OGS Ladder Rules

Ladders
1

I’m not making new challenges, but new long games are appearing for me… Can somebody explain me what’s happening?

2

I’m participating in the ladders… are these games mandatory?

1 Like
3

You’re receiving Ladder challenges. You have joined the Site ladders for 19x19, 13x13 and 9x9. Ladders work by letting you challenge players higher up the ladder. If you win the game, you get their ladder position. This also means that others lower in the ladder are able to challenge your position (otherwise you can get a nice high position and never lose it).

So yes, ladder challenges are mandatory if you’ve joined the ladder. You can drop out of the ladder if you don’t want them, because ladders themselves are not mandatory :slight_smile: . Also, you can be challenged for at most three simultaneous games per ladder (and similarly you can only challenge three other players simultaneously).

20 Likes
4

I’ve seen people just cancel ladder challenges though?

Is that not supposed to be possible, or should it count as a loss (for the ladder placement I mean) etc?

1 Like
5

If someone challenges you on the ladder, you can always cancel that challenge (before you make a move), which will result in:

  1. The game not counting toward any ratings changes (i.e, the kyu-dan system).
  2. The challenger immediately taking the spot above you on the ladder (if they have not already moved up higher from some other game).

If the second thing does not happen, then it’s probably a bug that should be reported.

8 Likes
6

From what I have observed, if player A challenges player B and the game times out without a single move, then

  1. The game is annulled.
  2. player B is removed from the ladder.
  3. player A takes player B’s old place in the ladder.
  4. No kyu ratings change.

Is this correct?

2 Likes
7
1 Like
8

Looks correct to me.

3 Likes
9

Yes, except that if player A times out (say they were black and didn’t play) I guess player A is kicked from the ladder and player B remains at the same spot.

But I suppose the point is that the challenging player is not likely to challenge and then time out without playing…

1 Like
10

How can I do if all people I challenge don’t move and nobody challenge me. It’s makes me very frustrated to know some players I can handicap 5 stones get higher positions in ladder and I can hardly move to higher positions.
should i register a low level account to have higher probability to make players accept my challenge or challenge me?

1 Like
11

Welcome to OGS! I’m also on a site ladder and used to get frustrated when other players didn’t move in games. But if a player never moves, you’ll just win the game and take their position on the ladder, although no rating points will be awarded. Since this is the case, making a low-level account may not be the best solution. Keep challenging players above you, and eventually, you’ll advance your ladder position. Good luck and have fun playing!

2 Likes
12

Going higher in the ladder you will meet more active players for sure. And when you select your challenges you can chose active players by checking his profile and quantity of games he is playing in the ladder.

1 Like