THE LADDER SYSTEM
TUTORIAL
- About The Ladder
- Getting Started
- Logging In
- Your User Page
- Scheduling Matches
- Reporting Match Results
- Forfeits / No-Shows
- Scoring
- Bonus
Match Scoring
- Rank Bonus
- Problems
/ Questions?
The
ladder pits players against one another in a spirit of friendly competition and
fun. It ranks players so that those who
win matches generally rise toward the top (the lower-numbered ranks) while those
who lose matches generally fall toward the bottom. Rounds generally last two weeks but differ
from one ladder to the next. Rounds may
be lengthened during busy holidays to provide more time to play the required
matches. Please consult with your ladder
administrator for more information or check your ladder's end date. Match
results are tabulated based on a points system and the new ladder rankings are
calculated on the last day of the round.
Prior to playing on the ladder, you will first need
to contact the ladder administrator. This ladder administrator will help create
an account for you and answer any questions you might still have after reading
through this tutorial. Your ladder admin is usually the Pro for that department
and you can find their email and phone numbers via the website. New accounts
are added at the end or beginning of a round.
When
first logging in, you will be asked for the username you provided and the
password.
Note:
If you have problems logging in, please contact Member Accounts and
they will assist you with any problems you might have.
After
logging in, you will be brought to your user page. A sample of a user page is
shown below with a brief breakdown of the different sections:
1) Current Matches
At the top there is a box listing your current matches. You can click on the names to generate an email, or phone them, to schedule a time to play.
2) End Of
The Round
At the top of the page, you will find the rounds end date. This date will always show when the round ends. Results need to be reported by noon on this date.
3) The Ladder View
The
center of the page holds the current ladder data and shows your current
ranking, points, and match results, as well as everyone else’s. Below is a quick explanation of each of the
columns and the data it shows:
·
Rank - This person’s current rank.
·
Lastrank - This person’s rank last round.
· Score - This persons score/total points compared to other active players on the ladder.
·
Above - This person’s results in the match against their upper
opponent on the ladder.
·
Below - This person’s results in the match against their lower
opponent on the ladder.
·
Bonus - This person’s results in the match against their bonus
opponent on the ladder.
·
Wins - This person’s running total of wins.
·
Losses - This person’s running total of losses.
The
goal of the ladder is to promote active play.
The success and prosperity of the ladder depends on all its members
proactively scheduling and playing their matches. This is the responsibility of all players regardless of their
relative ranking. Matched opponents
should contact one another as soon as possible at the start of a new round to
schedule a time to play. Email is the
preferred method but if the player has provided a valid phone number, consider
this a secondary option. In your invitation please include a general idea of
your availability and preferences for play times.
Note: Should you have problems
contacting a player, please let your ladder admin know as the person may have
gone inactive and need to be moved to an inactive status.
After
a win or loss, results must be reported promptly by clicking on the appropriate
button. Either player may report results, but both
share equal responsibility for ensuring they are reported. All match results must be reported by
If
a player is at fault for the inability to show for a match for any reason –
even illness, injury or other factors beyond the individual’s control – that
player should graciously offer and report a
forfeit. As a general rule, a player
more than ten minutes late may be considered a no-show and a forfeit
awarded. Granting lenience is certainly
encouraged, but accepting or requesting a forfeit should not be considered
ungracious or imposing. To report a win by
forfeit, simply use the Win by Forfeit link where you regularly report match
results.
Matches consist of 2 games to 15 points; tiebreaker if necessary, to 11 points. Each
round consists of 3 matches: an above match, a below match and a potential bonus match.
You cannot play your bonus match until you have played your regular matches and
it will not be shown until you have. When you win a match you score 1.1 points;
relatively, when you lose a match, you lose 1.1 points. At the end of the
round, your score is compared to others on the ladder and you are reranked according to your rank in comparison with all
others on the ladder.
Once you report scores from your regular matches, you will be able to view the drop down menu indicating which players are available for Bonus Matches. Players may play only one Bonus Match per round, regardless of whether they initiated an invitation or responded to one.
Bonus
matches can score you more points than regular matches as you can play people
much higher than you. Bonus points are calculated by subtracting your rank from
your opponents and multiplying that by 0.5 then adding 1. If your rank minus
your opponents rank is <= 1, you will still score 1.1 points.
((Your_rank – opponents_rank) *
0.5) +1
As you can win a lot of
points via this method, you can also lose a lot of points; your loss of points
is equal to your rank minus your opponents rank multiplied by 0.5 plus 1 and
the total divided by 2.
(((Your_rank – opponents_rank) *
0.5) +1)/2
If
you lose and your rank minus your opponents rank is <=0, your loss equals
0.75. And while you can score and lose points from your bonus match, it does
not, however, affect your ‘bonus opponent’ as
they do not win or lose points from your bonus match (also, neither player scores
wins or losses from bonus matches).
Also,
since people in the top ten have a limited number of opponents and don’t really
have an option to make as many additional points in bonus rounds, they are
awarded bonus points equivalent to 11-their rank. So the person at rank 1 gets
an additional 10 points while the person at rank 10 gets an additional 1. This
makes it a bit more balanced for those at the top of the ladder since they either
don’t have the full range of matches or lack opponents for their bonus match.
This also makes climbing the last 10 rungs of the ladder just a bit more slow and a bit easier to hold onto once you are there.
Note: These points do NOT show up
within the scoring in the ladder view but are added in at the end of the round.
Questions,
problems, suggestions, or praise regarding the operation of the ladder may be
directed to the ladder administrator via email.