At its core, Rocket League is a competitive game, centered around the grind to hit the very highest rank. Countless players grind for hours on end, refining their mechanics and game sense to one day see the glowing white emblem of the Supersonic Legend rank blazoned on their screen. However, Rocket League ranks operate a bit differently than the ranking systems from other games, and some of the most experienced players are not completely well-versed with the system. Let’s dive into how ranks, and the MMR system behind them, work in Rocket League, starting with how the ranked game modes work in the first place.
Playing Ranked
Before hopping into the ranked game mode, there are a few requirements before you can play or actually receive a rank. In order to queue into ranked, your account level must be at least 10. However, keep in mind that this restriction is for queuing into ranked; players who do not meet the requirement to queue can still play ranked if they are in a part where an eligible player is the leader, for better or worse.
Once you are able to play ranked games, you must play ten games in one game mode to be assigned a rank for that mode. For example, if you want a 2v2 rank, play ten games of ranked 2v2 to be assigned a rank based on your results. As of now, there are six ranked playlists available at a time: 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 3v3 Rumble, 2v2 Hoops, and either 3v3 Dropshot or Snow Day, which alternate each season.
One important thing to note is that all of your ranks operate independently, so winning or losing a 3v3 match will have no bearing on your 1v1 matchmaking. Now that you know how to get a rank, what ranks are there in Rocket League?
The Rank Spectrum
Let’s take a look at what exactly you’re working towards when you play ranked games: the rank tiers in Rocket League. There are eight distinct tiers, each divided into three ranks and four divisions in each rank. The tiers are as follows: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Champion, Grand Champion, and Supersonic Legend. If you’re a returning player, that last one may seem unfamiliar; Supersonic Legend was added when Rocket League changed to a free-to-play game and is the new terminal rank. It has no divisions, and the only way to differentiate between them is through MMR and leaderboard placement.
Unlike some other games, ranks count up: a Platinum 3 player is higher than a Platinum 1 player. After you surpass the third rank in a tier, you move on to the next one and start at the bottom. The divisions, from 1 to 4, just tell you how close you are to ranking up or de-ranking. Below is a graphic which shows all the current ranks, with higher ranks going upward and higher ranksets going from left to right.
A graphic displaying current in-game ranks, courtesy of Epic Games.
A helpful resource for ranks is the Rocket League Tracker Rank Distribution Chart, a reliably accurate database that gives you a breakdown on where each rank stands.
Ranks help establish an easy comparison between yourself and other players and are also the basis on which the end-of- season rewards are determined. However, they are only the cosmetic manifestation of the underlying system behind them, MMR.
How Does MMR Work
MMR, or Matchmaking Rating, is a score that determines what opponents you play against and what your displayed rank is. MMR is a hidden part of the game, not explicitly shown through normal means unless you reach Grand Champion or higher. However, understanding MMR is essential to understanding how matchmaking works. When matchmaking, the game will attempt to put you up against opponents who are very similar to your MMR, whether they are ranked or unranked (as in they have not completed their placements); MMR is a quantification of skill, so the game wants to put you against opponents of similar skill. The same logic applies in team-based modes, where your teammates will be of similar skill to you and the average MMR of the two teams will be close. This system, although not perfect, ensures that you will have fair matches in the vast majority of your games.
Your MMR also determines how quickly your rank changes; if your opponent has a higher MMR than you do, you will usually lose less and gain more MMR, with the opposite if your opponent has a lower MMR. This usually does not matter too much in a lobby of your skill level, but when queuing with players of different ranks, this comes into play more often. Another thing to note is that your MMR is more susceptible to change when you have fewer games played in the season. This is due to a variable in the formula, equivalently called the K-factor in the ELO system, which allows a greater change in your rank. Unranked players may gain absurd amounts of MMR such as 50 by winning games, while players well into their season may only gain the usual 8 to 12; this is important as it means that placement matches are essential if you want to gain MMR in a season, as doing well can help you avoid an arduous climb.
MMR In Parties
As alluded to earlier, MMR works a bit differently when in parties. Some may think it averages the MMR of all the players in a party, and while this was once the case, it was changed due to the issues with skill not scaling linearly, as a high-ranked player could have a disproportionate impact on a lower-ranked lobby even if the average MMR conveyed that everything was fair. Now, in parties, the game averages MMR heavily weighted towards the higher-ranked player, so that games will be incredibly similar to those if they were to have solo-queued. However, when playing as a party, the game also prioritizes other parties to play against, so party status is another factor outside of MMR that influences matchmaking. Finally, in the niche case of choosing to play 3v3 as a party of two, you may not queue unless both players are within three ranks of each other, e.g. a Platinum 3 and a Gold 3 can queue together, but a Platinum 3 and a Gold 2 may not. This is to ensure a fair experience for the third player on your team. MMR operates differently in parties, but the overarching systems remain largely the same.
How To See MMR
We’ve been talking about MMR for a while, but you may be wondering how you can even see your MMR. If you are strictly staying inside the game, the only way to unlock the feature is to be ranked at Grand Champion or Supersonic Legend; this is so because Grand Champion was once the highest rank so MMR was the best way to compare, and now that is true for Supersonic Legend.
However, there are ways outside of the game to check your MMR as well. One of the most common ways is through an online rank-checker such as Rocket League Tracker, which uses a log of your played games to calculate your MMR. Additionally, users of Bakkesmod may already know that you can use a feature to display your MMR; Bakkesmod is a plugin that only works for PC players, but it allows you to view your MMR on each playlist without having to exit the game. There are quite a few ways to check your MMR, and these methods also work for checking your opponents as well, so feel free to get tracking!
Viewing MMR via Bakkesmod, courtesy of a Reddit post by u/LilCastle
Conclusion
Ranks and MMR are a vital part of Rocket League, so understanding them is essential. I hope this article helped you learn more about how the rank system works, so you can comprehend how your matches will affect your goal. However, just remember that your rank isn’t everything; focus on improvement, and your rank will follow. I hope this guide was helpful, and good luck on the ranked ladder!
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