Ranked dubbing

How a ranked match works

1. 1

   Queue on your own

   No room code and no invite. The matchmaker looks for players near your rating and widens as you wait — a full lobby is four, it will start with three after a minute, and with two after five. The countdown is on screen rather than behind a spinner.

2. 2

   Four scenes, and the losers choose

   Nobody brings a clip. The lobby is dealt four scenes marked up by other players, and most picks wins. From the second round on, the choice belongs to whoever did not win the last one — the only advantage in the mode, and it goes to the people behind.

3. 3

   Everybody plays everybody

   There is no casting. Every player performs every character in the scene, so the comparison at the end is between people doing identical work rather than between people who drew different parts.

4. 4

   Record alone

   You perform to the scene hearing nobody else, with time for several passes at it. Nothing is submitted until you say you are done or the booth closes.

5. 5

   Watch them all back

   Every version plays to the whole lobby, one after another. This is the part people stay for, and it is what makes a bad take worth as much as a good one.

6. 6

   The server decides

   No vote. Each performance is measured against the one it is standing in for, the order of those scores is the order of the match, and your points move accordingly. A lobby plays three matches together before everybody goes back to the queue.

The ladder

Everybody starts at zero and climbs. A match puts twenty-five points on the table: first place takes them, last place gives them back, and everybody between shares them out. What changes as you go up is not the points — it is what a bad night is allowed to take from you.

Since the first two rungs subtract nothing, everybody passes through them eventually. They are an on-ramp rather than a contest, and real competition starts at Supporting.

Your first five matches

Placement is five matches, about one evening, and during them your hidden matchmaking rating moves roughly three times as far — nothing is known about you yet, and the fastest way to a fair match is to find out quickly. Your rank is not withheld while that happens: you are on the ladder from the first match.

What actually gets scored

Five measurements and one judgement, out of a hundred and ten. None of them is asking you to sound like the character — pitch is compared as a contour with your own median removed, so register and microphone gain fall out entirely.

• Intonation, 28 — do you rise and fall where the original rises and falls?
• Timing, 24 — do your lines land where the lines land? A constant offset is nearly free; scattered timing is what costs.
• Expression, 20 — was the reading actually menacing, or merely shaped like it? This one is a language model's call.
• Dynamics, 16 — do you get loud and quiet in the same places?
• Rhythm, 12 — is the pace of the delivery the same shape?
• Likeness, 10 — a bonus for happening to sound like them, and never a deduction.

How a dub is scored, in full

Common questions

How does the ranking system work?

Everybody starts at zero points and climbs through six tiers — Extra, Understudy, Supporting, Lead, Star and Legend. A match puts twenty-five points on the table: first place takes them, last place gives them back, and everybody between shares them out. What changes as you climb is what a loss costs: nothing on the first two rungs, a quarter of it on Supporting, and all of it at the top.

How are ranked matches scored?

Nobody votes. The server compares each performance to the one it is standing in for and measures five things — timing, intonation, dynamics, rhythm, and a language model's read on the expression — with a small bonus for happening to sound like the character. The order of those scores is the order of the match, and the breakdown is shown to you afterwards.

How do I play a dubbing game against strangers?

Sign in, open Ranked and press find a match. There is no room code and no invite: you are put into a lobby of up to four players near your rating, dealt a scene nobody has chosen, and you all perform every character in it. A full lobby is four, but the matchmaker will start with three after a minute and with two after five.

How long does a ranked match take?

Usually five to ten minutes — picking the scene, recording it with time for retakes, then watching everybody's version back. A lobby plays three matches together and is then returned to the queue, so a sitting is about half an hour if you stay for all of it.

Do I need a good microphone to rank well?

No. Every measurement is normalised so that your register and your microphone gain fall out — pitch is compared as a contour with your own median removed, loudness as a shape rather than a level. Sounding like the character is worth a small bonus and can never cost you anything, because it is the one thing on the list nobody can practise.

What happens if I lose a ranked match?

On the first two tiers, nothing — and on the very first, a good performance still earns a few points for coming last. Higher up a loss takes a share of the twenty-five, rising to all of it at the top. Points can never fall below zero, a tier is held until you drop thirty points below its threshold, and nobody is demoted on the day they were promoted.