What is preseason?

Nutella Ari·11/15/2015, 7:57:37 AM·2 votes·5,034 views

I am new to ranked. I found today I still got points after playing ranked game. Is it supposed to end by this week? Why do I still get points after playing in ranked? thanks

1 Comments

ArchSilverX11/15/2015, 8:39:48 AM1 votes

So Basically. There is a Season and a Pre-Season in ranked play and in competitive games in general. The SEASON is when your ranked provisionals, ranked matches, and promotional series all count toward the Shiny borders and cool rewards. SO whatever Rank/Division you end up in at the end of that SEASON will be granted to you. However, a "pre-season" is fancy for "Cooldown period".

The Pre-season MATTERS but at the same time it doesn't. The pre-season is a good time for you to PRACTICE for ranked games by immersing yourself in a ranked environment while allowing you to experience the stress and the "normal pressures" of Ranked play. It is a way for you to get used to it before you hit the new season! The down side is, all of the rank you get and the points you acquired in the "pre-season" disappear as soon as the new season starts... Kind of.

The way ranked works is. You have an MMR (match making rank) that is used to determine where you stand in a ranking and a division. when you win it goes up, and when you lose it goes down. However, whenever a new season starts, you don't just START from where you left off. You play your provisionals at the start of the new season, HOWEVER, wherever you left off at the end of the PRE-SEASON is what gets calculated into a formula that is similar to what is below.

(1200+(your current MMR)) / 2

SO. Let's say on november 11th, I got to silver 1 and I said pfft im done. I don't need gold... The season 6 starts... and I play my provisionals... the odds are I get placed in silver 3 ish... HOWEVER. IF instead of saying screw it, I got to platinum 1 at the end of the preseason... I would most likely end up in platinum 4-3.

So Pre-season Both MATTERS because it can raise your mmr for next season and is essential practice! However, it does not change your standings for the previous season.

Hope that clarifies. Good luck and climb hard.