Or we could make the ladder rating system more representational of skill... ah yes, Trueskill would work!

30 gives you the option of playing only 1 game, so it should be possible for us to increase to more than 5 at certain points.

@Fizzer, when you close the polls, will you make public the results? :)

I also don't understand how expiration of games in TS reduces the usage of alts. If anything, I would think it encourages it since expiring games allows you to cycle through your accounts (play one for a while, let games expire from alts, rotate, etc). If they never expire it discourages alts IMO. Sure, you might start over with another account, but then you cannot start over again unless you pay another 30 bucks for a new alt.

@Chris, with expiration on games, if you have a bad run or play poorly (or even just improve as a player) and don't want your bad results to impact your new ladder run you can either wait 3 months or play with a new alt. If there is no expiration, you only have one option - play with an alt.

So it clearly doesn't discourage alts from playing on the ladder and probably encourages them.