DEV Community: milkmaster7

How We Built a Skill Rating System for 1v1 Esports Matches

milkmaster7 — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 06:00:15 +0000

1v1 Skill Rating for Esports

LootDiff is a competitive gaming platform where players stake USDC on 1v1 matches in CS2, Dota 2, and Deadlock. We needed a fair ranking system.

The Algorithm

Standard rating formula with esports modifications:

const K = 32 // Base K-factor
const expectedScore = 1 / (1 + Math.pow(10, (opponentElo - playerElo) / 400))
const newElo = playerElo + K * (actualScore - expectedScore)

Our Modifications

Stake-Weighted K-Factor

Higher stakes = more SR at risk. A $20 match matters more than a $1 match.

Game-Specific Adjustments

CS2 1v1s are more volatile than Dota 2 1v1s, so K-factors differ by game.

Placement Matches

New players get a higher K-factor for their first 10 matches to quickly reach their true skill level.

City Rankings

Players belong to cities. City SR is the average of top 10 players from that city. Creates regional rivalries.

Results

After thousands of matches, the system produces stable rankings where:

Top players consistently beat lower-ranked opponents
Upsets happen but don't wildly swing rankings
New players reach their true rank within ~15 matches

Check the leaderboards: lootdiff.com

Have you implemented skill rating or similar ranking systems? What edge cases did you hit?

Esports Player Salaries and Prize Earnings: Where to Find the Data

milkmaster7 — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 06:00:30 +0000

How Much Do Pro Esports Players Actually Earn?

This question comes up constantly and the honest answer is: it's complicated. Tournament prize money is public, but salaries are mostly private.

What Data Is Actually Available

Prize money — fully public. Organizers announce prize pools, and results are well-documented.

Salaries — largely private, though some orgs have disclosed ranges. CS2 top players reportedly earn $20k–$50k/month base salary from orgs. Valorant VCT franchised players are in a similar range. LoL LCS/LEC players at the top earn more.

Sponsorship and streaming — almost entirely opaque.

Where to Track Career Earnings

esport.is/esports-earnings tracks lifetime prize money for professional players across CS2, Valorant, LoL, Dota 2, and R6 — automatically updated after every major tournament.

The transfers page also shows when players move orgs, which often correlates with salary changes even if the numbers stay private.

The Biggest Prize Pools in Esports History

Dota 2's The International remains the all-time record holder, with TI10 reaching $40M through the crowdfunded Battle Pass. CS2 Majors sit around $1.25M. Valorant Champions has reached $2.35M.

Full career earnings database: esport.is/esports-earnings

Building a Real-Time Esports Score Platform with Next.js and WebSockets

milkmaster7 — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:00:43 +0000

The Problem

As an esports fan, I was tired of juggling between HLTV for CS2, VLR for Valorant, and Liquipedia for everything else. I wanted one platform that covered all games with real-time scores.

What I Built

esport.is — a unified esports platform covering CS2, Valorant, League of Legends, and Dota 2 with:

Live scores updating every 30 seconds
Elo-based rankings recalculated after every match
Free prediction game with accuracy tracking
Transfer tracker with hourly updates
AI-powered news aggregation

Tech Stack

Next.js 14 with App Router
Vercel for hosting + edge functions
Supabase for database + real-time subscriptions
Multiple esports APIs (PandaScore, custom scrapers)
Redis for caching live data
Gemini AI for news generation

Architecture

The system pulls data from 5+ esports APIs every 30 seconds, normalizes it into a unified format, and serves it through a Next.js frontend with ISR for SEO and client-side polling for live updates.

Rankings use a modified Elo system that weights:

Tournament tier (Major > qualifier)
Recency (recent matches matter more)
Opponent strength (beating #1 matters more than beating #50)

Prediction Game

The prediction game lets anyone pick match winners before games start. We track accuracy over time and have a global leaderboard. Upset picks (picking the underdog correctly) earn bonus XP.

We also compare community predictions against real-money Polymarket odds and flag "Sharp Picks" where the crowd disagrees with the market.

What I Learned

Esports APIs are inconsistent — different providers format team names, tournament names, and scores differently. Normalization is half the battle.
Live data caching is critical — without Redis, API costs would be astronomical.
ISR + client polling gives the best of both worlds — SEO-friendly static pages that update in real time for active users.

Try It

esport.is — completely free, no account required.

API docs available if you want to build on the data.

What esports platforms do you use? Would love feedback from the dev community.

How I Built an Elo Rating System for Esports Teams

milkmaster7 — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 06:00:35 +0000

Why Elo for Esports?

Traditional esports rankings (HLTV, VLR) use a mix of editorial judgment and point-based systems. I wanted something purely mathematical — a system where every match result automatically updates team rankings.

The Algorithm

The base Elo formula is simple:

New Rating = Old Rating + K * (Actual - Expected)

Where:

K-factor = how much each match matters (I use 32 for regular matches, 48 for playoffs, 64 for grand finals)
Expected = probability of winning based on rating difference
Actual = 1 for win, 0 for loss

My Modifications

Standard Elo doesn't account for esports-specific factors, so I added:

1. Tournament Tier Weighting

const tierMultiplier = {
  S: 1.5,  // Majors, Worlds, TI
  A: 1.2,  // ESL Pro League, Masters
  B: 1.0,  // Regular tournaments
  C: 0.7,  // Qualifiers
}

2. Recency Decay

Matches from 6+ months ago contribute less to current rating. This prevents teams that were good a year ago but haven't played recently from staying ranked high.

3. Score Margin

A 2-0 sweep is weighted more than a 2-1 win. Close series suggest teams are evenly matched.

Results

After processing 50,000+ matches across CS2, Valorant, LoL, and Dota 2, the rankings at esport.is/rankings closely match expert consensus while being fully automated.

The system correctly predicted ~62% of match outcomes in backtesting — better than random (50%) and comparable to betting market implied probabilities.

Implementation

Built with TypeScript, running on Vercel serverless functions. Rankings recalculate after every match via webhook from our data pipeline.

Check it out: esport.is/rankings

Have you implemented rating systems? What modifications worked for you?

Competitive Gaming Platform with Solana Payments — Full Tech Stack Breakdown

milkmaster7 — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 06:00:22 +0000

What We Built

LootDiff — a platform where gamers play CS2, Dota 2, and Deadlock for real USDC stakes. Here's the full stack.

Frontend

Next.js 14 with App Router
Tailwind CSS for styling
Solana Wallet Adapter for wallet connections

Backend

Supabase — PostgreSQL database + auth + real-time subscriptions
Vercel — Hosting + serverless functions + cron jobs
Redis — Match queue, rate limiting, caching

Blockchain

Solana — USDC escrow smart contracts
@solana/web3.js — Transaction building
Token Program — USDC SPL token handling

Game Integration

Steam Web API — CS2/Dota 2 match verification + VAC ban checking
Custom VAC checker — Runs every 6 hours, flags banned accounts

Automation (32 cron jobs)

Match notifications, tournament creation, city leaderboards
Social media posting (Twitter, Telegram, Discord, VK, Reddit)
Blog generation, meme posting, streamer discovery
Self-healing monitor + auto-retrigger

Key Challenges

Escrow timing — Match results can take minutes to appear on Steam API. We poll with exponential backoff.
Anti-cheat — VAC bans are binary but don't cover all cheats. We added ELO anomaly detection.
Regional targeting — Turkey, CIS, Caucasus markets. Multilingual everything (EN/TR/RU).

Try it: lootdiff.gg

Free Esports Data API — Live Scores, Rankings, Teams for Your Projects

milkmaster7 — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 02:30:49 +0000

Free Esports API

I built esport.is as a unified esports platform, and the data API is available for developers building esports tools.

Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
`/api/matches/live`	Currently live matches across all games
`/api/matches/upcoming`	Upcoming scheduled matches
`/api/results`	Completed match results
`/api/rankings/:game`	Team rankings by game
`/api/teams/:id`	Team profile, roster, stats
`/api/players/:id`	Player profile, stats, earnings
`/api/tournaments`	Tournament schedules
`/api/transfers`	Recent roster moves
`/api/news`	Curated esports news

Games Covered

CS2, Valorant, League of Legends, Dota 2, and more.

Example

curl https://esport.is/api/matches/live?game=cs2

{
  "matches": [
    {
      "id": "abc123",
      "teams": ["NaVi", "Vitality"],
      "score": [1, 0],
      "tournament": "BLAST Premier",
      "game": "cs2",
      "status": "live"
    }
  ]
}

Rate Limits

Free tier: 100 requests/hour. Enough for personal projects, bots, and dashboards.

Use Cases

Discord bots showing live scores
Telegram channels with match alerts
Personal dashboards tracking your favorite teams
Prediction/fantasy apps
Data analysis and visualization

Docs

Full documentation: esport.is/api-docs

Building something with esports data? I'd love to see it. Drop a comment!

Free Esports Data API — Live Scores, Rankings, Teams for Your Projects

milkmaster7 — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:30:51 +0000

Free Esports API

I built esport.is as a unified esports platform, and the data API is available for developers building esports tools.

Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
`/api/matches/live`	Currently live matches across all games
`/api/matches/upcoming`	Upcoming scheduled matches
`/api/results`	Completed match results
`/api/rankings/:game`	Team rankings by game
`/api/teams/:id`	Team profile, roster, stats
`/api/players/:id`	Player profile, stats, earnings
`/api/tournaments`	Tournament schedules
`/api/transfers`	Recent roster moves
`/api/news`	Curated esports news

Games Covered

CS2, Valorant, League of Legends, Dota 2, and more.

Example

curl https://esport.is/api/matches/live?game=cs2

{
  "matches": [
    {
      "id": "abc123",
      "teams": ["NaVi", "Vitality"],
      "score": [1, 0],
      "tournament": "BLAST Premier",
      "game": "cs2",
      "status": "live"
    }
  ]
}

Rate Limits

Free tier: 100 requests/hour. Enough for personal projects, bots, and dashboards.

Use Cases

Discord bots showing live scores
Telegram channels with match alerts
Personal dashboards tracking your favorite teams
Prediction/fantasy apps
Data analysis and visualization

Docs

Full documentation: esport.is/api-docs

Building something with esports data? I'd love to see it. Drop a comment!

How We Built an ELO Rating System for 1v1 Esports Matches

milkmaster7 — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:22:13 +0000

1v1 ELO for Esports

RaiseGG is a competitive gaming platform where players stake USDC on 1v1 matches in CS2, Dota 2, and Deadlock. We needed a fair ranking system.

The Algorithm

Standard ELO with esports modifications:

const K = 32 // Base K-factor
const expectedScore = 1 / (1 + Math.pow(10, (opponentElo - playerElo) / 400))
const newElo = playerElo + K * (actualScore - expectedScore)

Our Modifications

Stake-Weighted K-Factor

Higher stakes = more ELO at risk. A $20 match matters more than a $1 match.

Game-Specific Adjustments

CS2 1v1s are more volatile than Dota 2 1v1s, so K-factors differ by game.

Placement Matches

New players get a higher K-factor for their first 10 matches to quickly reach their true skill level.

City Rankings

Players belong to cities. City ELO is the average of top 10 players from that city. Creates regional rivalries.

Results

After thousands of matches, the system produces stable rankings where:

Top players consistently beat lower-ranked opponents
Upsets happen but don't wildly swing rankings
New players reach their true rank within ~15 matches

Check the leaderboards: raisegg.gg

Have you implemented ELO or similar rating systems? What edge cases did you hit?