Say Hello to ELO
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell® Pandoraomorrow™has swept the Xbox Live™community and taken its place alongside the recent Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® 3 as an essential online title. And, now, more gamers than ever want to know more about the mysterious ELO ranking system that both Clancy games use to balance matches and online scoreboards. What does ELO stand for? How does it work? Is that guy from the Traveling Wilburys involved? Where can I find fresh Krispy Kremes in this town, anyway? Glad you asked.
ELO rankings make online play fair and balanced.
Back to Arpad
Arpad Elo, that is. You’ve probably never heard of him, but in the early twentieth century he concocted a brilliant percentage-and-probability-driven system for chess rankings that could be used throughout the world to offer balanced match-ups in tournaments. That ranking system is still used to this day. It works by assigning a ranking number to every professional chess player in the world, so that anyone can tell who’s the best there is at the game, at any give moment. There’s more biographical information on our pal Arpad (than you could possibly every need) at http://www.chesslinks.org/hof/elo.html.
Splinter Chess
Pandora Tomorrow and Rainbow Six 3 on XboxLive aren’t exactly chess, of course, and the many pieces of information that make up each match are a bit more complicated than a single chess game. Still, with a powerful computer, like the one running an Xbox, they are games that can be analyzed in turns of moves, scores, and win rates. Take a simple one-on-one Rainbow Six 3 Sharpshooter match up, for example. (Granted, you wouldn’t launch a game with only two players, but this is just hypothetical.) Player A has a higher ranking (expressed as a sum total of points) than Player B, who hasn’t been playing as long or seen as much action. Let’s say Player A has gotten 100 kills and been iced himself only 50 times. Player B has made 50 kills, but has been waxed himself 100 times. Then, Player B manages to surprise Player A and draw first blood. Almost immediately, Player A re-spawns, spots Player B, and puts one behind B’s ear from 100 yards. In this specific example, Player A, the veteran, earns fewer ranking points than Player B because the ranking system recognizes Player B as less of a threat.
Now, let’s look at a more complicated example that breaks the points down by subtype: a Splinter Cell: Pandora TomorrowSabotage game. Two of the spies have the same ELO ranking total of 500 points. But, Spy A earned 300 of those playing nothing but Neutralization, 100 in Extraction games, and another 100 in Sabotage games. Spy B earned 100 in Neutralization and Extraction, but 300 in Sabotage. That means, any guard waxing Spy B in a Sabotage game is going to earn more points than if he waxed Spy A in a Sabotage game. But, switch to Neutralization, and the sneaker will be on the other foot. (You can always check the online scoreboards to see how each player ranks in each game type).
Dropped Opportunities
But, thankfully, you don’t need to know everyone’s exact ranking number (it’s usually four digits) to figure out if they’re in the same general ballpark as you are. That’s due to broader level rankings. (As this piece is composed, there are currently no players ranked higher than eighth level on Pandora Tomorrow.)
But, you do need to know that your ranking isn’t just based on what you do right—it’s also hit by what you dowrong. Drop out of a match before you’re finished, and your ELO ranking is going to take a hit the next time you play. Do it again, and ELO will remember, penalizing you yet again the next time you play. The solution? Don’t do that. Game droppers suck, and these games are going to let you know.
What this all boils down to is that you’ll always have some idea of the skill level of your opponents. (If, for example, you’re Level 1, and everyone else is between 5 and 7, you’ll know what you’re up against.) It also means that if you get lucky and take out higher-ranked foes, the rewards are relative to the challenge. David will always get more points for knocking over Goliath than vice versa. It’s simple, it’s elegant, and here’s hoping more Xbox Live games follow Ubi Soft’s example and say hello to ELO.
By Ben Barker
