Thinking about joining a Ladder, Questions from a newbie

I’ve never been on a Ladder for this site. I figure it will be a good way to practice and have matches that feel different.
I’m not sure which ladder to join, or how to go about it once I do. I figure a group ladder is a good place to start, but I’d like outside opinions.

What ladders are good to join as a first timer?
How does play work on a Ladder?
What do you enjoy most about Ladder play?

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For me the appeal is that I get challenges from random people and can challenge players who are outside of the normal range of ranks that I would otherwise be playing with. I stay on the site 13x13 ladder since that’s a fun size that I don’t get a lot of other games on.

I don’t see much point in the group ladders since they all have the same rules as the main ladders, just far fewer players.

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I’d go with main site ladders.
There’s three of them: 9x9, 13x13 and 19x19.
Pick the size you’re interested in.

You challenge players above you.
No handicap, whatever rank (kyu, dan), only correspondence.
You can challenge up to three players and may be challenged up to three times by players below you. So it’s max 6 simultaneous games per ladder.

My personal choice is to challenge players about my strength, since I don’t like to be crushed and don’t like easy wins either. But that’s just my opinion.

I like correspondence games.
I also like the challenge of climbing up the ladder.
What I don’t like is when I reach my best place, because I can’t climb any further and I find frustrating that sort of stall.
But it’s a long way! :smile:
What I did a couple of times was to drop off and start again from the bottom.

I could do that again. :grin:

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@Feijoa and @Lys, thank you for your input!

I think that sounds interesting myself.

Can you tell me what the time controls are for correspondence?

It’s a pity that there are no handicaps, I think that would make for a more interesting ladder/competition.

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Perhaps we could organize a handicap ladder through the forum.

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Ooh! That sounds like fun!! :star_struck:
I’d love to do something like that. How do you think we could get started?

Maybe make the first post a wiki with the current standings and rules, and the players post game invite links on a private thread (including all participants) to challenge someone? Winners update the wiki after a game, or if a challenge is ignored.

That sounds cool!

I’ve never heard of a wiki post, how does that work? Do you mean making an external wiki? What’s a good way to do that?

How about I start a forum games post and see if there’s interest for it?
If there’s at least five people interested I’d be down to make it happen. : >

It’s just a forum post that anyone can edit. You may need a certain trust level to create one, but no worries, even if you can’t you’ll find someone to do it for you (say: me).

Go ahead, I’m in if the rules for time settings are relaxed enough. Like Fischer + 1 day, max 3 days (or more)

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Fischer: Clock starts with 3 days and increments by 1 day per move up to a maximum of 3 days.

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Please alert me if you do something there, since I have generally muted that section.

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