TL;DR
- Aim Rating is designed to have an average of 50 across the entire playerbase. However, we hadn't updated the underlying data for 2.5 years, so that average had drifted upwards over time. Today's update re-calibrated those benchmarks, and reset the average for Aim Rating back to 50.
- Aim, Utility, and Positioning Rating are the only stats on Leetify where the numerical value is impacted by this change. The numerical calculation remains unchanged for all other stats.
- These benchmark updates have changed the color thresholds on any color-coded stat. Color-coded thresholds are now based on modern CS2 data instead of old CS:GO data.
- You can now compare to CS Ratings when selecting your personal benchmark.
If this TL;DR is confusing, that's OK! These are pretty complex calculations. Keep reading for a much more thorough explanation.
How does Aim Rating even work?
An Aim Rating of 50 is average for the entire playerbase. Getting an Aim Rating in the 40-60 range means you're right in the middle of the pack (even if you've got bad associations with a score of 50 from school). If you're on the lower rank of the rank distribution, then you'd be expected to get a bit lower of an Aim Rating.
To calculate Aim Rating, we compare your values for each Aim stat to the average performance of all players in that stat. From now on, let's call the average performance of all players the "benchmark." We quantify how much better than the benchmark you were in each Aim stat besides Accuracy (All Shots) on the Aim tab.
For every stat where you exceed the benchmark, that pushes your Aim rating towards 100. For every stat that is below the benchmark, that pushes your Aim rating towards zero. If you're further from the benchmark, then the reward/penalty is stronger. If you're exactly average in a stat, that stat is trying to keep your Aim rating at right at 50. All stats on the Aim tab are weighted equally (other than Accuracy (All Shots), which is not counted at all).
For the mathematically inclined, we are using z-scores to quantify how far above the benchmark you are.
These same principles apply to our other two skill ratings as well (Utility & Positioning).
Why did my Aim Rating drop?
The last time we updated these benchmarks was in late 2021. This means that through yesterday, your Aim Ratings (and the color coding on all stats) were comparing you with the CSGO playerbase from 2.5 years ago. The playerbase has improved at the game since then, so it makes sense that stats which were considered above average 2.5 years ago would now just be considered average. Other than the playerbase improving, MR12 is the biggest change that CS2 introduced, but there are additional differences between CS2 and CS:GO which could also be causing these numbers to shift.
Why does new benchmark data lead to a change in Aim Rating?
Since the playerbase has improved as a whole in the past 2.5 years, when we updated to modern data, this leads to the same raw Aim numbers corresponding to a lower relative Aim rating. Think of placing an average player from early CS against an average modern player. Even if they are both in the exact middle of the rank distribution, the modern player has years more experience and knowledge to help them be better at the game.
This improvement trend is commonly cited in Pro CS - the Evolution of the Mirage Window Smoke and the History of Inferno Banana Control (from mahone_tv) are great examples of this. Over time, the average skill level increases as people learn clever new ways to be better at the game.
It's also possible there's some underlying characteristics of CS2 that have changed the way people are playing the game. Perhaps it's slightly easier to get good aim stats in CS2 than it was in CS:GO. Since there's a confounding variable of a change in games, we can't be certain that the change in Aim Ratings is entirely explained by players getting better. This theory would require some more analysis to confirm though.
Why did 2.5 years pass with no update to these benchmarks?
We had started work on updating these benchmarks last year, and then CS2 was announced. So rather than spend the time updating the benchmarks just for a major change in the game, we wanted to wait until we had enough CS2 data to do a proper update.
Will these numbers change again?
These numbers changed rather dramatically since so much has changed since the last time that we updated them. We don't want to repeat this, and we've also learned from this update that it's pretty counter-intuitive that the Aim/Utility/Positioning Ratings change numerically when the playerbase changes. We plan to explore an more thorough update to these metrics to make them less confusing, but that'll likely be at least a few months out on the horizon.
Color Coding on Leetify
Our color-coding is designed to show you at-a-glance where the good and bad outlier stats are in your match. If a stat is white, it's average. If something is green, it's good/great. If it's orange/red, it's subpar/poor.
We've calibrated our color-coding so that Poor is the bottom 10%, Subpar is 10-30%, Average is 30-70%, Good is 70-90%, and Great is 90-100% (aka the top 10%). Here's an illustration:
These benchmarks change with your rank in some cases, but in some cases they are standardized across all ranks.
Rank-Dependent Stats
Some stats will have different benchmarks depending on your rank. For example, you'd generally expect higher-ranked players to have better reaction time. The color-coding for most stats on Leetify is rank-dependent.
Examples of Rank-Dependent Stats:
- Time to Damage
- Average Blind Time
- Spotted Accuracy
- (Most stats on Leetify are in this category - see the next section for the list of stats that aren't rank-dependent)
For these stats, the cutoffs for each color will change depending on what rank you're comparing to:
Rank-Independent Stats
For some stats, they will have the same benchmark no matter what rank you compare to. These are stats that you'd generally expect to have similar ranges regardless of the rank people are playing at.
Rank-independent stats on Leetify are:
- Leetify Rating (includes CT-Side / T-Side Leetify Rating and Personal Performance)
- Aim / Utility / Positioning Ratings
- ADR (Average Damage per Round)
- K/D (Kill-death ratio)
The color coding on these stats won't change if you compare to a different rank bracket.
Have thoughts on anything from this update? We always love to see your feedback in Discord. We're excited to keep improving Leetify in 2024!