Hear me out. This is a theory but i feel it is highly likely to be true based on evidence i have uncovered…
I have found through trawling through profiles that most players reaching onyx 1700 have usually had a previous season cst of 2200 plus at the end of last season. Also onyx 1500 placements have been around onyx 2000 players. Stands to reason that the trickle down effect would be that players have a reduced csr initially to compensate dor this- a division or a division and a half lower than their rank should be. Or around 500 or so csr lower than their actual.rank should be.
This is borne out in my ffa placements…
Season 1 - onyx 1500 cap - placed plat 1
Season 2 - no onyx cap - placed diamond 3
Season 3 - onyx 1700 cap - placed plat 4
Season 4 - onyx 1700 cap - placed diamond 1.
Given that in seasons 1 to 3 i ended the season in onyx and that i reached onyx 1600 in seasons 2 and 3, i very strongly suspect that there is a reduction in peoples initial ranks to compensate for onyx 2200 players placing 500 csr lower than they should initially. My most accurate placement was when there was no rank cap. So onyx 2200 players would place around onyx 2100 say. Coincidence or deliberate?
Using quick maths i would say that with an onyx 1500 cap giving plat 1 and 1700 giving plat 4 that this gives around 200 csr of dfference on placement for half a division. So a 500 csr gap imposed on onyx 1700 players now equates to a 500 csr reduction on everyone else- about a divison or a division and a half lower than people should be. Add this to my plat 4 in season 3 and that puts me in onyx. Sounds about right to me. these are all estimates mind and im sure reductions are lower at lower divisions out of necessity.
Are we being subjected to an initial csr reduction of a division on purpose? It certainly seems like a possibility. Would explain the number of ffa diamonds who were onyx 1600 at the end of last season! They all play like onyx players do too- awesome grenades, perfect kills, ducking during strafing, thrusting into opponents and sideways mid strafe, good map knowledge etc. Surely it must be a csr reduction applied to placement ranks. So a solution would be to remove the cap and everyone is happy.
All this rank cap stuff was for the champs to stop moaning as well. They didnt like the first 200 onyx players qualifying in a season would be champs and it staying on their profiles. So the cap of onyx 1700 initually with 1800 needed to advance to champion was born. But is it worth punishing everyone else just so 200 people arent placed champ at too low a csr? Surely the champ ranks could be given out a day later or set it at onyx 2200? Like all champs reach at the end of a season? Then it doesnt ruin it for everybody. Remember the system was designed for players who could only play 10 games a season-the grinding needed to get to your true rank would be impossible for them-so the system loses validity anyway and unfairly punishes players who play less.
On a side note, I also believe automatic kills are marked down by the system in favour of magnum kills-hence vetoed placing diamond 6 when he should have placed onyx 1700 for continually beating champs in placement games. The only limiting factor had to be his ar usage.