Ladder Rung-Up Ranking

Tournamatch comes with three different algorithms for ranking competitors on a ladder. The points and ELO ranking are common and straight-forward to understand. The third algorithm is proprietary to Tournamatch and offers you a unique ranking method. It’s also quite easy to understand. Unlike Points and ELO, a competitor is never penalized for losing a match. At the end of a match, if the winner is ranked lower than the loser, the winner will move up closer in ranking to the person that lost. Checkout these examples below:

The exact number of positions the winner moves up is dependent on the difference between the two rankings, rounded down. So in our second example above, the winner moved up to spot 5 ((3 + 8) / 2 = 5.5, so 5).

The reason we don’t penalize the winner by dropping him in ranking is because we want to encourage play. One of the biggest challenges to hosting your own league is activity. If you get traction and a lot of matches, the last thing you want is for ranked competitors to sit idle to maintain their position (main issue with ELO rating). The only way a competitor can lose his position is by inactivity – somebody else in an unrelated match will leapfrog him.

Similar to ELO, this method has the advantage that the bigger the challenge (competing against a higher player), the bigger the jump up.The main disadvantage to this method is dodging matches. The best solution to dodging matches is to enable blind challenges. Competitors won’t get to see who they play until a challenge is accepted.