How different is the skill level between Leagues?

[GRUNT]

What Division are you in?

Division 8. Yourself? :P

Well, good to hear that a lot of you guys seem to be getting matchmaking experiences which are better than mine .

Yesterday, for the first time ever, I saw: "Teams evenly matched" or something like that. I'd only ever seen one player being favoured over another .

[Nottoway]

I think the difference is very slim, except at the top of platinum since all the hardcore players will innevitably be there. As for the casual player, or the guy who's never played an RTS in his life but just happened to be on vacation during the past week, I think some just get more luck than others in the placement matches.

Rank often doesn't make any sense either. Here's a hypothetical way to get #1 in platinum if you're an average platinum player:
-Pair up with a friend who's also at that skill level
-Lose all of your placement matches
==> copper league
-Grind like crazy with an all-in rush, and you won't lose any games for a long time
-By the time you reach platinum, you won't have lost too many games because of your strat, but you'll have INSANE ELO, since you keep your ELO from one league to another
===> #1 Platinum in 2v2
You just have to watch out not to lose against people from lower leagues, because that will kill your elo very quickly

I haven't tried this at all, but based on what I've seen of the system, I'm sure it would work pretty well.

People abused the WC3 matchmaking in a similar way. They would lose a large handful of matches to lower their ELL (Estimated Level) and then stomp noobs for countless games.

[Nicol Bolas]

Rank often doesn't make any sense either. Here's a hypothetical way to get #1 in platinum if you're an average platinum player:

But it only works once. Placement matches happen once.And you'll lose your #1 ranking soon enough once you're playing your peers/betters.

[GRUNT]

Do you guys think that Blizzard can/will do anything to prevent people from exploiting the system in the way Hammy and Nottoway described?

[Nicol Bolas]

Do you guys think that Blizzard can/will do anything to prevent people from exploiting the system in the way Hammy and Nottoway described?

Yes. You only get to do it once!

[Hammy]

But it only works once. Placement matches happen once.And you'll lose your #1 ranking soon enough once you're playing your peers/betters.

All you need is a new friend every time if you play 2v2 for example, or 3v3 or whatever.
Though, it definitely won't be happening as often as with BW or Wc3