Quote Originally Posted by Inzoum View Post
I’ve fallen under 1500 a few times, at which point the slow climb back up makes it pointless to continue, so I reset my ranking to jump back to 1500 and start over hoping for the best.
For any ranking system this is actualy a problem. Resetting your rank will mess up a lot including the higher ranks!

Every reset below 1500, means more points get added into the system. These points should normaly end up distributed 'equaly' acros the ranks. But in this case, bad people constantly push themselve back to the middle. Which is generaly where they shouldnt belong.
*note that the distribution acros the players if sorted by skill should form a linear line on a graph

As a result, the middle ratings are always going to be a balance mess. Bad players will be stomped, reset, and stomped again, and after that just permanently leave. As a result, there are no weaker players in the game. And in that case, ELO breaks for those who are excessive towards 1 direction. Later on, since the reputation of the game is that its unfriendly towards bad players, no bad players will even try, so even decent players will just only face the stronger players. But worse is, since the entire system is a mess in ratings. There is no ground for balancing in matches.

But even worse is, that 1500 rating for new players is supposed to be an average. And for balance inactive players must be purged here (so their outdated rating is not going to cause trouble). But as most active players are well above it, it cannot maintain that average and has to punish the weaker players harder to enforce this balance again. This means that as weaker player losses are still punished.

This can be covered by considering the average rating to be above it (like 2000 or 2500). But in most rating systems... that is actualy a bad idea.

Normaly when rewards are tied to an elo rating, players are forced to do a ranking phase, and this result is generaly lasting permanently unless for extended inactivity durations the rating is purged again. This is where seasons take place to grant rewards, as that forces players to update their rating for the new rewards.