With the current rating system, we can easily tell when a server that has been matched up against a much more effective server has turned in an above-average performance – their rating goes up.
Why not reward that? It’d take the sting out of losing a matchup where a server was outclassed in terms of coverage.
Servers that ‘beat the spread’ – they lose the matchup, but have their rating go up anyway – should receive some form of a bonus, tied to the size of the rating jump. What it is could be anything, but it should go to all accounts that meaningfully participated (probably something like ‘anyone who ranked up that week’).
This could be tied into the incoming league system – there could be an achievement track that contributes progress to the season meta, or even amplifies the end-of-season reward.