Ladder Tournament

A ladder tournament (also known as a game ladder) is a form of tournament for games and sports. It is an extended tournament, which can potentially go on indefinitely. In a ladder tournament, players are listed as if on the rungs of a ladder. The objective for a player is to reach the highest rung of the ladder. A ladder tournament is similar to a pyramid tournament, except that unlike a pyramid tournament, only one player can occupy any given rung and whom a player may challenge is not as tightly restricted as in the pyramid system.

The tournament proceeds via a system of challenges. Any player can challenge a player above him or her on the ladder. If the lower-placed player wins the match, then the two players swap places on the ladder. If the lower-placed player loses, then he or she may not challenge the same person again without challenging someone else first. Usually, there is a limit as to how many rungs above themselves players may challenge. When first setting up a ladder tournament, usual practice is to place the more skilled players at the bottom of the ladder, so that they have to play to work their way up.

Ladder tournaments suffer from two problems, both resulting from the challenge system. The first is that the ranking at the end of the tournament (or after a sufficiently long time) may not necessarily reflect the actual rank of the players, since it is not guaranteed that enough challenges, or the appropriate challenges, have been made to correctly "sort" the ladder. The second is that some players may make challenges more frequently than others, or are challenged more frequently than others, meaning that not all players may be challenged, and that not all players may play the same number of matches.

Ladders are typically used in sports such as squash and badminton. Usually challenges cannot be declined.

Other systems calculate a numeric rank for each player. This removes the limitation on which matches are allowed. The most widely known system of ranking players is the ELO rating system, which is used for Chess and Go. Every player in the ELO rating system receives a rating based on his or her win/loss record, which establishes his or her position (or level) on the game ladder. Numerous efforts have been made to design better game ladders by analyzing the statistical correlation between relative ladder levels and a player's expected performance.

A game ladder may be used as the ranking system itself, in lieu of a ranking system like ELO. In this case, players are moved up and down the ladder according to competitive results, dictated by previously determined rules.

A unique game ladder system is the Masterpoints rating system used for contract bridge by the American Contract Bridge League. The Masterpoints system is noteworthy because, unlike the ELO rating system, it emphasizes participation (i.e., experience in terms of number of games played) over demonstration of skill.