Benchmark Updates — Season 3

Voltaic
4 min readJun 5, 2021

As you all may know, KovaaKs has reset their leaderboards in order to move away from the Steam leaderboards and to implement their new anti-cheat.

As a result, the Voltaic Staff and Benchmark Team have decided to reset the ranks, so we can ensure better integrity of ranks in our community, and to make sure everyone meets the most recent requirements.

In addition, we’ve made a few improvements to our benchmarks, added new ranks and balanced our score targets.

You may also notice the new and improved scoring system for Pasu which uses SQRT-Accuracy. We have also centered the player’s point of view to make the scenario feel more consistent regardless of where you are shooting a target. The scenario also does not use time scaling anymore, which makes the timer perfectly accurate and easy to use in routines. Furthermore, the scenario has less random strafes, as the movement pattern of the bots have been completely reworked.

For patTS and voxTS we’ve increased the target size by 10 percent in order to emphasize the speed aspect of Switching more. Previously, we felt players could score well by simply being smooth and accurate, without necessarily being fast. In addition, spawns on voxTS have been adjusted to reduce randomness and the back wall has been pushed closer to the player’s point of view. One target has also been removed on voxTS in order to promote wider switches.

For ww3t, we’ve pulled the wall closer to the player so the wall is wider from the player’s perspective. As a result, the average distance between bots have increased and the scenario feels more different than 1w4ts than it did before. As for B180(T), we’ve fixed the bot movement to reduce randomness and midair direction changes. The positioning of the player has also been changed (the player is higher up now), so you now aim on similar level to the bots instead of looking up constantly.

The most notable change to the ranks is the new Jade rank — this was made to reduce the gap between Diamond and Master. We’ve also added Bronze score targets so new players have goals to aim for.

A new rank called Astra is taking over the spot of Ascended. We’re introducing a new rank called Celestial, which will be Top 3 on the leaderboards as long as the score meets the Astra requirement. We are also re-introducing the Challenger role — this a role you can achieve by placing top 5 on the Voltaic Rankings sheet. Finally, we’re re-introducing the following three roles: #1 Tracker, #1 Clicker and #1 Switcher — this is for players who are rank 1 for a specific aiming-category on the rankings sheet. More information can be found in our changelog below.

Check out the new Progression Sheet

Check out the new Benchmarks & Rankings Sheet

Below is an overview of all the changes:

Changelog

Scenario changes

Pasu Voltaic

  1. Score target changes
  2. Centered Point of View
  3. No Time scaling
  4. Less random strafes
  5. Square root accuracy scoring added, reload mechanic removed

voxTS Voltaic

  1. Score target changes
  2. Minus one bot
  3. 10% larger bots
  4. Closer back wall
  5. Removed spawns directly below and above to reduce randomness

patTS Voltaic

  1. Score target changes
  2. 10% larger bots to put more emphasis on speed

ww3t Voltaic

  1. Score target changes
  2. Map has been edited — wall is wider

B180T Voltaic & B180 Voltaic

  1. Score target changes
  2. Slightly lower bot height
  3. Fixed player positioning
  4. Fixed bot movement to reduce randomness and midair directional changes

Role Changes

  1. Astra takes over the spot of Ascended and has fixed scores. Astra II and Astra Complete are added as roles on the discord.
  2. Ascended has been changed to Celestial, is now Top 3, and is colored black. In order to qualify for a Celestial score, your score needs to be at least Astra. Scores only count if they are submitted to the Voltaic leaderboards.
  3. Eclipse has been removed, due to redundancy.
  4. Players who apply for Nova and above may be required to stream to rule out potential cheats.
  5. Leaderboard Submissions cannot be unsubmitted even if the submitter deletes their VOD. You can only submit for yourself. Scores only count if they are submitted by the player themselves.
  6. Platinum II and Platinum Complete are added as role on the discord.
  7. We added the Jade rank — a rank between Diamond and Master. We did this to reduce the gap between the Intermediate and Advanced benchmarks.
  8. Any score target buffs will adjust players’ ranks accordingly starting from Grandmaster and above
  9. Rank submissions for Grandmaster and above roles require VODs and VODs need to be submitted to the #leaderboards channel
  10. Rank submissions for Jade and Master roles require VODs but VODs do not need to be submitted to the #leaderboards channel
  11. Respect Role has been removed
  12. Challenger role is back and is now top 5 on the Volts leaderboards
  13. Reintroducing: #1 Tracker, #1 Clicker, #1 Switcher

Rank Reset — FAQ

Why have the ranks been reset?

  1. KovaaKs has implemented an anti-cheat so many players who cheated for their rank will not be able to do it again.
  2. A lot of the benchmark scenarios and scores changed over time, so players who played earlier iterations and applied for ranks with scores on those scenarios no longer qualify for the rank.

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Voltaic

Voltaic is a multi-purpose community centered around mutual self-improvement in shooters with a focus on aim and talent discovery.