New Features and Fixes for 2025

We’re thrilled to announce some new features and behind-the-scenes improvements to 8Realms. Lots of work has been going on in the background, most of which isn’t very interesting but will make it much easier to keep improving the platform. But there have also been a few noticeable changes to 8Realms, including changing how Elos are calculated, improving how preferred factions are determined, and implementing numerous fixes to ensure your player data is perfect.

Improved Elo Distribution

One of the most significant updates in this release is the refinement of our Elo rating system. We’ve increased the K-factors for 8Realms to 50 for new players, 25 for established players below 2400, and 10 for those with ratings of 2400 or above. This change helps improve the distribution of Elo ratings by reducing the frequency of identical rankings across the board, spreading the ratings out more. On an algorithmic level, it provides stronger signals which mean that beating a higher ranked player will have more of an effect on your score, and losing to a higher ranked player will have less of an effect. With these adjustments, you can expect a more accurate ranking system where every competitive match counts.

Smarter Preferred Faction Selection

We know how important it is for players to have their preferred faction accurately represented on their profile. A number of players reached out as they had switched factions during this season, and their profile still showed their old faction as their favourite. In some cases, this was just a bug, but in other cases where a player had an equal number of matches with multiple factions it would pick the oldest rather than newest played faction.

Now the bugs have been fixed, and the system has ben adjusted to better represent your recent play. In cases where there’s a tie, the system will favor the most recently played faction, giving a better representation of a player’s current focus.

Increased Accuracy of Data

We’ve made a number of smaller fixes and improvements under the hood, especially concerning how Stats and Ladders events are parsed. These adjustments improve the accuracy of event data so that you see the right details on every tournament, particularly on top tables.

When users contact us to request data is fixed, it sometimes reveals an error in how data is being handled that affects a few players. We always resolve the root causes of these bugs rather than just manually fixing individual cases, to keep the overall dataset healthy.

Sometimes, users just want their data untangled – this is especially the case with shared names. We know that an accurate record matters, and have worked to manually separate player records where a name clash occurs.

More Fixes & Quality-of-Life Improvements

In addition to the major changes above, our latest update includes:

• Parsing Improvements: Refined logic to handle edge cases and improve the consistency of tournament data.
• User Experience Enhancements: Various manual changes have been applied to ensure data is displayed correctly and intuitively across the site.
• Backend Refinements: Better administrative tools for managing and updating 8Realms data have been put in place, so administrators can easily keep everything accurate. This was a huge piece of work, but mostly pays dividends in the future when further development becomes easier.

What’s Next?

This update is just the beginning. We’re already hard at work on new features that will bring even more data and detailed statistics to your player profiles. Soon you’ll be able to access more comprehensive insights into your performance, detailed match histories, and even more interactive tools to manage your tournament records.

There is also plenty more on the horizon, with some major changes coming up. But we’ll keep those a surprise – for now…