Blood Sport: Personal ratings fixes the Elo rating system

Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com's arena column. Also, apparently, arena history is discussed as well, as evidenced by these last two articles. Mhmmm arena history -- the best kind.

Listening Music: ELO with "Don't Bring me Down." Alright, my bad for not dropping some Elo in the last article. I felt the wrath of my readers. I offer a humble sacrifice.

Last Week: We talked about the beginning of arena and how the old rating system differed so dramatically than the one we have today. The Elo system was implemented on a firm foundation, but quickly eroded due to...

This week: Personal ratings and why we have them!

Season 3 and season 4.

While the old system was grand in many respects, it had flaws. The biggest flaws with an Elo rating system which only had one rating (team rating) were point-selling and win-trading. Both of which are virtually non-existent in today's arena world. Personal rating was created in season 3 to end both of these problems. Even though many arena-boosting groups tried to duplicate their success before season 3, it was much harder, and therefore, much more rare.

If you aren't familiar with point-selling, it was a pretty big deal early in WoW's arena history. Essentially, a high-rolling exceptionally good PvP team would level up a 3v3 or 5v5 team to around 2100 or 2200 rating (at the time, these ratings were unbelievably good -- think 2700 or 2800 in today's arena world). Then, they would sell spots on the team for gold. Individuals would buy 1000+ arena points for 500-1000g. It would usually be advertised through trade and it would be assumed that the individuals would be entering three to four losing arena games. The team rating would suffer as a result, but they'd still get the points advertised.

On a good day, an owner of a 2200 5v5 team would get 4000g for selling four spots on the team -- he would then divvy it up between the people who helped him get to that point. So, all in all, for maintaining a status quo of a 2200 5v5, an individual on that team would receive approximately 800g for playing seven games, then letting other people play on that team for three games. This is a fairly balanced transaction; it isn't anything to write home about. However, when certain arena players started win-trading to maximize profits, things quickly got out of hand.

Massive Profits via Win Trading for Gold

I'll admit I have first-hand experience with win trading for gold. Season 2 was awesome business for arena point sellers. I'd make anywhere from 20,000g to 40,000g in three to five hours of work a week. 20,000g in The Burning Crusade was big gold too, think something like 50,000g nowadays -- that's probably not accurate and I should get in touch with Basil for an accurate inflation rate.

Speaking of Basil, using Basil's strategies has netted me a decent amount of WoW gold. When Basil first came on staff I had about 50,000g if I remember correctly (and most of that I had because of my Burning Crusade arena business). I'm now the proud owner of a gold-capped character (214,000g and some change) and I've got another one on the way. A bit of a plug, I know. Forgive me.

Step one -- getting the teams. Creating a lucrative point-selling/win-trading business was fairly straightforward in the beginning -- buy high rated teams. Leveling them up yourself was viable, but the time investment was usually not worth the effort. I bought two 2150ish rated 5v5s (each were top ten on the battlegroup) up from other team owners for approximately 5,000g each. So my initial investment cost was 10,000 gold.

Step two -- advertising. I'd advertise on trade that I had 1000+ arena points to sell -- 750g each buyer. I would recruit sixteen individuals who would be willing to pay the 750g (which was fairly easy to do). My arena teams gave the most amount of points each week, so I could hold a pretty decent monopoly on big spenders. Many players came back at the same time each week, so I'd only have to find three or four new players off of trade each week.

Step three -- playing the games. I had two accounts with multiple 70s on each account. I gave each of my characters a high rated 5v5 and invited eight players to each 5v5 (sixteen total). I would then play 5 games with half of the recruits, and 5 games with the other recruits (for a total of 10 games with 16 participants). Because I would instruct players to win half of their games and lose the other half (and we would always get the other team because I would queue at the exact same time), my rating on both teams wouldn't change at all (win trading).

Step four -- counting the profits. Sixteen players paying 750g is 12,000g. For my meager investment of 10,000g I had maximized a working profit of 12,000g a week. Each set of ten games took approximately an hour. If they went quick, I would use a third set of teams and make 36,000g a week. It was pretty crazy. I remember buying my entire guild and my friends their epic mounts as a Christmas present. Good times.

Step five -- get banned. Everything was going swimmingly -- until the giant season three banhammer hit. While my buyers were untouched, all my characters got stripped of their gear. Unfortunately, I wasn't saving season two gear at the time on anyone except my main character, so I was out of luck for Vengeful Gladiator when personal ratings were implemented. Oh well, shame on me for being greedy.

If given the chance, I would not do the same thing again. If we went back to a traditional single team-rating Elo system, I wouldn't win-trade. I would still sell arena points -- I don't think there is anything wrong with doing that as long as you're not win-trading to do it. It benefits both parties and no one makes out like Wall Street when it's done legit.

Personal Ratings Implemented

Personal ratings solved both problems of win-trading and immoral point-selling. For that, I'm very glad we have PR (personal ratings). They make everything a bit more red-tapish, but not to the point of making arena less enjoyable. Team hopping wasn't hurt too badly in season 3 or season 4. You could still team hop fairly decently, and you had a justifiable way of saying how good you were with a number. Now, you could say "I'm a 2200 player" and prove it. Before, even if you had the best gear and a super high team rating, people could be skeptical about how you earned it. Season 3 and 4, for many people, were the height of arena.

Next Week

We'll be looking at arena in the entirety of Wrath of the Lich King and why initial changes (and Death Knights) might have been slightly detrimental to arena...

Want to ascend the arena ladders faster than a fireman playing Donkey Kong? Check out WoW.com's articles on arena, successful arena PvPers, PvP, and our arena column, Blood Sport.