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Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.

A look at top 100 legend spots in the final hours of a season (NA)

Hey everyone, on the last day of the ranked season I wanted to secure a spot in the top 100 to ensure at least 5 blizzcon points for this upcoming prelim. At around 7:00pm I played my final game of the year and reached rank 20 NA Legend and decided to sit on it till the end. I recorded my rank every 30 minutes as a fun experiment and I’ve decided to share the results here for anyone interested. In the final 8 hours my rank managed to fall 45 ranks bringing me down to 65 from mere inactivity.

Time Rank
7:00 pm 20
7:30 pm 21
8:00 pm 22
8:30 pm 22
9:00 pm 23
9:30 pm 27
10:00 pm 29
10:30 pm 31
11:00 pm 30
11:30 pm 36
12:00 am 39
12:30 am 41
1:00 am 42
1:30 am 43
2:00 am 47
2:30 am 52
3:00 am 65

As you can see the first two hours I fell very few ranks, but that quickly accelerated as the end of the season neared and as my rank got worse. This means at least 45 of the people who achieved top 64 legend in ladder played during the final 8 hours of the season assuming nobody fell out of their spot and nobody who started above me played another game and managed to win. This shows how incredibly important the final hours are to getting a coveted top 100 spot on ladder.

The only people who managed to maintain a decent rank without playing were people who were in the top 10 a day or so before the end of the season. Ranks 100 to 150 seems to be extremely spread out in terms of MMR (It takes several games to move up any ranks), and then a huge cluster of MMR around the top 100 (I saw people jump around 50 ranks in a single game once they broke the barrier).

If you want a top 100 spot you are either going to be required to play in the final hours or be in a very high spot a day or so prior to the end of the season. Essentially any rank you have up until the final 3 days has very little meaning / influence on your final rank. Until blizzard fixes the laddering system, games played during the final 12 hours are incredible crucial, games played during the final 3 days of the month have a slight impact, and game played during the first 24 - 27 days of the month are purely for enjoyment.

Have fun laddering, and hope that you are not at the wrong end of variance for those final hours.

Happy New Years to all!

FAQ:

What deck did you use to climb? Standard new patron warrior with double corsair

Do you stream? Yes, my twitch ID is the same as my username

Why does your time end at 3:00 instead of midnight? The servers reset at P.S.T. and I'm located in E.S.T., there is a 3 hour difference between the time zones

This post isn't specifically about decks, is it allowed? I messaged the moderators before making this post asking if it would be okay. They said it was fine as long as it was useful and well written.

  • Mike Donais
    Posted 10 years ago (Source)

    I think the best way to get top 100 is to ladder 1-2 days before the last day and get a high legend rank then camping it. It's actually hell trying to climb into the top 100 on the last day because between ranks 100 and 200, the climb is so slow. With so many people tryharding between those ranks, you get like 10-15 ranks for a win, then you lose 50 as you run into dumpster rank 4000 player playing a counter deck.

    Saw the likes of Lifecoach and Ekop bouncing between 100 and 200 the entire day because of this. Whereas people who climbed to top 20-25 legend the day before when less people were tryharding secured top 100 spots.

    Winning 5 games on the last day gives the same MMR as winning 5 games on any day of the month. There is also no MMR decay. People are just advancing by winning more games. The system is a very simple MMR or ELO system.

    Of course on the last day you may face people with higher MMR than a week before, and that would mean you get slightly more MMR for a win.

    Hope that helps.

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