Frequently Asked Questions
What is Elo?
Elo is a relative skill rating system for 1v1 games. It was originally designed for chess but has been adapted for many competitive games. Ratings here shouldn't be taken too seriously on their own—they're meant to be a fun way to track relative performance over time.
What data is used to calculate Elo ratings?
Elo ratings are calculated from SCAR events since January 1, 2024. Only fights from official SCAR events are included in the calculations.
How can I improve my robot's rating?
Don't like your rating? Fight more! The more fights you participate in, the more accurate your rating becomes. Winning fights against higher-rated opponents will increase your rating more than winning against lower-rated opponents.
Something's wrong!
I'd be happy to take a look. I'll address any errors like:
- Incorrect/misspelled robot or team names
- Incorrect fight results
- Wrong team/robot mappings
- Missing robot photos (just make sure they're updated on RobotCombatEvents!)
- Any other issues that affect the integrity of the data
- General feature requests or bug reports.
Most of our data comes from your profile on RobotCombatEvents, so please make sure your robot profiles are up to date there. Once that's squared away, ping us and we'll get it refreshed.
What do the tiers mean?
Tiers (S, A, B, C, D, F) are based on current Elo rating thresholds. Each weight class has its own tier thresholds that are calculated based on the distribution of ratings in that class. Higher tiers indicate higher current ratings relative to other robots in the same weight class.
How often are ratings updated?
Ratings are updated after each SCAR event. The "Last Updated" timestamp in the footer shows when the data was last refreshed.
Does Elo impact who I fight?
If you're competing at a SCAR event, Elo ratings may be used to seed the bracket. If this is the case, higher seeds will fight lower seeds in the first round.
Please contact the EO for final clarification before the event.
What is Elo Rating Decay?
With 2 years of fight data in the system, Elo rating decay has been enabled to ensure ratings remain current and reflect recent performance more accurately.
Fights from the last 12 months are unaffected and contribute fully to ratings. For fights older than 12 months, their impact on ratings gradually decreases the older they get. Maximum decay is applied to fights that are 18 months old or older, so that very old results don't overly influence current ratings. This helps ensure that the ratings reflect how robots are performing now, while still considering their historical performance.
Decay cutoff date: February 07, 2025
Max decay applied for fights before: August 08, 2024
Fights where decay is applied are marked with an asterisk (*) on the fight history tables.