We've released our Rocket League Rating Alpha!

What is Rating?

Our goal with the rating is to build on commonly used stats like goals, assists, demos etc and give you a clearer picture of how a player actually performed in a game of pro Rocket League. With just a quick glance, you should have a solid sense of their impact on the game.

The principle of the Rating is based around the idea that we take the expected value of certain statistics and compare an individuals performance against those averages and adjust their rating based on this.

Is it important to note that the rating is evaulated on a per game basis and resets to the baseline each time at the beginning of each game.

Why out of 10?

For our first iteration, we chose to follow a more traditional sports rating system. Every player starts a match with a baseline score of 6.5, and their actions (or lack thereof) throughout the game raises or lowers that rating.

An “Average” performance for a player exists between 6.0-7.0 with a good performance giving ratings above 7.0 and a bad performance giving ratings below 6.0.

Examples like Sofascore and Whoscored inspired this direction.

A single number (w two decimals) to rule them all

What goes into our Rating?

The rating itself takes into account 8 core components and each factor has different weightings based on impact as well as individual game nuance.

These include:

1. Goals
2. Assists
3. Saves
4. Shots
5. Demos
6. Contests (50/50s)
7. Kickoffs
8. Pressure

These components were selected after analyzing performance across more than 30,000 RLCS games, identifying how strongly each factor correlates with winning, and weighting their influence on the final rating accordingly. We also included lower impact elements that consistently reflect strong individual play, even when they do not directly lead to a win.

Our core components

Component Deepdive

Goals

Goals win games. They are the backbone of a team and an indidvidual players performance in Rocket League. With an average of about four goals per game, they naturally have a major influence on a player’s Rating.

We evaluate each goal scored individually on a few different aspects:

1. xG (Expected Goals): Using our custom ML model, we look at the expected goal probabillity of every shot that led to a goal and alter the impact of that goal based on that xG of the shot preceding it. i.e if you score a goal you probably shouldn’t have, that goal is worth slightly more. If you score a “tap in”, that goal is worth slightly less.
2. Game Context: Each game is different. Some are goal fests, some are snooze fests… We evaluate the importance of each goal within the flow of the game and adjust the rating based on its impact.. i.e scoring an OT winner is worth more than scoring when your team is 3-0 down.

Assists

The playmakers of the Rocket League scene need their recognition. We can’t all be Erling Haaland.

Assists are evaluated similar to Goals in that we leverage our xG model to increase or decrease the impact these have on the rating. If you put the ball on a plate for the eventual scorer then you will receive a larger boost in rating than if they scored with a more speculative shot.

Shots & Saves

We score every shot and save combination by looking at the xG of the chance and how difficult the save was. When a player stops a shot that was very likely to go in, they earn a big rating bonus. More standard saves still help, just not nearly as much.

Likewise, failing to convert a high-xG opportunity results in a noticeable penalty to the player’s rating.

Demos

Demo’ing and being Demo’ed is a big part of controlling a Rocket League game and each and every demo is taken into account in the rating. We also consider the timing of a demo in relation to big moments in the game and associate a larger bonus to a demo that directly impacts a goal being scored / conceded.

Contests (50/50s)

Throughout a game, players are constantly battling for the ball and challenging each other to gain control. We track every one of these moments, along with where the ball ends up afterward, to add small but meaningful contributions to a player’s rating.

We also track these in relation to larger events like goals and attribute larger contributions if the outcome of the contests results in a goal being scored.

Pressure

If the ball isn’t in your third, the other team can’t really score. Wild, right?

By tracking where players and the ball are over the course of the game, we can gauge how much pressure each player exerted on their opponents. When that pressure ties into a positive or negative result players earn / lose rating.

Final Word

Our Rating aims to help explain what happens in the arena, but it’s just one way to look at performance. We’re committed to evolving and improving it to reflect the game as accurately as possible. Even so, the clearest picture of a player’s performance always comes from watching the match yourself. So make sure to watch as many as you can!

We’d love to hear what you think! So please let us know in our discord or on the RLCS reddit.