Introduction
Evelyn is not having a good time.
About the guide
The purpose of this guide is to briefly cover the rules governing Ranked Gauntlet’s Bans & Ups system. The Bans & Ups system is what makes PVP as enjoyable as it is, but the inner workings of this system are surprisingly unintuitive. It is very easy to misinterpret the weekly Bans & Ups rotations, especially since the information is not disclosed anywhere in-game.
This information has been available on the official Discord community for over a year, but every single week the cast bans always show the same issues so now we’re putting it on Prydwen.
What is the Bans & Ups system?
To introduce the system, Ranked Gauntlet, one of CounterSide’s PVP game modes, uses an automated ban system to adjust down overperforming characters and rotate the pool of playable characters every week.
The system applies ban levels depending on how prevalent characters were in PVP during the weeks prior. Banned characters receive heavy debuffs that increase in severity as the ban level increases. Ban levels will drop at a rate of 1 per week if the character with the penalty is not selected again. A table with the full list of ban effects, as well as the values for subsequent ban levels, has been provided below:
| Debuff | Ban 1 | Ban 2 | Ban 3 | Ban 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec. DMG | -10% | -20% | -30% | -40% |
| Inc. DMG Taken | -10% | -20% | -30% | -40% |
| Dec. ASPD | -20% | -40% | -60% | -80% |
| Dec. ASPD (Fury) | -40% | -80% | -120% | -160% |
| Dec. Skill Haste | -10% | -20% | -30% | -40% |
| Outgoing Healing Rdc. | -40% | -80% | -120% | -160% |
| Dec. Alt. Reactor Level | -1 | -2 | -3 | -4 |
| Other | Leader cost discount not applied | |||
| Other (Rearms only) | Leader Skill active effect not applied. | |||
The systems that determine ban level are:
- Rotation BAN: Rotation bans are fully automated and apply ban levels depending on total character wins over a span of two weeks.
- Casting BAN: Casting bans apply ban levels democratically through player votes. If a character is simultaneously rotation banned and cast banned, only one applies. The cast ban is invalidated.
How does the Bans & Ups system work?
Credits to MagosLibrorum for compiling and translating the information from the old KR Nexon forums. See the original post here (it's the official CS Discord).
Rotation BAN
- Players are divided into 2 groups, TOP (the top 300 players) andREST (the rest).
- Characters/ ships with the highest number of wins will be banned.
- The numbers of wins from the LAST TWO WEEKS are counted.
- Only the numbers of wins are used; win rate and pick rate are irrelevant.
- Character rotation bans are generated as follows:
- For group TOP, for every 30 characters in the Collection, one ban is generated.
- For group REST, for every 40 characters in the Collection, one ban is generated.
- Ship rotation bans are generated as follows:
- For group TOP, for every 10 ships in the Collection, one ban is generated.
- Prior week UPs are not eligible for ban consideration.
Casting BAN
- Characters/ ships with the highest votes will be banned.
- Votes from the LAST TWO WEEKS are counted.
- Only votes from group TOP are valid.
- Characters/ ships at ban level 2 are removed from the poll.
- Character cast bans are generated as follows:
- For every 65 characters in the Collection, one ban is generated.
- Ship cast bans are generated as follows:
- For every 20 ships in the Collection, one ban is generated.
- The highest number of Rotation/ Casting ban is applied.
- If a unit is picked for UP, the votes they get will be invalidated. The unit with the next highest votes will be banned instead.
UP
- To be eligible for UP, characters must fulfill the following requirements:
- Be of ASSR/ SSR/ SR rarity.
- Have had more than one win in the LAST TWO WEEKS.
- Not receiving an increase in ban level.
- Their number of wins is in the lower 50% of all ASSR/ SSR/ SR characters.
- Character UPs are generated as follows:
- 4 units are picked randomly from all that meet the conditions above.
Key Takeaways
The entire system operates on a two week basis: The Bans & Ups system takes information from two weeks. Current week bans may not reflect the prior week’s PVP activity. This is the reason why Ban 2 characters can jump to Ban 3/ Ban 4 even when no one plays them at Ban 2.
There is no such thing as two week ban immunity: A frequently observed phenomenon is that new characters don’t get banned in their first two weeks (including their debut week), regardless of how overpowered they are. This is because it is incredibly difficult to accumulate enough wins over half a week to compete with other characters with total wins over two weeks.
Rotation BAN and Casting BAN does not stack: If a character/ ship is simultaneously rotation banned and cast banned, only one ban will apply. Players are heavily encouraged to use their cast bans to influence the subsequent week’s RTA meta.
Votes from players ranked lower than 300 are not counted: If you want to make your voice heard, climb! For players looking to get into PVP, check out the Intro to RTA guide:
