UPDATE: 1v1 Ranked Leaderboard Update 112835

UPDATE: We have expanded the participation prizes to include the three most active players in each of the five leagues for a total prize pool of US$4,500 this season.

Hello Commanders,

Season one of 1v1 ranked has ended, so let us give our congratulations to [TNC] [Nik] NikolaMX, a player so humble he put his own name in a clan tag.

Fighting off many worthy opponents he has dominated the Uber league, holding the #1 position for most of the season. An Invictus statue will be on its way to our deserving season 1 winner.

Season 2 – 2019-01-25 to 2019-04-25

It’s season 2!

All ranks have been reset; everything is up for grabs again.

A new season needs new maps. As you know we introduced four new maps mid-way through the previous season, and they’ll be carrying over to season two. But the rest of the maps have been taken out back and… retired. Sleep well old maps, you’ve served your time. Replacing them are eleven brand new maps.

Season 2 Map Pool (15)

Aquilaris (WPMarshall)

Bulkhead (WPMarshall)

Canyon (WPMarshall)

Centax-3 (Grand Homie)

Disparity (WPMarshall)

Enfer (Grand Homie)

Geonosis (Grand Homie)

Lost Temple (WPMarshall)

Lugaan (WPMarshall)

Niflhel (Grand Homie)

Riddler (WPMarshall)

Singe (WPMarshall)

Tartarus (Grand Homie)

The Ardennes (Grand Homie)

The Marne (Grand Homie)

New maps mean new strategies, and everyone is on an even footing because no one has had a chance to practice these before. We look forward to seeing what you make of them and hearing your thoughts on how they play. These maps will also be made available to play in custom lobbies in the near future.

Prizes!

Of course, what season is complete without prizes? And what could possibly top an Invictus Commander statue? Like that relative that doesn’t know what to get you as a present, we opted for cold, hard cash. Nice.

The player who holds Uber #1 at the mid-season point (2019-03-08 00:00 UTC) will be awarded US$500. The player who is Uber #1 at the end of the season (2019-04-26 00:00 UTC) will receive US$1,000.



But what about those of you playing in Bronze reading this and thinking, I’m never going to hit Uber so what do I care? Well we’ve got you covered too.

We will be awarding US$100 to the three most active players in each of the five leagues, both mid-season and at the end of the season. Doesn’t matter where you rank in the league, only how much you play. (UPDATED)

Summary of Prizes

Mid-season at 2019-03-08:00:00 UTC Uber #1 – US$500 Three most active Bronze players – US$100 each Three most active Silver players – US$100 each Three most active Gold players – US$100 each Three most active Platinum players – US$100 each Three most active Uber players – US$100 each

End of season 2 at 2019-04-26:00:00 UTC Uber #1 – US$1,000 Three most active Bronze players – US$100 each Three most active Silver players – US$100 each Three most active Gold players – US$100 each Three most active Platinum players – US$100 each Three most active Uber players – US$100 each



Maximum annual winnings for Uber #1 is US$6,800 if you hold the position all year and play the most!

All prizes are awarded at the discretion of Planetary Annihilation Inc. Players in breach of the Planetary Annihilation Community Rules and Guidelines may be disqualified. The decision of Planetary Annihilation Inc is final.

tl;dr

Seriously? We spent a lot of time writing all that. Millennials are ruining the patch note industry.



Ranked season 2 has begun

New ranked map pool

US$4,500 to be won this season (UPDATED)

Let the soothing voice of WPMarshall take you on a guided tour of this season’s maps: https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=ienE1HgwmLM

1v1 Ranked Leaderboard Update 112835







Our ladder uses a tried and tested ranking algorithm, with numerous best practices for implementation. To oversimplify, all players have two scores: stable and volatile. The former is a rating which the system has a high confidence in and should be used for ranking, avoiding placing a player too highly based on a few good games. The latter is a lower confidence rating, but looks at the potential of the player.

Volatile and stable are used for matchmaking to find opponents of the right difficulty. Think of stable as reflecting how good we know you are, while volatile is how good you might be. Over time these two ratings will converge.

During work to migrate to PAnet we have been examining the code underpinning the ladder and identified an issue. Rather than using the stable rating for ranks the ladder had been implemented using the volatile rating, leading to wild swings in position and players being placed in high level leagues far too easily. This runs counter to the goal of the ranking system: rewarding consistency of play over time.

A fix for this has been deployed and players have had their position on the ladder updated accordingly. All games played this season remain valid, none of your results have been lost or invalidated as a result of this change. The only change is to leaderboard ranks. This does not impact the result of season 1, we reviewed the data and [TNC] [Nik] NikolaMX was the clear winner.

Players with few games in ranked will likely find they have dropped to a lower rank, or even league. The key to your rank now is consistency over a large number of games. You will no longer be able to obtain Uber status with only a few games.

We debated leaving the ranking system unchanged for season 2, but decided as it was still very early in the season it was best for the health and integrity of the ladder that an immediate fix be deployed. This will lead to a better experience for everyone, avoiding the issue of players with a small number of games camping high ranking positions, allowing players who continue to play to see an improvement over time.

You will see a significant change in the number of players within each league at first. These numbers should change over time as players play more games. Thresholds for each league have not changed and we will be reviewing the season 2 data for possible adjustments in season 3.

Accompanying this change are three much requested features. Everyone’s stable score is now visible on the leaderboard, along with the number of games played, and you can view the top 500 of every league instead of just the top 10 both in-game and on the web at: https://palobby.com/leaderboards/

We hope this improved transparency, in combination with the leaderboard correction, will make for a more satisfying ranked experience.



Finally, players new to the ladder must complete 10 games before being assigned a rank. This allows the system to ensure a more accurate rating before adding people to a league.

Bulkhead has also been updated with a fix for missing metal spots that were identified.

tl;dr

The ladder has been updated to use the correct value for ranking players

The ladder UI has been updated to display your rank, games played, and 500 players per league

Players need to complete 10 games before being assigned a rank

Bulkhead updated for missing metal

https://palobby.com/leaderboards/

Smurfs in Platinum / Uber and Player Behaviour

For season 2 we are monitoring the use of smurfs and player behaviour. That may result in some changes, some warnings, some season bans and some permanent bans (a number of which have already been applied).

To report an individual player please use: https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/

We strongly recommend you play on your own main account, be respectful in chat and avoid impersonating other players.