Thought it might be a good Idea to start a temporary FAQ thread, to avoid having to answer the same questions over and over again, before a official thread is created by Mahou. Keep in mind that these answers might be subject to change as the game is updated.


Q: How does the rank system work? What are all these numbers?
A: At the begining of the season all players start at rank 30. Winning a match decreases your rank by one, while losing or abandoning a match increases it by one. Staying disconnected and not participating in 3 rounds also counts as an abandon, regardless if you reconnect and play the last rounds. A player's rank can never get higher than 30. When a player reaches rank 1, they become an elite player (which is signified by the Divine Rapier symbol) and have their rank switched to an elo rating system. This also unlocks the season reward set. All elite player's elo rating starts at 1000. A higher elo rating represents a higher level of skill. Winning a match increases your elo rating, while losing or abandoning a match decreases it. Elite players can not lose their elite ranking for the rest of the season, but their elo rating can go below 1000.


Q: What determines how much elo I gain after a match?
A: How much elo that is lost or gained after each match depends on the rank difference between you and your opponents. Beating a lower ranked opponent give you less elo than beating a higher ranked opponent. Being defeated by a higher ranked opponent makes you lose less elo than being defeated by a lower ranked opponent. The minimum amount of elo loss/gain is 5.


Q: I was just matched against a team of players with a much higher rank than me. How is that fair?
A1: There is no actual matchmaking (that takes rank in consideration) for custom games of Dota. It's simply not a feature that's available for developers to implement. When searching for a game you are paired up in a lobby with the first available players from your region. It's up to chance who you are going up against.
A2: Life ain't fair.

Q: Why are all my teammates in ranked noobs? It's impossible to rank up!
A1: Git gud.
A2: Find/make some friends to play with.
A3: If it's your teammates that are the problem, consider playing 1v1.

Q: How do I play ranked 1v1? There doesn't seem to be a map for it...
A: Start any of the ranked maps with 1 opponent. There is no dedicated map for ranked 1v1, since this map would also get picked while playing with "any map" selected. This would cause a lot of frustration for new and unexperienced players, being forced to play 1v1 versus someone who is (most likely) better than them.
There is now a map dedicated to 1v1.



Q: Am I the best CIA player in the entire world?
A: Probably not. You can check for yourself:

• Ranked 1v1 leaderboard: http://cia-is.moe/ranks/top/duel
  
• Ranked 2v2/3v3 leaderboard: http://cia-is.moe/ranks/top/teams

Q: Why can't I just use my own cosmetics in the game?
A: Due to technical reasons:

Originally posted by Mahou Shoujo:

Absolutely right.

The thing is if I were to use original heroes you wouldn't see their cosmetics in hero selection (no exposed API for that), they wouldn't get reflected on portrait (since there is no element for portraits yet and current portraits are just webms), custom icons would not work (no API for that, they did work for me in a semi-broken way before so not so sure), no custom stuff like lycan wolves (no API for that!). And some cosmetics would just purely break my stuff, like custom animations, all arcanas obviously, some sets like Gleaming Seal for PA, I don't think anybody expects me to support everything, right? I'm no valve.

Q: Why can I not see my unlocked rewards in my inventory?
A: All items unlocked in Crumbling Island Arena are only useable in Crumbling Island Arena. They will not show up in your inventory, and they can't be used in regular Dota.


Q: How does the chat system work?
A: Pressing [ENTER] opens the chat window. Pressing [ENTER] after typing your message sends the message to the team chat, while pressing [ENTER]+[SHIFT] sends the message to the all chat. Some of the twitch emoticons work in chat, after team selection and the banning phase. (might be subject to change in coming patches)