The situation with the Valve Ranking System (VRS) is becoming increasingly clear: endless online grinding is no longer a safe or efficient way for teams to maintain or improve their ranking. Recent cases highlight a systemic issue — online matches not only provide minimal upside, but can heavily punish teams for losses.
GamerLegion lose around 30 ranking points after playing CCT
One of the clearest examples is GamerLegion. The team accepted an invitation to CCT, where they ended up losing a series to the Russian roster 3:33. The result cost them roughly –30 ranking points. A crucial detail is that GamerLegion played one of the maps with a stand-in, but from VRS’s perspective, this context is irrelevant. The algorithm evaluates only the final result and the opponent’s rating — not the circumstances. As a result, the reward for winning would have been minimal, while the loss carried a significant penalty.
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Inner Circle followed the same path — and paid the price
A similar situation unfolded for Inner Circle. The team also chose to accept an online invitation, but suffered a loss to Nemesis in what effectively became their last meaningful match in the current ranking cycle. That defeat pushed Inner Circle even further down the rankings, putting their VRS prospects under serious pressure. Ironically, simply agreeing to play the online event was already a risk — regardless of the outcome.
Why online tournaments have become toxic for rankings
The core issue lies in how VRS recalculates results:
- old matches are recalculated with every ranking update;
- once a team’s base rating increases, past wins start to be worth less;
- losses, on the other hand, remove more points;
- in online events, teams often face much lower-ranked opponents, creating a risk-over-reward imbalance.
In practice, online grinding creates an anchor effect: the more matches a team has played in the past, the more heavily the system can drag them down with each new update.
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Conclusion: online grinding no longer works
GamerLegion and Inner Circle are just two recent examples, but the trend is obvious. For mid-tier and higher-ranked teams, online tournaments have become a minefield:
- wins bring marginal gains,
- losses directly damage LAN chances, invites, and long-term prospects.
Until the VRS algorithm is adjusted, more organizations will face a harsh choice: keep playing online and risk their ranking — or decline invitations and sacrifice match practice. And increasingly, teams seem to be choosing the latter.
