Seasonal Ladder

Seasonal Ladder is a kind of ladder which has been announced by Fizzer on 23 November, 2011^[1]. Unlike the other ladders, which are never-ending grinds for top spot, the seasonal ladder will be divided into a 60 days seasons, where each season will use different settings. The first season have started on 9 December, 2011^[2].

Games

Each player that plays in a season will get 20 games ^*, and will never play the same opponent more than once.

On the first day of a season, every player will get 4 games. Every 4 days after that, one more game is added until all players have 15 games. If a player joins the season late or leaves it early, they are not guaranteed to get 15 games. However, the ladder will try to catch them up with the crowd.

Force-finish

In order to ensure a winner can be declared and the rankings can be finalized, all games in a season must end by the ending date, which is exactly 60 days after it began. If a game isn't finished when the season ends, it will be immediately ended by WarLight. The winner will be determined by adding up how many armies each player controls on the map, then adding in each player's income times two.

Rankings

The rankings are determined using the same ELO scale that the existing ladders use, with one small modification. Players who play fewer than 15 games (due to leaving the ladder early or joining late) get a penalty of 40 rating points per game. It’s best to join the season before it starts and stay in it for the whole 60 days to ensure you do not receive a penalty. The penalty exists to ensure players can't game the system by intentionally joining the season late and riding to a high-rank by getting a few lucky games.

Notes

* - some players may get more games, since there are cases where it's not mathematically possible to give everyone exactly the same amount without duplicates. Getting more games is neither an advantage nor disadvantage.