One of bigger changes will be that instead of starting with no stars, each medal will have one to five stars instead. While it’s unknown how this will change MMR corresponding to medals, you’ll only have to grind up five stars instead of six.
Another massive change is the introduction of the Immortal medal. If you’re skilled enough to be the top of the ranks, you’ll get the other new perk this season. Players that make leaderboard will get a new “Immortal” medal, designating them as one of the finest Dota 2 players for the rest of the season.
Hence, Divine 5 will now appear as a normal medal with stars, while the Immortal rank will just show your rank instead of stars just like the Divine 5 of the previous season. So the new hierarchy in the Ranks will be:
1. Herald (Lowest)
2. Guardian
3. Crusader
4. Archon
5. Legend
6. Ancient
7. Divine
8. Immortal (Highest)
FAQs
1. I was Ancient 3, but I got calibrated at Legend 3 now. Is this just due to me performing poorly in the calibration matches?
Maybe, maybe not. The medal that showed on your profile at the end of last season, doesn’t indicate your current MMR; instead, the medal reflects the highest MMR achieved. Maybe you’ve been in a slump for quite a while now which brought down your MMR.
Anyway, even if you aren’t doing as hot this season as last, everyone will know you aren’t lying about reaching Legend, as last season’s medal has been displayed on your profile.
2. Will a person recalibrate depending on their current MMR or their current medal?
Yes. Your current MMR will be the initial point from which calibration starts. Winning more than 5 games will most likely give you a higher medal, while losing them will give you a lower one. It will be relative to your current MMR (Not rank)
3. What factors does Valve take into account for re-calibration?
One of the coders in charge of the re-calibration, Jeff Hill, reached out on Reddit to share some insight on the re-calibration process:
For the seasonal re-calibration games, it only uses wins or losses, the relative team rank balance (match fairness) and the estimated uncertainty on your rank.
You will not get additional calibration credit for your performance in the game beyond simply winning the game. For example; hero damage, kills, assists, wards placed, creep score, gpm, hero choice - those kinds of things do not inform the re-calibration system today.
So don’t be hesitant to pick a support, your damage done, gold farmed just doesn’t matter. Only wins do.
4. You cannot go down in medal but you can do go down in MMR. So if a person reaches Immortal Medal (which is for leaderboard players only) but then loses a game, he would ideally not be on the leaderboard anymore but would still have his/her immortal rank?
That person will still stay in the leaderboards, he will just drop a few ranks. Again, the medal on your profile reflects the highest MMR achieved during the course of the season. So once you get to Immortal, you will never drop out for the rest of the season.
This is the reason why the SEA Dota 2 Leaderboards for last season kicked off with 700 players at the start of the season and ended with over 1600 by the end