a long time ago when i was just a nobody getting started in competitive tf2 in CEVO-FREE S4, i realized that there was a confusion about how teams were rated. my team used words like "high", "low", "low/mid", et cetera. i was confused. when i asked my teammates what these things meant, however, there was a lot of disagreement.

little did i realize at the time though that all of this high/mid/low stuff was originally introduced as a tongue-in-cheek joke.

since my teammates told me that gotfrag was the only competitive tf2 forum, i decided to post an article proposing a possible new way of rating teams that the community could adopt. it was a high hope at the time, but i thought it would be worth proposing the idea.

almost a year later, i still think that it could serve us well. i thought that it'd be a good idea to repost it here because this place is like a shelter from the gotfrag trolls.

here's a link to the original thread, which i bumped recently on gotfrag: http://www.gotfrag.com/tf2/forums/thread/407171/?cpage=1


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Hi there. I used to play Starcraft competitively on iCCup. In case you've never heard of iCCup, that's the league where everyone who plays competitively goes to compete... and its a huge league. In the thousands.

Anyway, I got TF2 a year or so ago and have been having a lot of fun playing competitively. I play in CEVO-FREE and I designed the class icons for ETF2L. That's pretty much all I have to give myself some room to speak around here.

The reason I'm writing this is because one thing I noticed is that my teammates like to classify the teams we scrim against as being "low", "low/mid", "mid", "mid/high", and "high". I have no idea why, but when I ask for how exactly they classify these teams with titles like these I get mixed responses and a bit of arguing over what team falls into what category ensues.

So I thought I'd introduce a rating scale they made in Starcraft a long time ago and see if I can port it to TF2. We like it a lot there. If you guys think this is a good idea maybe you can start judging teams based on this scale instead of the "low", "low/mid", etc. jive.

Here's how I propose it goes from highest to lowest (and explanation after):

A+
A
B
C
D+
D-

Simple enough, right? That's why we (in Starcraft) like it.

Since I don't have any experience in watching, playing, or dealing with other tournaments like ESEA or TWL, I'll let you guys determine based on the explanation of each rating below about who fits where. My goal here is to have us all sort out how to rate other teams more concretely. I'm a Math guy; I like having order and definitions to fall back on

Here's explanation of what I think that each letter would represent, in terms of team ability, which we can determine based on any achievements they have since we don't have a ladder rating system:


"A+" teams are those that have recently won major tournaments or leagues such as CEVO-P and the ETF2L. Examples of such teams would be 20ID and Dignitas.

"A" teams are those that play on professional levels in the prestigious tournaments and leagues such as CEVO-P, ETF2L Division 1, or otherwise most of the invititational tournaments, like ESEA-i are some that I've seen on this site recently). Examples of such teams would be Evil Geniouses, Apoplexy Industries, Loaded, Xensity, YoYoTech, Team CoolerMaster, et cetera.

"B" teams are those that play in the higher divisions, but are not of the same level of prestige and past achievement as the professional players for which the 'A' level is reserved. Examples of teams would be those that play in the ETF2L Division 2 and those who participate in the CEVO-M playoffs. Also, the TWL-i would be included here on the advice of the guy who posted below me here since he knows more about that league than I do.

"C" teams are those that are not well known for their achievements and have had little success in the most prominent leagues compared to the players in the 'B' level. Examples of such teams would be those that make it to the CEVO-FREE playoffs, those who play in the CEVO-M regular season but don't make it to the playoffs and the teams in the ETF2L's 3rd division.

"D+" teams, similar to the 'D-' teams, are those that play in the usual leagues like CEVO-FREE's regular season and have had at most minor success in the organized competitive scene and are able to complete their seasons with at least a positive Win : Loss ratio.

"D-" teams in the same category as the 'D+' teams, except they aren't so successful in the Win-Loss department. 'D-' teams also consist of pretty much anyone else in the competitive scene: new teams, people who play just for the fun and aren't very successful, et cetera.

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So I hope you guys found this helpful. If you think that this criteria is pretty useful, please link this to your friends and perhaps you guys can start referring to teams as "A,B,C..." instead of "high", "high/mid", "mid",... et cetera.

C? HA MORE LIKE C/C-!

Yeah I like your idea but having +/- for every letter would be better.

if i remember correctly, the only reason that i didn't have + and - for each letter in this idea was because I didn't think that there was enough difference to make a distinction.

If you know anything about the Starcraft system then you know how well its foundation is. The current TF2 ranking system does not have any foundation in leagues other than what jk himself said. Why not just use TWL's system and simplify it a bit? That was if somebody decides they can post a rank that they feel they are stronger than they actually seem to be in, they could prove themselves at least. Numbering system I think would be more effective anyway. Instead of "Top TWL div player aka mid" you can say div 1 or div 2, maybe instead of letters if you are top or bottom in a div just say div followed by a minus or a plus (although many people will never post as minus, at least we can use it for something else than LFT threads huh). Where does this leave higher players you ask? They don't need to be on it, as they can just say they are invite.

Also has the bonus of not letting TWL div1 not turn into nothing again. Honestly if the Euros can do it why can't we? Even though it's a pretty much smaller league.