What Is the ⭐ Number on the Leaderboard? How SynerWorlds Calculates Your Rating

Open the leaderboard of any board game on SynerWorlds and you will see a star next to every player's name, followed by a number: ⭐ 800, ⭐ 1,150, ⭐ 1,620… That number is the player's Elo skill rating in that particular game — and it is calculated more seriously than it looks. This article explains exactly how it works: the formula, the title ladder, and how ⭐ differs from the Lv level that so many players confuse it with.

⭐ is a separate rating for every game

Each game keeps its own ⭐ rating: your xiangqi rating has nothing to do with your chess or Go rating. Everyone starts at 800 points, and the rating never drops below 100. It only changes after games against the computer that end in a win, a draw or a loss — the computer is the fairest possible measuring opponent, because it never has a good day or a tired evening.

Every AI level is an opponent with a fixed rating

The Elo system needs to know whom you beat and whom you lost to. On SynerWorlds, the 12 computer levels carry a fixed reference ladder:

• Level 1: 300 · Level 2: 500 · Level 3: 700 · Level 4: 900
• Level 5: 1,100 · Level 6: 1,300 · Level 7: 1,500 · Level 8: 1,700
• Level 9: 1,900 · Level 10: 2,100 · Level 11: 2,250 · Level 12: 2,400

After each game, the system compares your rating with the level's rating to compute your expected score, then checks it against the actual result: beating a stronger opponent gains you a lot, losing to a weaker one costs you a lot.

A worked example

Suppose you are sitting at the starting 800 and play Level 5 (1,100 points). Your expected win probability is only about 15%, so the game is scored like this (during your first 20 games):

• Win: +34 points — upsets pay well.
• Draw: +14 points — drawing a stronger opponent is still a "profitable" result.
• Loss: −6 points — losing to a stronger opponent costs very little.

Now play Level 1 (300 points) instead, still at 800. Your expected win probability is about 95%:

• Win: only +2 points.
• Loss: −38 points.

The lesson is unmistakable: farming low levels cannot raise your rating. To climb, you must face levels at or above your own strength — the system is designed so the number reflects real skill, not a pile of easy wins.

Why the first 20 games move so fast

For your first 20 games in each game, the adjustment factor is K = 40, so a new player's rating quickly settles at its true level (some beginners are already strong; some need to start below 800). After 20 games, K drops to 24: the same win against Level 5 above is worth +20 instead of +34, and your rating gradually stabilises at "this is really my level".

The title ladder

The title shown next to your name on the leaderboard comes from the same ⭐ rating:

• Below 600: Novice
• 600–899: Beginner
• 900–1,199: Intermediate
• 1,200–1,499: Advanced
• 1,500–1,799: Master
• 1,800 and up: Grandmaster

To feel the scale: reaching Master at 1,500 means consistently beating the computer around Level 7 (1,500 points) — a long climb, and deliberately so. A title that is easy to earn is not worth showing off.

How ⭐ differs from Lv

Under each player's name on the leaderboard there is a second number: Lv, the experience level. Lv is earned from XP, and XP behaves very differently from rating: every finished game earns some — a win earns the most, a draw less, a loss still a little — and solving puzzles and showing up daily add XP too.

In short: ⭐ measures skill, Lv measures dedication. A high-Lv, low-⭐ player plays a lot but has not yet beaten the stronger levels; a high-⭐, low-Lv player is new here but arrived with real strength. Together, the two numbers tell a player's whole story.

One honest caveat

The AI levels' ratings are an internal SynerWorlds reference scale, used to compare players inside the same system — they are not FIDE ratings or any federation's ratings, and they do not convert directly to other systems. If you want the "original" Elo story — how to read rating gaps, the human strength scale and Carlsen's record 2,882 — read our companion piece, What Is Elo?.

Now open the leaderboard of the game you play, look at your ⭐, and set yourself a reachable goal: +100 points this month. It is the most honest way to climb — one game a day, one AI level a week.