The algorithm behind glicko.app
A Glicko rating is one number for how strong a team is right now.
Every team starts at 1500 and moves from there — higher is stronger. It's named after Glicko, the rating system this whole site is built on.
What moves it
Match results, and nothing else. Beating a stronger opponent gains more than beating a weaker one, and losing to a weaker one costs more. Only completed matches inside the VCT, Challengers and Game Changers circuits count.
What the ± means
How sure we are of the rating — not how much it might swing. It narrows as a team plays and widens again when they go quiet, which means we're less certain, not that they got worse.2294±532190224123472398
“Provisional”
Fewer than 5 rated matches, or a ± still wider than 200. We don't trust the number yet, so provisional teams sit outside the main ladder.
Ranks are per circuit
VCT, Challengers and Game Changers each have their own ladder, because those teams rarely play each other. The Global view places all three on one levelled scale so they can be listed together.
Comparing across circuits
To level the circuits we anchor each ladder using the cross-circuit matches that do happen — Ascension and the international events. The gap between circuits is still partly a judgement call rather than a measurement, so cross-circuit positions are estimates, and teams with little or no cross-circuit evidence are marked on the board.
Based on the Glicko rating system by Mark Glickman.