Introducing rating 2.1

An update has been introduced to rating 2.0, with lower rewards for saving and averages tuned to Counter-Strike 2.

Rating 2.1 has been rolled out across HLTV for all Counter-Strike 2 matches and stats pages, with slight tweaks made to the formula that was first introduced in 2017.

With a year of CS2 under our belts, it was time to update the data behind the rating to reduce the reward for saving and adjust the averages behind the rating to be in-line with MR12 and 26-damage assists (rather than GO's 41).

The base of the formula remains the same with ten sub-ratings related to kills, survival, damage, KAST, and Impact on T and CT side.

It is also set to result in an average of a 1.00 rating over a CS2 event (not map, or season), which was the case when rating 2.0 was released in 2017 but had strayed in the years since.

Other than that, the formula has largely gone untouched — with development on a more wide-ranging rating 3.0 update underway.

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Changelog

— Averages adjusted using 1 year of Counter-Strike 2 data
— Average rating returned to 1.00 over an event
— All five sub-ratings now have equal weight, after survival, impact, and KAST became too important in CS2 for rating 2.0
— Survivals in lost rounds (saving) gives a lower reward
— Assisted kills give more reward than in 2.0, because of 26 damage assists rather than 41

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Why did we need rating 2.1?

The reason for the hotfix is simple. Over the years, as teams saved more (resulting in more survivals, fewer kills, and less damage), the averages for rating's underlying metric diverted from those that decided rating 2.0 in 2017.

When CS2 released, the averages were further affected by MR12 and, notably, assists — which are part of Kill, KAST and Impact rating — changed from 41 damage to 26.

This meant the average rating crept up to around 1.06 on CS2, as players outperformed their expected values from GO. 2.1 will fix this, so expect to see slightly lower values across an event than before with the average returned to 1.00.

As well as adjusted averages, the formula itself has been changed to reduce the reward players earn from surviving lost rounds. You no longer earn a KAST point from saving in lost rounds where you did not get a kill or an assist, and survival rating treats survivals in lost rounds as less impactful than in won rounds.

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Examples

In practice, this means players like Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali who survived 20% of Virtus.pro's lost rounds in CS2, are punished relative to rating 2.0.

Here's a screenshot of a scoreboard from a random match, Cloud9's 13-10 win over VP at BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024.

Jame had low output in terms of kills and damage, and also saved once on T side, and twice on CT, and drops from a 1.00 rating on 2.0 to 0.88 on 2.1. Across the board, ratings are slightly lower because of the updated averages.

Here are six examples of events where player's rank in the event dropped significantly with the move to 2.1: All feature lots of saving.

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History of rating

Rating 1.0 was introduced to the site in 2010 by Petar "Tgwri1s" Milovanovic as an improvement to K/D Ratio in evaluating player performance in professional Counter-Strike with multi-kills as a third factor in addition to kills and deaths.

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What is that rating thing in stats?

That core system remained in place for 2017's renewal of rating. 2.0 introduced a more complicated formula, new metrics like KAST and Damage, and a reformed Impact rating that added opening kills and clutches to the multi-kills that still drive the majority of the sub-rating.

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Introducing Rating 2.0

This meant supportive players who might contribute in terms of unfinished kills, but dealt lots of damage, assists, or had their deaths traded, were rewarded. Impact's new formula also gave a hand to aggressive players, whose opening frags would win rounds on their own.

Rating has and will continue to guide all statistical decisions at HLTV since its introduction, and is the backbone behind Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards and the prestigious Top 20 players of the year list.

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How is rating calculated?

The formula behind rating remains private, but we can reveal some elements behind 2.0 and 2.1 to increase the community's understanding.

Firstly, the sub-ratings. There are different averages behind all five sub-ratings on both sides of the map.

Also, they include multiple factors. Kill rating gives more value to openers and 'perfect' kills (those where the attacker receives 0 damage), and less to assisted kills. Survival rating rewards traded deaths, and punishes opening deaths (and now saving — especially on T side).

Impact is based on multi-kill rounds (with differing credit based on how many kills, assists, and deaths a player scored in one round), openers, and clutches.

Where Impact measures explosive, round-winning peaks, KAST is designed to measure round-to-round consistency. It is now a percentage of rounds where the player earned a kill, assist, survival in a won round, or traded death.

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Where is economy?

This is rating 2.1, and not 3.0, for a reason. A fundamental overhaul of rating using live round win probability, economy, and all the trimmings is something that is already in the works, but it is a long-term process and we are not there yet.

However, we don't want to make development of 3.0 stop us from making a smaller, but significant one now with award season around the corner.

We do not see rating 2.1 as a finished product, but a stop on the way to the main goal which is rating 3.0, the next generation of rating that will evaluate player performance even more accurately.