Demoted for winning a game?

[awpertunity]

(04-06-2013 10:28 AM)advakharia95 Wrote:  If it counts recent wins and losses as a ratio, wouldn't it demote on a loss then?
for example...
Let's say it counts last 10 games and dropping below a 1:1 ratio demotes you...
I have 5 wins and 5 losses. Then I win a game.
Now I have 6 wins and 4 losses.
That is how a ratio would work with recent games (or all games for that matter).
Demoting a win and promoting a loss just doesn't make sense.

I don't know if what I'm going to say now is exactly right for this game, but it seems to be the case and is something used for chess training websites:

In addition to your hidden skill rating, is the system's confidence level in your skill rating (that is, how confident the system is that you are at the correct skill level). Win streaks and loss streaks make the confidence level decrease significantly because the game thinks it is matching you with evenly skilled people, but you keep either winning or losing.

As for leagues, I believe the system uses something similar and to avoid lots of league switching, will only place you if the system is confident enough in your skill rating.

In your case, you had 4 losses so it started pairing you against weaker players. If you had continued to lose the system would have continued to match you against weaker players until it can find one you can beat, at which point the confidence level finally increases rather than decreases. In other words, if you kept losing it is possible for you to have gone straight from Master to Clever or even Fluffy, but you have shown that you are not that low by beating whatever player you did.

This is why demoting on a win and promoting on a loss happens more often than you think, and it is not a bug.