We decided to make a rankings system based on ELO.
It has both advantages and disadvantages (all ranking systems have that).
We can always experiment with another system in the feature for different gamemodes or for new seasons.
Personally I think the ELO based system works fine like this.
The things you said can be seen downsides yes but it also has a lot of positive things.
You mentioned you lost once and had to play a lot to get back to that rank.
This basically means you’ve reached the rank that matches with you.
If you’re below your rank you’ll gain a lot of rank and climbing will be very easy but the closer you get to the rank you should be the harder it will be to climb obviously.
Regarding the matchmaking you’re matched with other people based on MMR (which isn’t exactly like rank) and the duration you and others have been waiting in the queue.
So if you’re diamond you could be matched with a silver guy if that silver guy has been waiting in the queue for a very long time.
It’s a game and games need to be played! So we find it important that people don’t have to wait too long.
It might result in less perfect matches but at least you get to play more.