Dota 2's upcoming update will add ranked matchmaking for experienced players

One of the stupider things about humanity is that we keep engineering the future tools of our own demise. For instance, computers are now constantly ranking us based on a variety of factors that measure our performance against each other for fun and entertainment. Naturally, come the awakening of sentient machines, the AI Prime will look at these rankings and think, "hmm, xXx_n00bst0mper_xXx has a higher K/D ratio then any other meatsack in quadrant four. Let's shackle his consciousness with nano-orbs and harvest his muscles into slavedroid neurostims."

Ah well, while we wait for the inevitable to happen, we might as well enjoy ourselves. Valve's Dota 2 ranking system will soon be getting an upgrade that's designed to better support more experienced players. Ranked Matchmaking aims to enable the move towards more competitive play by making the game's usually hidden MMR (matchmaking rating) visible to players.

A post on the Dota 2 blog outlines the conditions needed to unlock Ranked Matchmaking:

• Ranked matchmaking is unlocked after approximately 150 games.

• All players in the party must have unlocked the mode.

• Currently, only All Pick, Captains Mode, and Captains Draft are available.

• You may not participate in ranked matchmaking while in the low priority pool.

• Coaches are not allowed in ranked matchmaking.

• Matches played in normal matchmaking do not impact your ranked matchmaking MMR, and vice versa.

• Your ranked MMR is visible only to you and your friends. The MMR used for normal matchmaking is not visible.

• When you first start using ranked matchmaking, you will enter a calibration phase of 10 games. During this time, your ranked MMR will not be visible.

Head through to that post for a more technical breakdown of how MMR is calculated, and the aims of Dota 2's ranking system. Dota 2's next update will also kick off the Frostivus event, details of which can be found here .

Thanks, Strategy Informer .