League promotions halted when Grandmaster is re-calculated?

So lately I've noticed that the Grandmaster list is empty (not yet ranked). Before that happened, I saw some unfamiliar players on the top of that list, and when I reviewed their build orders it showed that they were winning simply because the opponent was leaving when the match started.

Since this time, I've started to play way above my league. I have over 1000 points in Silver, and 2nd place is 700. I got promoted to Silver much easier than this, and I'm wondering if the recent series of disconnects (or whatever stopped the rankings of the Grandmaster league) is related to my inability to move up. Not that it matters (because mmr != league), but I'm playing exclusively Gold players now.

Bonus points for anyone who can explain what happened to halt the Grandmaster rankings. Is it possible that someone found a way to disconnect an opponent and railed their way to up GM status? Makes me reminiscence of the days of AOL punters (if you actually get this, I love you).

Solution 1:

So, I don't know what you're referring to about GM rankings, but they seem to be fine on both KR and NA right now, so let's focus in on your moving up.

League promotion is concerned with two important factors: Moving Average of your MMR and ** Confidence buffer between Leagues**.

As you're probably aware your MMR is an Elo-like system designed to estimate your skill level. This means that winning games increases your rating, and losing games decreases it. Additionally, the different in your opponent's MMR from your own affects how much your MMR changes. For league promotion your MMR must stabilize in a new league. This means a significant portion of your games played must be at the MMR of your new league.

Aside: I once knew a guy who had played so many games in Bronze that he could not get promoted despite eventually getting go enough to play at a platinum level. This was remedied when the ladders reset, as his MMR level remained the same but the percentage of new games was reset.

To prevent a lot of jitter for people right on the border between leagues there is also a Confidence Buffer between leagues. Even though you may be winning games off 25th percentile gold players, the system will not advance you. This means leagues are sticky. To get into a higher league you have to play better than a good portion of the target league already plays.

Solution 2:

Update: The ladder is officially locked at the moment, blue post from Blizzard about it:

"Due to an issue with the Grandmaster league we’ve temporarily locked league reassignments. This means that all ranked games are correctly awarding (and subtracting) points, all changes to player’s internal matchmaking rating continue to be made, but the ability to be promoted/demoted to a different league is temporarily on-hold. When this lock is released, the next win will process the correct standing and any league reassignments will be carried out as they would have.

We currently have a hotfix for the Grandmaster issue in testing, and expect it to be implemented very soon. Once the fix is in and verified the lock will be removed and league standings will continue as normal. We’ll make another announcement at that time.

It’s important to note, again, that your games played now continue to count toward your standing and a possible league reassignment."

Original answer for reference:

While there has been no official statement to the public by blizzard about it yet, it appears as though the ladder is indeed locked currently, at least for some, if not all players. Players who see the GM list as empty are almost definitely locked. Placement matches still work though, just demotions and promotions appear to be bugged.

Team Liquid Thread voicing similar concerns about ladder lock

At least allegedly, David Kim has informed some pro players that the ladder is indeed locked due to a bug related to the hotfix for the GM league viewing issue.

As for some of the members of GM league being removed, it is true that some players got there via a disconnect hack. Some more info here and here, go to 1:45:30 into the video and you'll see select get matched vs him and what happens to him.