How rankings work

The Pokémon leaderboard is an Elo ladder of matches played at GGs Hobby & Gaming Lounge.

Your rating

Everyone starts at 1000. After every match, the winner takes points from the loser. How many depends on how surprising the result was: beating a higher-rated player earns more than beating a lower-rated one, and losing to a lower-rated player costs more.

Before each match your expected score is worked out from the gap between the two ratings. After the match your rating moves by K × (result − expected), where a win counts as 1, a draw as ½ and a loss as 0.

ExampleExpectedWinDrawLoss
You 1000 vs opponent 110036%+15.4+3.4−8.6
You 1100 vs opponent 100064%+8.6−3.4−15.4

Examples for players past placement (K = 24).

Placement

Your first 3 matches of a season are placement. Ratings move faster during placement (K = 64 instead of 24) so new players reach their level quickly. For example, a first win against an equal opponent is worth +32.

While in placement you're Unranked: you don't get a tier or position and are hidden from the leaderboard unless "Show players still in placement" is ticked.

Which matches count

  • Every official event at GGs: Gym Battles, League Cups, prereleases, Build & Battle and more.
  • Every round counts, including top cut.
  • Not counted: byes, and brackets that aren't a GGs event on the Pokémon Trainers website.

Results come straight from the event's pairings at GGs, so the leaderboard updates as soon as each match is reported. Each event is linked to its listing on the official Pokémon Trainers website.

Your results follow your Pokémon player ID, so they stay together even if the name on your entry changes.

Tiers

Your tier comes from your Elo once you're past placement. Everyone starts at 1000 (Trainer), and each tier is 50 Elo wide. The #1 ranked player is the Champion.

  • Champion#1 on the ladder
  • Elite Four1200+
  • Gym Leader1150–1199
  • Veteran1100–1149
  • Ace Trainer1050–1099
  • Trainer1000–1049
  • Rookie950–999
  • Youngsterbelow 950

Bounties

Won the last event? You have a bounty on your head (🎯 on the leaderboard). Anyone who beats you in the next rated event earns +5 extra Elo on top of the normal result.

Winning an event also earns +5 Elo. The champion doesn't lose anything extra, so winning is never punished. The bounty moves to whoever wins the next event.

Achievements

Badges you earn from your results, across every season. Each shows how many players have it, so you can see how rare it is. Find them on your player page.

  • First WinWin your first rated match.
  • RankedFinish placement (3 matches in a season).
  • ChampionWin an event.
  • FlawlessWin every match of an event (3+ rounds).
  • ComebackLose round 1 of an event, then win every round after (3+ rounds).
  • Giant SlayerBeat a player rated 100+ above you.
  • On FireWin 5 rated matches in a row.
  • Rising StarReach 1100 Elo.
  • EliteReach 1200 Elo.
  • RegularPlay 10 rated events.
  • VeteranPlay 100 rated matches.
  • King of the HillBe #1 on the ladder.
  • Bounty HunterBeat the champion of the previous event.

Seasons

Seasons follow set releases. When a new season starts, every rating moves halfway back toward 1000 and everyone plays placement again, so returning players keep part of their standing without locking newcomers out.

Earlier seasons stay viewable from the season picker, including the seasons of the previous points ranking.