MMR is used to determine each players skill level and decides which players are matched up together. A higher MMR score will give a better medal and the 5000 players with the highest mmr will earn a spot on the leaderboard. This article will explain everything about the ranked system in Dota 2.
Dota 2 Ranked System
Ranked Requirements
There are a few requirements before a player unlocks ranked matchmaking games in Dota 2. These measures has been added to the game as a way to prevent smurfing and account boosting.
- A minimum of 100 in-game hours, in normal game modes.
- There is no way to bypass this or do it faster, as time is the only factor.
- The player must add a unique phone number to their Steam account.
- 10 Calibration matches to earn a medal and get a MMR score.
MMR and Medals
There are 8 ranked medals in the game. To achieve a better medal, the player must increase their MMR score. The only factor that impacts a player’s mmr is winning or losing a game. In solo queue a win awards +30 mmr while a loss decreases it by 30. In partygames it’s adjusted by +-20 mmr instead.
- Herald
- Guardian
- Crusader
- Archon
- Legend
- Ancient
- Divine
- Immortal
Each medal has 5 tiers, going from 1 star to 5 stars. You can see how close you are to tier up, by looking at the percentage number under the medal on your profile. After ranking up from the last tier, you will achieve the next medal and go back to 1 star.
Rank recalibration
The purpose of recalibrating your rank is to adjust your MMR to your current skill-level if you feel the games has been become too easy or hard. Games will have a more powerful impact on the MMR score than usual. The MMR you had before is used as a baseline for the recalibration.
Does ingame stats affect recalibration?
Valve has never released any information regarding the recalibration formula. However, reports has been made that a recalibration game does 3x MMR gain/loss.
How often can you recalibrate?
A player can recalibrate from the Account tab in settings once every year.
Ranked Matchmaking Queue in Dota 2
Ranked matchmaking used to have only classic queue where players had to decide who played where in the start of the game. However, in 2018 Valve added Role Queue to get rid of toxicity between players who wanted to play the same role.
Role Queue
- Requires 1 token to play preferred role(s)
- Selecting all roles will give 4 tokens after the game ends
- Rank is adjusted to individual performance on each role.
- Leaves less of a mess compared to classic, in terms of coordination with the team
Classic Queue
When a player reaches 7k+ mmr, they will only be able to queue for classic games. This was added because queue times got too big in high mmr games as many of the players are playing core roles.
Rank Distribution
Approximate rank distribution in Dota 2 – Season 5.
| Medal | Stars | Number of players | Percentile | MMR |
| Unranked | ? | 7984666 | ? | ? |
| Herald | 1 | 9765 | 0.1% | ~0 |
| 2 | 297072 | 3.84% | ~154 | |
| 3 | 261104 | 7.11% | ~308 | |
| 4 | 298819 | 10.85% | ~462 | |
| 5 | 307024 | 14.70% | ~616 | |
| Guardian | 1 | 315524 | 18.65% | ~770 |
| 2 | 320541 | 22.67% | ~924 | |
| 3 | 329958 | 26.80% | ~1078 | |
| 4 | 336807 | 31.02% | ~1232 | |
| 5 | 343249 | 35.31% | ~1386 | |
| Crusader | 1 | 357208 | 39.79% | ~1540 |
| 2 | 355176 | 44.24% | ~1694 | |
| 3 | 354174 | 48.67% | ~1848 | |
| 4 | 347977 | 53.03% | ~2002 | |
| 5 | 339344 | 57.28% | ~2156 | |
| Archon | 1 | 343929 | 61.59% | ~2310 |
| 2 | 326957 | 65.68% | ~2464 | |
| 3 | 309519 | 69.56% | ~2618 | |
| 4 | 287205 | 73.16% | ~2772 | |
| 5 | 266399 | 76.48% | ~2926 | |
| Legend | 1 | 262029 | 79.78% | ~3080 |
| 2 | 229849 | 82.65% | ~3234 | |
| 3 | 202498 | 85.19% | ~3388 | |
| 4 | 177258 | 87.41% | ~3542 | |
| 5 | 154125 | 89.34% | ~3696 | |
| Ancient | 1 | 150029 | 91.22% | ~3850 |
| 2 | 122412 | 92.75% | ~4004 | |
| 3 | 99869 | 94.00% | ~4158 | |
| 4 | 81820 | 95.03% | ~4312 | |
| 5 | 67992 | 95.88% | ~4466 | |
| Divine | 1 | 78901 | 96.87% | ~4620 |
| 2 | 60142 | 97.62% | ~4820 | |
| 3 | 45535 | 98.19% | ~5020 | |
| 4 | 33374 | 98.61% | ~5220 | |
| 5 | 25700 | 98.93% | ~5420 | |
| Immortal | ? | 85382 | 100% | ~5800+ |