Dota 2 Ranks Explained
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Every competitive game needs some sort of a leaderboard to determine who’s the best of the best. Let’s see how Dota 2 ranks work!
While Dota 2 is a team deathmatch and it’s either the Dire or the Radiant team that wins, the game’s ranking system appreciates personal skill and the leaderboards are still an important part of both personal and tournament development of the players.
Even so, the ranking system might not always seem very understandable to everyone, so here we’ll try to explain how Dota ranks work, so one can have a better understanding of their progress.
Dota 2 Rankings
First of all, Dota 2 used to work a little bit differently before October 2020. In the past, the ranks were only seasonal and temporary, meaning that the MMR and the regional leaderboards were reset each six months or so. However, because the system wasn’t very rewarding and caused rank sprints that encouraged toxic behaviors. Since the new Dota 2 ranking system has been introduced, you can choose to recalibrate your MMR, but it’s not required. Since that’s the case, we will probably see some updates to the ranking diversity in future. For now, the ranks remain the same as in the season system.
Second of all, Dota 2 developers have put a gametime cap on the rank attribution. To get even the most entry rank of all, you need to have 100 hours played in Dota 2 and finish at least 10 matches. You might find it weird, but it surely seeds out some people who could try to spam the system with temporary accounts.
There are 7 subsequent rank names with 5 levels each, amounting to 35 different ranks, listed below with the required MMR scores to reach them. There’s also an eighth rank called Immortal, which is also divided into badges, but is not based on your MMR score, and rather on the position within the regional leaderboard.
Herald 1 ~0 MMR
Herald 2 ~154 MMR
Herald 3 ~308 MMR
Herald 4 ~462 MMR
Herald 5 ~616 MMR
Guardian 1 ~770 MMR
Guardian 2 ~924 MMR
Guardian 3 ~1078 MMR
Guardian 4 ~1232 MMR
Guardian 5 ~1386 MMR
Crusader 1 ~1540 MMR
Crusader 2 ~1694 MMR
Crusader 3 ~1848 MMR
Crusader 4 ~2002 MMR
Crusader 5 ~2156 MMR
Archon 1 ~2310 MMR
Archon 2 ~2464 MMR
Archon 3 ~2618 MMR
Archon 4 ~2772 MMR
Archon 5 ~2926 MMR
Legend 1 ~3080 MMR
Legend 2 ~3234 MMR
Legend 3 ~3388 MMR
Legend 4 ~3542 MMR
Legend 5 ~3696 MMR
Ancient 1 ~3850 MMR
Ancient 2 ~4004 MMR
Ancient 3 ~4158 MMR
Ancient 4 ~4312 MMR
Ancient 5 ~4466 MMR
Divine 1 ~4620 MMR
Divine 2 ~4820 MMR
Divine 3 ~5020 MMR
Divine 4 ~5220 MMR
Divine 5 ~5420 MMR
Immortal – leaderboard rank, not dependent on MMR score. Gold/blue for being placed in the leaderboard, Red for top 100 and Dark for top 10.
Dota 2 Rank Requirements
It’s very important to note that these numbers above are near approximations and the actual system for medal distribution is much more complicated and is based on many factors kept secret by the Valve staff, and most likely tweaked from time to time. However, the Dota community have observed several dependencies that suggest how this might be calculated.
Your current medal will not always reflect your Dota 2 MMR and it has been shown that it can be awarded several hundred points higher and lower than the estimate. This might be influenced for example by a player using several Steam accounts at once. Also, the player’s performance is measured at its peak, not at its median. This means that playing inconsistently might make you gain the next new medal quicker, but then detriment your next advancement if you don’t keep up.
To make sure you rank up, try polishing your skills to play your part whether you’re carrying a lower-tier team or you need to reach up to better players. Mastering all the many characters in Dota 2 is most likely not even possible, but you will serve yourself best if you learn at least a couple of them useful in different roles and positions. This will guarantee that no matter what team you will end up with, you will show the best of yourself. Also, remember that Dota 2 is dependent on good cooperation. Of course, there will always be people who try too hard and ignore their teammates, but the best you can do is try to work with everyone else to the best of results.
Dota Rank Distribution
You might wonder how many players are there in every rank level, either to see if you’ll have a lot of competition going up or see how hard it is to rank up. The rank distribution used to differ by the detail from season to season. Let’s look at the most recent data, as of April 2021.
According to OpenDota analytics of MMR distribution Dota 2 data, the most popular rank now is Archon 2, and it starts around the 49 percentile of over 4 million ranked players. The bell curve is distributed pretty evenly both below that and above that, with a peak at Legend 1 rank and a visibly bigger number of players in Divine 1 rank than its neighboring Ancient 5 and Divine 2 ranks. Also, there are over 70k players in the Immortal rank, creating the strong top of the ranking.
Noticeably, there players above the Divine 5 rank amount to only 1,8% of all players worldwide, which means it’s not surprising that it might take longer for them to be matched with adequate players and often end up playing with lower ranks.
If you want to follow the latest rank distribution and compare it with the historical data, we strongly recommend the Esport Tales summary on the topic.
Dota 2 Ranked Levels – Summary
The calculations of Dota 2 MMR are purposely kept secret to keep players from trying to unfairly manipulate it. However, it’s clear to see that it creates a fair reflection of the player skill that allows for better matchmaking. By analyzing the Dota rank distribution, you can see if the problems you’re having with competitiveness stem from the sheer amount of players in the same rank as you.
Thanks for reading through, we hope this article casts some light on the topic and helps you get more fun from Dota 2!