Squadron events (will be named squadron battles in the future) - is a special mode, where only squadrons are permitted to fight. They take place in 8 vs 8 battle format (it is possible that there will be other options in the future) in three different game modes. This article will introduce this mode to you, as well as give you an insight into its future development.

At the moment they are not limited by ranks, but in the future (probably in 1.41), squadron events will be divided into 5 leagues (governed by aircraft ranks). In squadron battles the combatants are faced against each other based on the duel rating of the team, which is calculated as an average of every players rating in the team. Let’s examine it in more detail:

Every member of the squadron is individually rated based on the results in squadron events (and only in them). Our duel rating is a slightly modified version of the “Elo” rating system, you can read more about the “Elo” rating in Wikipedia. The difference between ours and the original “Elo” rating is only in that unlike  the original “Elo” system your rating will start to calculate from 0 (if you win, the rating change will happen as in the original “Elo” system, as if your rating would be set to 1500, but if you lose the rating change will happen based on your actual rating). After you have reached 1500, everything is calculated as in the original Elo system.

The player rating has a ‘degradation’. Once a week, if the player is not participating in squadron events, his rating start to decrease -  the first week will be degraded by 10%, the second week will be degraded by 20%, in the third week it will decrease by 50% degradation for each week (of course the rating cannot be lower than zero). Please note that the given data will be updated immediately after each battle and you will not have to wait for the calculation.

Personal squadron rating

Victory over the more powerful opponent (based on the average rating of the enemy team) will increase your personal rating, victory over the lower ranked opponent - will not increase the rating at all or will increase it insignificantly. All players can see their personal squadron rating on the Squadron page.

Squadron rating

Overall squadron rating is calculated as the sum of the rating of the best 20 players in the squadron and includes other participating members with a 5% weight of their personal rating. This means that to get to the top War Thunder position  it is better to have powerful combatants in the squadron with not less than 20 participants. The rest of the members of the team still have an input on the total rating. If there are more players in the squadron than the maximum possible and their rating is not very different from the top 20 players, then their contribution may be up to 15% of the total squadron rating.

Award

Once every two weeks there will be golden eagle prizes given out to the first 3 top squadrons in the ladder, for each mode (after the leagues are implemented there will be different prizes for different leagues  - the higher the league, the bigger the prize). Prizes will be given to the top 20 players in the Squadron.

Prize rewards in the three different event modes look like this:

I place - 20.000 GE

II place - 10.000 GE

III place - 5.000 GE

The prize pool (we plan it to be 105 000 golden eagles) awaits the pilots of the most powerful squadrons in War Thunder.

At the moment squadron events will be done in an 8 vs 8 format (a 10 vs 10 format is intended to be implemented in the future). Squadron matching will happen based on the rating between those squadrons that are currently in the queue with enough players available. The aircraft efficiency is not taken into account.

Result

Undoubtedly, squadron battles will be a popular mode for those squadrons which have more interests than community and the ideological views of the players. Firstly this is an opportunity to show themselves to other powerful teams and communities, to demonstrate not only a high level of the professionalism of each player, but also of the whole squadron. Also, the best players will get fantastic rewards! Duel rating is a logical approach in the project evolution and we have no doubt that our players, for whom War Thunder is more like a competition and a cybersport, will increase their popularity and earn more respect from the community!