User blog comment:Texas Snyper/Elo Hell and You: Part 1 - The Impassable Barrier/@comment-205.150.3.111-20110907195137

A very, very well written opinion with a great presentation. I would have the following question for the author however: it seems you did not take into account how the entry of new players into the 1200 bracket affects the rest of the team which may have a true elo around or above the 1300 mark. New players are given an artificial 1200 elo upon entry into the ranked system that is completely independent of their normal (invisible) elo.

Constant entry into the middle of the elo bracket causes a fluctuating population skewed towards the middle/bottom of the elo spectrum, as it is easier to get dragged down by players artificially assigned to 1200 with a true 600 rating than it is to get consistently carried by a true 1600 player when you are a true 1200.