The Underdog is a system introduced in the 1.4.1 patch of the game, it consists of a calculation to the skill level of a team. If a team is significantly lower in skill than the other team in the lobby - the less skilled team will be labeled as "Underdog". Winning a match as the underdog awards the player with achievements and prizes as an incentive.
It is important to note that while being underdog, losing a match does not add to your loss counter while still increasing your matches played counter.
Visual Indicators
When a team is determined in the lobby as an underdog team, a label reading 'Underdog' will appear next to their airship's name in lobby - Easily identifying a team as an underdog. When in a running match, no underdog indicator will appear.
Skill Level Calculation
The calculation of skill level is done by a ranking system based off of the Glicko 2 rating system and modified to fit the game. The ranking system uses MMR(Match-maker ranking) in order to rank each individual player and sums up the result for a collective team MMR. If the teams have more than 20% of difference between their team MMR values, the lower ranked team will be labeled as an underdog.
The MMR calculation is done as the lobby is setting up and does not change interactively after the match start. If changes are made to the teams in an already running match - the underdog status will not change.
It is important to note that AI crewmen have a base MMR of 0. Players who join an already running game mid-match, will not gain underdog related achievements from that particular match - to prevent the exploitation of the system.
Awards
After achieving the related achievements for winning matches as an underdog, the player will be awarded with wearable cosmetics and titles:
Awarded for achieving the first Underdog Win achievement:
Awarded for achieving the second Underdog Win achievement:
Awarded for achieving the third Underdog Win achievement:
Awarded for achieving the fourth Underdog Win achievement:
Awarded for achieving the fifth Underdog Win achievement:
Awarded for achieving the sixth Underdog Win achievement: