Why is my GSP only 1 with certain characters?

[Erimir]

I don't quite understand how the Global Smash Power system is working.

I haven't played a lot of online yet, but it makes sense for some of my characters. I beat someone with a GSP of ~450k my first time playing with a character, my GSP with that character starts around that level.

For most characters, who I haven't played with, it has what appears to be a provisional GSP based on my overall GSP (i.e. it assumes you will perform similarly with characters I haven't used yet).

But for a couple characters - Mario, who I've never played with online yet but who I have used in other modes, and Ridley, who I've beaten multiple people with, I have a GSP of only 1. How is that possible?

 

[SiO2]

GSP is a reverse ranking starting from the bottom up. With a GSP of 1, you are at the bottom of the list. Which makes sense for unplayed characters.

 

[Unisex]

^ But normally your GSP is averaged out for people you haven't played. weirdly enough my gsp for pikachu is 100,000 but I havent used him online much, while the other people I havent used at all are 650,000

 

[Erimir]

GSP is a reverse ranking starting from the bottom up. With a GSP of 1, you are at the bottom of the list. Which makes sense for unplayed characters.

Like Unisex said, for characters I haven't played with, it shows them as having a score that's like my average with played characters. Which makes sense - you would want it to match you with a similar quality player for your first match instead of starting you with total beginner players.

Whereas I've now played with Mario and won several matches, and my GSP with him is still 1. It seems like it has to be a bug or something. My GSP for Ridley eventually moved up, but it's still really low despite winning most (all?) of my 1v1 matches with him.

It seems like it's a huge pain if you manage to get a GSP under 100k for whatever reason. You'll get stuck playing other low GSP players, but if you win you barely gain any GSP unless you get lucky and get paired with a significantly higher GSP player... It's a good thing that didn't happen with my Smash 4 mains, who I've gotten up to Elite Smash GSP without needing to play a ridiculous number of matches.

 

[Sucumbio]

That's really strange. Win or lose your GSP should change either plus or minus (sometimes mine goes UP after a loss lol). You may want to contact Nintendo customer support...

 

[SiO2]

I notice that my GSP changes between play sessions, usually increasing. I bet it has to do with more players picking up the game, therefore indirectly increasing my rank.

My guess? Give it time, probably a month or so (after Christmas at least) and it will stabilize.

 

[Switch313]

I've experienced somewhat what the OP is experiencing. Any characters I was unlucky (unskilled? ) enough to fall into a GSP with <150k are kind of doomed there (usually started off losing a few matches in a row with them online). They don't have the massive spikes in GSP like other characters do for me during wins and losses (up to a near 200k change between matches. I think my average GSP is like 1.3m and I have a few that are rocking like a 60k GSP and barely moving up or down win or lose.

 

[Erimir]

Well, the problem seemed to be fixed after the first patch. My score for Mario is not high, but it's not super low anymore (haven't played him much since tho).

The improvement in matchmaking also seems to help in getting out of the basement more easily.

 

[l1l1l1l1]

Even the characters who are sub100k, I still get paired with 1.5 million Marths

 

[FartyParty]

I've experienced somewhat what the OP is experiencing. Any characters I was unlucky (unskilled? ) enough to fall into a GSP with <150k are kind of doomed there (usually started off losing a few matches in a row with them online). They don't have the massive spikes in GSP like other characters do for me during wins and losses (up to a near 200k change between matches. I think my average GSP is like 1.3m and I have a few that are rocking like a 60k GSP and barely moving up or down win or lose.

I was stuck around 50K on my main Lucina until today. What finally got me somewhat out of the hole was a single long win streak. You need to rack up 10+ wins in a row to get it really climbing.

It is crazy annoying though that it seems like losses almost always drop your GSP more than wins raise it. I had a 10 win streak to bring my Lucina GSP from ~50k to ~280k, and then a single loss dropped it back to ~180k. I decided not to press my luck and called it night.

 

[leafgreen386]

I've experienced somewhat what the OP is experiencing. Any characters I was unlucky (unskilled? ) enough to fall into a GSP with <150k are kind of doomed there (usually started off losing a few matches in a row with them online). They don't have the massive spikes in GSP like other characters do for me during wins and losses (up to a near 200k change between matches. I think my average GSP is like 1.3m and I have a few that are rocking like a 60k GSP and barely moving up or down win or lose.

Distribution of players follows a normal curve. The most players are going to be somewhere around the middle, so while your hidden rank may be changing by the same amount each time, the number of players that it's "better than" is going to change less at the extremes. The low-mid 1 millions are extremely volatile, and you can jump from 1 mil to 2 mil after a short win streak. Conversely, if you fall into the ten thousands, you're going to have to play a lot of matches to dig your way out.

edit:

It is crazy annoying though that it seems like losses almost always drop your GSP more than wins raise it. I had a 10 win streak to bring my Lucina GSP from ~50k to ~280k, and then a single loss dropped it back to ~180k. I decided not to press my luck and called it night.

You probably lost to someone below you on the ladder. You lose more for losing someone below you than you do for losing to someone above you.

 

[Crazy Hand 2001]

Because Nintendo's online is ****