Every player on the scoreboard has a skill tier badge next to their name. The tier comes from your skill rating, which goes up when your team wins and down when it loses (the rating itself and how teams are balanced with it are on Teams and shuffle). There are 9 tiers.
Skill tiers#
| Badge | Tier | Name | Skill rating |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 1 | Recruit | 0 – 300 |
 | 2 | Frontiersman | 301 – 750 |
 | 3 | Squad Leader | 751 – 1400 |
 | 4 | Veteran | 1401 – 2100 |
 | 5 | Commandant | 2101 – 2999 |
 | 6 | Special Ops | 3000 – 3999 |
 | 7 | Sanji Survivor | 4000 – 4999 |
 | 8 | Alterra Field Marshal | 5000 – 5999 |
 | 9 | Legend | 6000 and up |
The tier follows your current rating directly, so it moves up and down with it. On the scoreboard, hover a badge to see the tier name; the team header shows the team's average tier.
Other badges#
| Badge | Name | When |
|---|---|---|
 | Rookie | New players below level 10 whose rating is still in the Recruit range |
 | Bot | Bots |
 | Unknown | The rating could not be loaded (yet) |
Commander insignia#
Players who command have a separate commander rating, and it gets its own tier with the same boundaries. From tier 2 up it shows as a small insignia to the right of the skill badge: bars for tiers 2 to 4, stars from tier 5.
| Commander tier | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insignia |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
A player with a skill tier 6 badge and a three-star insignia is a strong player who is also a strong commander; a high badge with no insignia has rarely or never commanded.
What the rating is (and isn't)#
- Only wins and losses count. Kills, score and accuracy do not change it.
- Beating a stronger team is worth more than beating a weaker one, and losing to a stronger team costs less.
- Marines and aliens get their own value. The rating has a marine/alien split, so a player can be much stronger on one side than the other. Commanding has its own separate rating (the insignia).
- Small and seeding rounds don't count. A round only changes ratings with at least 6 players per team.
- Every round end, chat tells you how much your rating changed. Full history is on NS2Stats.
See also#
Teams and shuffle · Scoring · Status icons · New player guide