MTG League ELO: How Per-League Ratings and Standings Work
Each MTG league on Nerd Leagues keeps its own ELO standings — a separate rating for every league you're in, layered on top of your global rating. Win a Wednesday-night cEDH match, and only your rating in that league moves; your rating in your Tuesday-night Commander league sits still until you actually play a Tuesday-night game.
The result is one player, many ratings. The same goes for decks: each deck has its own league ELO in every league it's been played in, parallel to its all-time deck rating.
How league ELO works
League ELO is a per-league rating, stored independently for each league and starting at 1000. Joining an MTG league puts you on its standings at 1000 with a 0–0 record. The first time one of your decks is used in a league game, that deck gets its own 1000-point starting rating in that league.
League ratings only update when a game is recorded as a league game — when the recorder picks the league from the League dropdown on the record-game form (or starts a Life Tracker game inside a league lobby). Casual games recorded with the Non-League option don't touch any league rating; they only move global and yearly ratings.
How you join a league's standings
You land on a league's ELO standings one of three ways:
- You join the league directly — through an invite code, an in-app invite, or by creating it. You're added at 1000.
- Someone records a league game with you in it — if you're not already a member, you're auto-added at 1000 before the game is scored. No extra confirmation step on your end.
- Your deck plays its first game in the league — the deck gets its own row at 1000 the first time it's recorded in a league game.
How each game updates your league rating
An MTG league game updates your league rating using standard Elo math, applied only against the other league members in that game. The K-factor — how big a swing a single game can cause — scales with the number of players, so larger pods produce smaller per-game movements:
- 2 players: K = 20
- 3 players: K = 19
- 4 players: K = 18 (typical Commander pod)
- 5 players: K = 17
- 6 players: K = 16
The winner gains points from each losing opponent in the same game, with bigger swings against higher-rated opponents and smaller ones against players you were expected to beat. Two-Headed Giant and other multi-winner formats split the K-factor across the winning side. MTG ELO Explained covers the underlying math; a dedicated article will go deeper on Nerd Leagues' specific implementation.
Games count immediately. There's no provisional period and no waiting on opponent confirmation — once a game is recorded, your league rating moves at the same instant your global rating does. If a recorded game turns out to be wrong, the fix is to flag it so a commissioner can archive it (which triggers a full ELO recalculation), not to wait it out.
Where to find league standings on Nerd Leagues
League standings and your league rating show up in four places:
- The league page (/leagues/<id>) — the Members tab is the league standings, sorted high-to-low by league ELO. The ELO History tab plots each member's league rating over time. The Decks tab is the same idea for decks, sortable by ELO.
- My Stats → League Performance — every league you're in shows up as a card with your league ELO, W–L record, and plus/minus spread. A Global card sits alongside them so you can compare your league rating to your overall one.
- Your public player profile (/player/<id>) — the same league cards, but visible to anyone who clicks your name. This is what your opponents see.
- A deck's profile (/deck/<id>) — each deck shows a league card for every league it's played in, so you can see how the deck performs in your cEDH league vs. your casual Commander league at a glance.
League ELO vs global ELO
Your league rating and global rating move from the same game in parallel. Recording a league game updates both: your global rating treats it like any other game, while your league rating only sees the players who are actually in that league. Non-league games update global only.
That means a player can be a 1300 in your Wednesday cEDH league and a 980 globally — they crush the regulars there, but their wider record across pickup pods drags the average down. The two ratings answer different questions, and the league page is the right surface when you want the local answer.
League ELO vs season ELO
Season ELO is a third standings layer on top — it scopes a league rating to a date-bounded season inside the league. A spring-2026 standings page is season ELO; the all-time leaderboard on the league page is league ELO. Seasons are optional. If your league doesn't run them, league ELO is the only league-scoped rating you'll see. Season standings get their own article.
What happens when you leave or rejoin a league
Getting kicked from a league removes your league row entirely. Rejoin later and you start fresh at 1000 — your old league record doesn't follow you back in. Your global, yearly, and per-deck ratings are unaffected; those live above the league. Decks aren't kickable; a deck's league rating sticks around as long as the deck exists.