Climbing the Starcraft 2 ladder is easy – you just have to win. Or is that all there is to it? The truth is moving up the ladder is not as straightforward as you might think in Starcraft 2 simply because the ladder is divided into 7 leagues. While your rank within each league is determined by points, promotion (or demotion) between leagues is altogether a different story.

The formula for moving between leagues is hidden and has not been formally announced. The idea behind not announcing the formula is to prevent people from trying to game rankings. However, the best rankings are publicly followed, and any attempts to cheat to move up in the ranks have been thwarted The only real way to rank up is to win games, such as by applying the tips in this Starcraft 2 strategy guide to beat your peers.

The biggest thing you need to know is that even if you are rank 1 in your own league, you might not get promoted. The real way to get promoted involves beating players who are in a higher league then you. You can win games against players who are in your same league all day, but if you cannot beat players from the next league up, you have no real reason to be promoted.

In other words, if you are in the Silver league, and win most of your games against other Silver League players, you will just move up to rank 1 in Silver League. If you want to get promoted to the Gold League, you need to win games against gold-league players. Even just a single win against a high-ranked player is often enough to get promoted.