>>537919012
it's point based which tries to be objective, but it's not at all reliable
sometimes you or your opponents (who can objectively be worse or better than you "normally" or on average) have bad days and good days. sometimes you just keep queueing into good or bad matchups. there is no reliable metric and ranked points simply aren't consistent. there are also some absolute dogshit idiot GMs
just focus on having fun and working out kinks in your play one at a time. if your ranking goes down while focusing on one issue that doesn't mean you're getting worse at the game
your gems mean nothing besides playtime and dedication in one type of matchmaking
the most reliable representation of improvement is how few specific situations you find yourself helpless or clueless in, which is a difficult thing to judge
so just like have fun with the game man. fighting games are fun. don't sweat ranked. it's just a more populated quickmatch that tries to give you less lopsided opponents