Ladder

You can play ladder games just by pressing Similar Player and waiting for someone else do that as well.

If you win you will earn ladder points. If you lose you will lose some ladder points. You get more points for beating higher ranked people. You lose less points the higher the enemy is rated. So it isn't so bad to lose to someone of a higher rating than you but if you manage to beat them you get a lot of points.

The people with the highest ladder points at the end of the week will win phantoms and the points will be reset for the next week.

All ladder games are against people of a similar skill level so really anyone can win the weekly phantoms.

You must be within 100 points constructed rating of someone for the ladder game to count. If you beat someone of higher rating than you you will gain more ladder points than if you beat someone of a lower rating than you. If you lose to someone of lower rating than you you will lose more ladder points than if you lose to someone of higher rating. Each game you play with the same person in the same week counts for fewer ladder points.

Ladder scores is calculated with the following formula:

(250 + (LoserRating-WinnerRating))/2^(number_of_games_played_with_same_player)

So:

• ladder scores for winning and losing to the same player are different -- a player rated 50 points lower than you may win you 200 points or lose you 300 points (assuming it was the first match);
• each rematch against the same opponent will result in half as many points being won or lost.