Dota 2 Ranks Explained: All 8 Medals, MMR Ranges & Where You Really Stand
Last updated: August 2026 — includes the patch 7.41e Immortal MMR reset
Dota 2 has eight ranks. Each one is a medal, each medal maps to a band of MMR, and every medal except Immortal is split into five stars. That much has been true for years.
What changes — constantly — is where the boundaries sit, how the system decides to move you, and how many players are actually standing on each rung. On July 31, 2026, Valve did something to the top of the ladder it hadn't done in years. We'll get to that.
This guide covers all eight ranks with current MMR ranges, the real percentile behind each medal, how MMR is calculated under the Glicko system, and how calibration and recalibration actually work in 2026 — not how they worked in 2022.
Dota 2 ranks in order: the full table
Here is every medal, its MMR band, and the share of ranked players sitting below it.
| Rank | MMR range | Stars | % of players below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Herald | 1 – 769 | 5 | 0.2% |
| Guardian | 770 – 1,539 | 5 | 15.8% |
| Crusader | 1,540 – 2,309 | 5 | 35.0% |
| Archon | 2,310 – 3,079 | 5 | 54.5% |
| Legend | 3,080 – 3,849 | 5 | 71.3% |
| Ancient | 3,850 – 4,619 | 5 | 83.7% |
| Divine | 4,620 – ~5,619 | 5 | 91.6% |
| Immortal | ~5,620+ | Leaderboard rank | 99.99% |
Percentiles: Stratz data via Esports Tales, August 2026 snapshot, based on over 7 million tracked accounts. MMR bands are community-tracked estimates — Valve publishes no official thresholds. Community sources place the Immortal cutoff somewhere between roughly 5,420 and 5,620.
Three things in that table are worth sitting with.
The average ranked player is a Crusader 5. Not Legend, not Archon. If you're Archon 1, you're already above 54% of the ladder.
Legend is a top-30% rank. Most players treat Legend as the point where "real Dota" starts, which means most players think an above-average rank is average. That's a perception problem, not a skill problem — pro games, streams and highlight clips are all sampled from Divine and Immortal, so the visible game is the top 8%.
Only about 4% of players sit above Divine 5. Immortal is under 1% of the entire ranked population.
Each medal spans roughly 770 MMR, and each star inside it is worth about 154. So climbing one full medal is around five stars, and at typical gains that's a meaningful number of net wins — not a weekend.
What actually changed in July 2026
Two things, and only one of them was announced.
The Immortal MMR reset (patch 7.41e)
On the night of July 31, 2026, Valve shipped patch 7.41e alongside the Summer Scrub 2026 update. Buried in it was the biggest change to the high-end ladder in years: every Immortal account was compressed into a 1–9,500 MMR range.
This is not a cap. Valve didn't flatten everyone to 9,500 — it squeezed the whole distribution while preserving relative order. If you were ahead of someone before the patch, you're still ahead of them now. Leaderboard positions are unchanged.
The scale of it is easiest to see through a single account: Alan "Satanic" Gallyamov had reached a historic 18,000 MMR shortly before the update. After it, his account showed 9,462. Community reports put the typical Immortal loss at around 20% of their previous rating.
The reason is inflation. MMR at the top had been drifting upward for years, with records broken roughly twice a year, and the numbers had stopped meaning much. Compressing the range gives Valve room to manage progression again.
Two practical consequences. The Immortal Draft cutoff stayed at 8,500 MMR, which means some players who previously qualified are temporarily locked out until they climb back. And if you're Divine or below, nothing happened to you — this change touched Immortal accounts only.
The same patch also removed Random Draft and Ranked Classic from the ranked mode pool, pushing everyone toward Role Queue.
The unannounced MMR gain change
Around July 2026, players in lower brackets began noticing wins paying out more than they used to. Losses still cost roughly 20–25 MMR, but wins started landing at +30 and in some cases up to +40. The effect is strongest at low ranks and fades as you climb.
Valve has said nothing about it. But the distribution data shows it happening: between June and August 2026, percentiles from Herald 2 through Crusader 5 dropped by 1.5 to 2.9 points, while everything above Ancient 5 moved by less than a tenth of a point.
| Rank | June 2026 percentile | August 2026 percentile | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Herald 5 | 14.15% | 12.23% | −1.92 |
| Guardian 5 | 33.82% | 30.99% | −2.83 |
| Crusader 5 | 53.51% | 50.70% | −2.81 |
| Archon 5 | 70.03% | 68.16% | −1.87 |
| Legend 5 | 82.18% | 81.44% | −0.74 |
| Ancient 5 | 90.15% | 90.06% | −0.09 |
| Divine 1 | 91.60% | 91.55% | −0.05 |
| Divine 5 | 95.59% | 95.56% | −0.03 |
| Immortal | 99.99% | 99.99% | 0.00 |
Source: Esports Tales, Stratz data, June and August 2026 snapshots.
Read that as a warning, not a gift. Your medal is worth slightly less than it was two months ago. A Guardian 5 in August sits nearly 3 percentile points lower on the ladder than a Guardian 5 in June — same medal, fewer players beneath it. The floor is rising underneath low and mid brackets.
If you're climbing in that range, the window where wins are cheap is open now. It won't stay open, and it doesn't extend above Ancient.
How MMR actually works in 2026
MMR is not a single number. It's two.
Your Rank is the system's estimate of your skill. Your Rank Confidence is how certain the system is about that estimate. Every match adjusts both — your Rank moves on the result, your Confidence rises because the system now has more data.
This matters because Confidence determines how violently your MMR swings. Low confidence — you just calibrated, or you came back after months away — and the system moves you in bigger jumps while it works out where you belong. Once confidence settles, changes stabilise into the familiar 25–30 range.
Confidence also decays if you stop playing. Take a long enough break and your medal stops displaying entirely until you play your way back above the threshold.
Valve switched to this model with patch 7.33 in April 2023, replacing the old modified Elo system with Glicko. This is the single biggest reason old guides are wrong. Anything written before mid-2023 describes a system that no longer exists, and a lot of the MMR maths in those articles is simply no longer true.
Calibration and recalibration
Calibration is what happens when you first unlock ranked, after 100 hours of playtime. You are no longer calibrated by a fixed count of 10 matches — under Glicko, you're calibrated when your Rank Confidence crosses a threshold. Your starting point is seeded from your existing hidden skill estimate, so calibration doesn't build your rating from nothing. It sharpens one that already exists.
Recalibration is optional and rare. Settings → Account → MMR Recalibration. Two things to know before you touch it:
- There is no confirmation popup. Clicking that button starts your recalibration immediately.
- The cooldown is 365 days. One shot per year.
Recalibration is worth considering if you've been away long enough that your medal genuinely misrepresents you, or if you're convinced you're sitting well below your real level. It is not a reset button, and it will not rescue a bad month.
There is no 2026 ranked season
You'll find sites publishing "Dota 2 Season 2026 start dates" and seasonal reset guides. They're inventing them.
Scheduled ranked seasons ended with patch 7.33 in April 2023. That was the last forced recalibration, and Valve has announced nothing since. Your MMR and medal persist indefinitely. Nothing on the calendar will correct a rank you're unhappy with — the only ways it moves are wins, losses, and the once-a-year manual recalibration.
What each rank actually looks like
Herald (1–769). Brand new players and accounts still learning core mechanics. Last-hitting, item basics, what the map does.
Guardian (770–1,539). The shape of the game is understood — lanes, phases, roughly what to do at each stage. Execution lags behind knowledge.
Crusader (1,540–2,309). The statistical middle of Dota. Roles make sense, picks are deliberate, item builds are reasonable. Also where most players get stuck longest.
Archon (2,310–3,079). Teamfights, rotations, vision. The first medal where players think about the game rather than their own hero. Archon is the most crowded tier on the ladder.
Legend (3,080–3,849). Solid fundamentals, real hero pools, some map awareness. Already better than roughly 71% of players.
Ancient (3,850–4,619). Top 16%. Itemisation is sharp, timing windows are understood, most players flex two roles competently. The weak point is usually converting advantages — winning a fight and doing nothing with it.
Divine (4,620–~5,619). Top 8%. Mechanically strong, drafts with intent. Queue times start to hurt.
Immortal (~5,620+). Under 1%. Stars are dropped for a raw leaderboard position. Matchmaking uses Immortal Draft, where two captains draft the other eight players rather than teams being assigned by rating alone.
How the Immortal leaderboard works
Immortal isn't the ceiling. Winning games still grants MMR, and enough of it puts you onto your regional leaderboard, where your position displays under your rank icon instead of a medal.
Holding that spot requires activity: play at least one ranked game every 21 days in your region. Fall short and you're removed from the leaderboard for inactivity — your MMR is untouched, but the ranking disappears until you play again.
Behaviour Score: the ladder nobody mentions
MMR isn't the only number attached to your account. Behaviour Score runs 0 to 12,000 and tracks conduct — abandons, reports, communication score.
These two systems don't touch each other. Grinding MMR does nothing for a broken Behaviour Score, and a spotless Behaviour Score won't climb your MMR. Let your score fall far enough and you land in the low-priority pool with the griefers and abandoners regardless of how high your medal is.
Most players only discover this second ladder exists when their queues turn unbearable.
Frequently asked questions
What MMR is Archon? Archon spans roughly 2,310 to 3,079 MMR. Reaching Archon 1 puts you above about 54% of ranked players.
What is the average rank in Dota 2? Crusader 5, at around 2,300 MMR — just under the Archon boundary.
How much MMR is one star? About 154. Each full medal covers roughly 770 MMR across its five stars.
Did my MMR get reset? Only if you're Immortal. Patch 7.41e on July 31, 2026 compressed all Immortal accounts into a 1–9,500 range. Divine and below were untouched.
How often can I recalibrate? Once every 365 days, manually, from Settings → Account → MMR Recalibration. There's no confirmation prompt.
Can my medal go down? Your MMR can fall at any time. Your Rank Confidence also decays during inactivity, and if it drops below the display threshold your medal stops showing until you play again.
Is there a Dota 2 season in 2026? No. Scheduled seasons ended with patch 7.33 in April 2023 and Valve has announced no replacement.
Where to go from here
The ladder in 2026 rewards consistency over bursts. Confidence stabilises, gains normalise, and the difference between stuck and climbing usually comes down to hero pool discipline and not queuing tilted.
