RT ladder games are only created at the start of a five minute interval. So even if many players have joined and are waiting for a game, a new game won't be created until the next interval.

Would it be better if the interval were shortened or eliminated? Personally, I'm not sure. Please share your opinion.

Here are some pros and cons.

Pros:
-less wait time for players
-more total ladder games completed per day (higher ladder throughput:)

Cons:
-less opportunity to avoid a player that joins after you
-potentially less people marked as "joined" at any given time, which affects the number displayed on the dashboard, which may cause less people to actually join

I often join the RT ladder than leave because it takes to long. I have limited time to play in real time, so its a pain I have to wait for a free game.

I think your thought on what "joined" means is off. Once you click Join Ladder you are in the ladder until you leave.

And the reason it took forever to find a game is because everyone already had a game (you can check by looking at their profile)

I don't think it would be beneficial, simply because it just puts more stress on the server. running a check every five minutes is fine.

The idea that it would put stress on the server isn't a serious objection. It's probably just a lazy decision by Fizzer. It's just easier to set up a simple cron job than to put in sufficient queuing code to properly handle the logistics of pairing up people by rating and availability.

If the system always pairs people immediately, as they become available, then there would never be a significant pool of people to match up by rating, so overly-simplistic pairing wouldn't work that well.

(Actually, does the RT ladder even bother to match people up by rating? I haven't played it that much. I'm more familiar with the multi-day 1v1 ladder. Edit: Thx for answer, Buns157!)

Edited 1/29/2016 02:48:20

It matches people in order of rating from bottom to top, so yeah you're more likely to play someone with a similar rating as yourself.