rank is. Losing points on the other hand is far lessened if your opponent’s rank is much higher cushioning a loss, but is sharply increased if your opponent’s rank is much lower. The rationale for this will be covered while discussing our newest feature of the ranking system further down.
This standardization should produce a much more predictable point gain for players across the board and help us plan for any future changes should they be needed.
Match Performance Multipliers
Match Performance modifiers are used to enhance any points won or lost based on the outcome of the match. A 2-0 Victory means that you vastly out classed your opponent and the skill gap is much wider than a 2-1 victory where you may have won through a hard fought match. The same is held to be true for losses of 2-0 and 2-1. The way these modifiers are applied increases the points gained or lost by 1.25x for a 2-0 result, and a 1.0x multiplier for a 2-1 result. This means that you can gain much more points by winning with a convincing victory and net the expected amount even after dropping a single game to the opponent. This goes the same for if you lose the match, however our newest feature we’ll discuss later on will help you to mitigate these losses if they are outliers.
New Rank Thresholds and Season Starting Points
With the change to a standardized point system means that we had the ability to create new rank thresholds that focused on specific skill levels and are easier to remember.
Iron: 0 - 49
Bronze: 50 - 199
Silver: 200 - 349
Gold: 350 - 599
Platinum: 600 - 999
Diamond: 1000 - 1449
Master: 1450 - 1999
Omega: 2000+
These new rank values also mean that we need to create a new season starting point.
The new Starting Rating is now 100 Rating.
This rating serves as a point for the season that places everyone 2 games into bronze, while still making it so that you can reach Silver with an average of 4 games. These values are similar to the old starting point, which used to require an average of 5 games to reach silver from, and being nearly 8 games away from Iron.
In addition, previously, all ranks had a uniform point requirement of 350 to rank up, with the points gained decreasing as you went up. This has been flipped on its head letting you find your ranking with the new system faster. The following chart gives an estimate as to how many wins against your same rank is needed to progress.
The rating difference between each rank allows for a good ramp up into Ranking. Bronze, Silver, and Gold allow for good stepping stones before the more serious ranks of Platinum and beyond.
Remember that while Iron is shown as 0, negative rating is still possible if loses continue to happen beyond 0 rating.
While it wasn’t stated in the old Ranking system explanation, the old rank system resulted in an average of 5 games from Season Start to Silver, while each rank Silver and above required roughly 12 + 1 per rank above it. This culminated in a journey to Omega that required roughly 74 Wins.
While this does increase the Omega Climb by 2 wins, our newest feature of the ranked system will alleviate the actual number of duels played by duelists who can maintain their Consistency.
Streak Multipliers
Winning a match doesn’t make you the greatest duelist of all time, and losing a match doesn’t mean you aren’t, both are a part of the game we play. What makes you truly the greatest duelist is your ability to perform consistently! This is what our new Streak Multipliers hope to bring out in each of you.
At its core, it is no different than a combo system. Winning 1 match will result in the default amount of points based on conditions outlined above. But the second match you win starts a Winning Streak and applies the 1st combo multiplier to the points you’ve won. Continue your winning streak and you’ll gain even higher multipliers. This is the heart of the new ranking system! A player who can maintain their win record and consistently win matches 2-0 against opponents can quickly rise up the ranks with far fewer matches played than they would have previously.
However, dropping even a single match ends your streak and sets the streak back to 0. We’ve had it happen to all of us, maybe a bad hand, a bad day, or didn’t read the card right the first time. To help soften the inconsistency that inevitably happens to all of us, we’ve implemented a cushion modifier for these losses. The start of the Loss Streak has a modifier to reduce the impact a single match loss may have on your rating. Even with a 2-0 loss, if it’s your first one, it’ll still net out only to 1 match loss (1.25 x 0.8 = 1) to the opponent of the same rank. However, continue to lose and you’ll find yourself quickly slipping to a lower rank for you to regain your footing. Just like the Win Streak, a single match win is enough to break the Loss Streak and reset it back to 0, and start building a Win Streak.
This system should help duelists find their appropriate rating much faster, while helping those who need to reevaluate their deck a new rank to test their changes out. We implemented an early test of this systems at the end of the previous season as some of you noticed and have been happy with the results. We hope that you enjoy this new system and the help it provides you on your ranked journey.
Details on Streaks Modifiers & Rank Differential Modifiers
This is the core reason why the rank differential modifiers have been designed this way. When you are paired with opponents of a higher skill level, your current Win Streak is put at risk. However, the amount of points you will gain when you win will make it worth the struggle, being equivalent to a win streak, even without one. On the other hand, even if you have a Loss Streak going, the points lost won’t result in a major setback when paired against a higher ranked opponent.
If you end up paired with a lower ranked opponent, you are expected to perform at your rank. If you drop the match to your opponent, the Loss streak cushion could be overcome by Rank differential multiplier and knock the wind out of your sails. While winning the match against a low ranked opponent may not net you many points, it will directly contribute to building your win streak or preserving an existing one for the next match to earn you even more.
We do this so that there is incentive for both duelists in each situation. We also do not want duelists attempting to gain a vast amount of points exclusively from lower ranked duelists.
Ranked Reward Changes!
Finally, we want to talk about victory rewards and end of season rewards. These Rewards have been adjusted to be more in alignment with the new ranks. Just as before, winning games against Silver and above will net you Duelist Points, or DP, to spend on rarities. As we mentioned before, Silver and Gold are stepping stones that we hope you get through quickly and award 1 DP each for beating. The increase in difficulty to earn the rank of Platinum and above awards additional DP when winning against them.
In addition, these boosts in DP aren’t just at face value! The Challenger Pass also nets double DP on each win while it is active on your account. This means that the DP gain for winning against Diamond are 3x what they were before, while beating an Omega is a whooping 3.3x times more points!
Even maintaining your rank rewards you with DP. Ending each season now nets you new point values equivalent to the difficulty of obtaining that rank!
Sept 25, 2023 to November 21, 2023 Ranking distribution:
Challenger Pass
The challenger pass is a 30 Day pass that enables for its duration double DP gain and temporary access to 1 of each Elemental Rarities for each of your decks. The pass is enabled by donating $8 USD and notifying a Guardian on the Duelist Unite’s #Omega_Help Discord channel of the donation. You can find the Donation Link here:
TLDR: New Standard Point Value for Gains/Losses, Ranks Differential Scaling, Rank Thresholds, 2-0/2-1 Outcome Multipliers, and Streak Multipliers.
These changes have been made based on data from previous seasons, the drive to continue to improve a system that’s already in use, and most importantly, your feedback. We hope that this change yields a better play experience in our Ranked modes and overall greater satisfaction with personal performance.
We thank you for continuing to support YGO Omega and our efforts to create the best online sim for the game we all love. Please feel free to reach out here on the forums and on the Duelist Unite Discord channel.