In StarCraft 2, are points comparable across leagues?

Question

I'm in Silver league, and I have about 400 points. This ranks me at about 30th in my division. Using SC2Ranks.com, I looked at one of the top Gold divisions and noticed that if I were in Gold, I would be ranked at about 60th place, assuming points mean the same thing across leagues. So that is my question, does it make sense for me to compare points across leagues?

The reason I ask is because we recently created a custom division for Starcraft.org - you can see it at this link. You'll notice the top Platinum player has around 741 points, whereas the top Diamond player has around 537. If points meant the same thing across leagues, I would expect the website to rank the 741-point player at the top, despite him being in Platinum league.

I also notice that that custom division website gives each person a "value" - which I had presumed was some combination of points + league, making me question further whether points could be compared against leagues.

So can you compare points across leagues?

Answer 1

The short answer is: Points are not Comparable across leagues.

The accumulation of points is supposed to be proportional to the difference in skill between players. Unfortunately, the points you gain are unrelated to your ELO style rank. Because of things like: Bonus points, starting off at 0 points, and league promotion devaluing points, points don't correspond to a true ranking.

Instead, sites like SC2Rankings and Starcraft.org realize that the hidden ELO style rank that Blizzard uses is only accurately reflected in promotion between leagues. As a result, the best indicator of skill is what league a player is in. Since points are comparable inside of a league, the secondary sort these sites often use is that point metric (despite its deep flaws).

I'll probably write a longer explanation of how an ELO style ranking system should work to highlight why points don't, but the bottom line is still going to be: points aren't comparable between leagues.