Methodology
How this
ladder works
Nobody on this site argues their way up. There is no panel, no editor, no power-scaling essay. There is a rating system from competitive chess, and there are your votes.
- 01
Everyone starts equal
Every character enters at 1500 — no seeding, no editorial hand on the scale. A fan favourite and a background character begin the exact same way.
- 02
Every vote is a match
When you pick a side, the winner takes rating points from the loser. Beat someone far above you and you take a lot. Beat someone below you and you barely move.
- 03
New fighters move fastest
The K-factor — how much a single result can swing a rating — starts high and decays with experience. Newcomers find their level in a few dozen votes; veterans stay stable.
- 04
Matchmaking picks real fights
You are not shown random pairs. The arena favours characters with similar ratings, because a close fight carries far more information than a blowout.
The tiers
Tiers are just bands of rating. They exist so the ladder is readable at a glance — the rating is always the real number.
- STranscendent1750+
- AApex1620+
- BElite1530+
- CContender1450+
- DChallenger1350+
- EFodderbelow 1350
Can the vote be gamed?
Not casually. The pair you see is chosen by the server and handed to you as a signed, single-use, short-lived ballot — so a vote can only be cast for a matchup that was actually served, once, and within a few minutes of seeing it. Rate limiting sits on top. Determined brigading is always possible on a public vote; the K-factor decay is what keeps it from doing lasting damage.