Ranked games is a new way of playing with robots where you face someone who has played this board in the past on the same conditions as you. This format allows for flexible play, whether it’s for a few seconds or for several hours or days, making it convenient for anyone with personal commitments and time constraints.
For the past month, we have been conducting a beta season of the new Ranked games. Although a tutorial is available on the platform, players have asked questions about specific situations that we have covered in this article, along with general explanations of how the new Ranked games work.
The game format is the same as before – one hand against one opponent, where ratings go up if you win and down if you lose, or stay the same if you draw. The new Ranked games have Ranks and Subranks – Ranks are from 7 to Ace, and Subranks are Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades. The highest rank is the Ace of Spades, and the lowest starting rank should be the 7 of Clubs. However, the 7 of Diamonds is used as the starting rank instead of the 7 of Clubs, as we have a sentiment for the beer card.
The first 40 games played are placement games, where winning earns more points than usual, and losing does not result in a rating decrease. After placement games, 15 points are gained per win, and 15 points are lost per loss, while a draw results in no change. These points are called IntoBridge Points (IBPs), and 100 IBPs are needed to climb a Rank or Subrank. Losing a rank is a bit different – let’s say you’re the Q of D with 10 IBP, if you lose a board, you need to become Q of C with 95 IBPs according to the above, however, we let you have one more chance retaining your subrank, so you will go down to Q of D with 0 IBPs. If you lose another hand at this point, you will go down to Q of C with 80 IBPs – meaning that you then lose 20 IBPs. The reason being is that to climb up now, you need to win at least 2 hands, not just one.
You can be demoted by a subrank, but never by a rank. Meaning, that you can be the Queen of Hearts and when you lose games, you will become the Queen of Diamonds, then the Queen of Clubs and that’s it, you cannot go down more than the Club subrank, so you will never become a Jack.
Players can be matched with other players who are either up to six Subranks below or above them. Those who reach the top of the leaderboard accumulate IBPs with no upper limit and become the Ace of Spades, with the top 5 players holding that rank. The next 15 players become the Ace of Hearts, followed by the next 80 as the Ace of Diamonds, while everyone else is the Ace of Clubs.
In the past, players would only play placement games, climb up the leaderboard, and then stop playing. With the introduction of decaying, points are lost for inactivity after a week. Decaying may cause a player to lose a Subrank but not a Rank.
After the beta season is over, we will start proper seasons that will last 3 months and then the whole system will be restarted. We will work on creating an Achievements board where you can store your successes from current and previous seasons. Stay tuned!
Now go play some RANKED GAMES!
