I said it before and I will say it again.
IT IS A TEAM GAME! Everyone keeps whining about how they got screwed and they lost rank. Just because you got MVP doesn't mean your team won 6 rounds and got the game. Here is the whole damn article so you all can read it. Next time put some of that energy into research instead of complaining.
"The SOCOM II Ranking system is based on the Chess Ranking system developed by Dr. Arpad Elo. However, it is much more complex in order to take into consideration the SOCOM II game format which has multiple players per team, multiple rounds, and individual performance differences. Your Score (as seen when you select a player from the Player Ranking Screen) is the master value that tracks your relative ability vs. other players.
The SOCOM II Ladder is just an indexing of every player's Score (i.e. the player with the highest score will be #1, the second highest #2, etc). Your position on this ladder determines your ranking as indicated below:
ADMIRAL = Top 10 Players
CAPTAIN = The Next 5% of Players
LT. COMMANDER = The Next 25% of Players
LIEUTENANT = The Next 55% of Players
ENSIGN = The Remaining 15% of Players
The first time you play SOCOM II online you start with 1000 points. If the highest ranked Ensign does not have 1,000 points, you would be ranked as a Lieutenant before you even played a Round. Even though you have yet to accumulate any statistics, you would have a better ranking than many players that have been playing SOCOM II online because they may have lost games and died a lot while you have not.
The primary means to improve your Score is by winning Games (not Rounds, full Games). In almost all cases, if you win a Game your score will go up and if you lose a Game your score will go down. The following factors will effect how large or small your score will move in any single game:
Relative Strength of the Teams: The Scores of members of your team are compared against the Scores of the opponent's team to determine who is 'expected' to win. Winning against stronger teams will increase your Score faster while winning against weaker teams will increase your Score much slower.
Number of Players in the Game: Full 16-player Games have larger Score moves than say an 8-player Game.
Number of Rounds won by losing team: If you win by a sweep (i.e. winning the first 6 Rounds in a best of 11 Game), your Score will go up more than if you just won by one Round (i.e. winning 6 Rounds and losing 5 Rounds in a best of 11 Game).
Individual Performance: Doing more to contribute to the victory like getting more Kills, having less Deaths, rescuing Hostages, creating Breaches, destroying Bases, etc. will result in a larger personal Score increase.
One last thing to take into account, courtesy of producer Seth Luisi: "It is important to note that the "score" on the player stats and the "score" at the end of the game are not directly related. The score on the Player Stats screen is actually a "Rating" and not the score. This rating is affected by your score at the end of the game plus other factors including the ratings of the people you were playing against. This seems to be the biggest point of confusion with the SOCOM II Player rankings."
Ok, now you have read it. Just because you went 16 - 1 on Frostfire last night, doesn't mean you are going to go up in rank. Remember it is really cliche, but true, there is no "I" in team. Stop running off half cocked trying to increase your rank. Instead plan, use stealth, and execute together. The rest will fall into place.
I enjoy chess and the affinities that exist between socom and the ultimate gamers game. I also acknowledge the similarities between winning @ both these games. This ranking system rules!!! Unless you are a kill hungry rogue (a.k.a. Bass Ackwards strategist) you will go nowhere. Team work ups your rank, not half brained brass balled heroics. If you can't evolve from a gun toting impulsive monkey you are destined to fail. That is all. 
Linear Mode
