How to rank up in Gears of War 2

We pay attention to what’s being searched for on our site, and judging by the amount of searches that have come in for it, folks seem to be completely confused by Gears of War 2’s ranking system and how they go about gaining higher ranks. So, we’ll see if we can’t put it to bed right now.

The basic ranking system uses Microsoft’s patented TrueSkill rating. Put simply, the system rates players based on their actual skill in each game, and updates their ranking at the end of each match based on their performance. The actual calculation for the ratings boost or decline is quite complex, but in simple terms, a player with a low TrueSkill rating beating a player with a high TrueSkill rating would receive more of a boost than a player with a high TrueSkill rating beating a player with a low one.

The reason for this is that the system assumes – to within a calculated degree of certainty – that the rating of each player is an actual representation of their skill. Therefore, a player that is highly rated should be able to defeat lower-rated players without much difficulty and shouldn’t be rewarded with as much of a ratings boost as they would get by defeating a player with a higher rating.

Epic have stated that you are assigned the first Gears of War 2 rank by playing in one multiplayer match and that the more matches that you win, the higher your rank will be – with your ranking going down when you lose matches. If the system is based on TrueSkill – which it is – then this is theoretically correct. What isn’t explained is the time it will take for your rank to change. If you’re consistently beating “better” players, your rank will go up. However, if you’re consistently beating “worse” players (as defined by the TrueSkill system), then your ranking will still go up – but it’ll take far longer than if you play against players either on or above your TrueSkill level.

The TrueSkill system is based on expected outcomes. For example, if I have a TrueSkill rating of 35 and you have a TrueSkill rating of 23, then I’m expected to defeat you more often than you’ll defeat me. When you win, you get a better ratings boost than I do when I win. Not only that, but my rating will decline by a hefty chunk due to the disparity in our ratings. As Microsoft says: “It is a strength of the TrueSkill ranking system to move you up very quickly early on but to reduce the step-size in the updates after a series of consistent games” – and the reason for this is that once you start playing consistently (ie: winning approximately as often as you lose) – then the game has “found” your true skill rating.

It may sound like I’m repeating myself here, and I am. The reason for this is the amount of massive coincidences that I’ve seen posted around on various forums about how your ranking is determined. Some folks have even claimed that it’s the time of day that’s important – and that just doesn’t make any sense at all.

Just so you know, your rank is not affected by private matches or Horde Mode – as confirmed by Epic.

Oh, and winning a match against a full room will serve you better than winning a match against one other player – simply because the TrueSkill system will consider that you’ve beaten each player individually and alter your rating accordingly and push you ever closer to that next ranking threshold. In short, the only way to “rank up” in Gears of War 2 – or any game that uses the TrueSkill system – is to play against players who are considered to be better than yourself, and beat them.