the clot is back up now!

Just to keep the thread unlocked, some words on recent happenings on the MTL:

We've seen both Octane and Rufus hold the top spot at various times, both of them pushing for new personal all time highs in terms of rating. Octane managed to set a new personal record, getting just shy of 2300 by reaching 2298 rating. That rating push meant he got past Buns157 to overtake second best rating peak out of anyone. In order to achieve this he went on a 22 game win streak, all from first place. Octane did at one point in the process change his name to Octanello, as part of the Optimum art movement.

Rufus changed name to Eraserhead, and this new name seemed to bring luck, as he won 27 games in a row, first overtaking Octane and then making a push which took him past 2300 and all the way up to 2322, matching his previous record as well as the all time highest rating on the MTL. Unfortunately he didn't quite managed to break it, so the record remains the same.

What conditions were made that both players managed to reach such high highs? Partially the fact that both of them were playing well, when you get into the 2200's your best bet at getting a super high rating is to have someone else there with you, since most other wins give basically no rating. The long win streaks would be the second step in the process, obviously going without losses means nothing will pull your rating down, so despite the diminishing returns your rating will keep climbing. Thirdly the changed rules to veto adjustment (which were implemented a while ago) meant that what would have been a 2285 run in the past could suddenly be a 2295 run with the veto adjustment, pushing the numbers ever so slightly higher. For Rufus this meant his rating if still using the old rating system would have hit around 2309. That is obviously still an insane run, higher than anyone else has ever achieved and the highest Rufus has hit since his dominance of the ladder in 2022 (where he ended 20 separate days above 2300 rating). It does showcase that the veto adjustment can be important though.

In other news we saw Magnus expand, then the creation of Les Artistes (and subsequent name changes from Octane, Crimson King, Xenophon, Platinum, Nickpugs3, 7ate9 and Tr-8r edit: and Corn Silver, knew I forgot someone), then an influx in players on the ladder due to clan league winding down. We saw a time when several players lingered between 2000 and 2100, which suddenly changed to now having Rufus and tornado above 2100 and everyone else below 2000, but having an unusually large amount of players between 1900 and 2000. Octane and Xenophon have left the ladder, but Buns157 and tornado have rejoined, Aika came and went (just to mention some 2k+ rated players). SweetSasyMolasy continues putting up impressive activity numbers.

Edited 6/29/2025 00:25:00

bump!

Bump 2

IDK whether that's the correct place to ask, but how long does it (usually) take to get first game after signing up to MTL for the first time?

I'm not sure at what interval the MTL creates games, but should normally be <2 hours.

However, at the moment it appears that something is a bit buggy, as it hasn't created new games for a while...

As a baseline, new games are created every 2 hours, attempting to match you with players in your rating range (I.E. within 20 ranks of your current position). There is a measure in place for players rejoining the ladder, which delays their matchups by a cycle or two in order to prevent leaving and rejoining the ladder in order to "snipe" specific opponents, though I assume that doesn't apply to new players on the ladder. As JK mentioned, there's also been some technical instabilities over the last long time, which means the ladder occassionally goes down, either front end (where the site becomes inaccessible) or back end (where game creation and ladder updates are halted). These rarely last long, as Justin is generally quick with getting it back up and running again, but if you joined the ladder just prior to one of these downtimes, it would extend the time you need to wait.

On top of all that there is of course also the fact that you need eligible opponents, which will usuably but not always be available.