can anyone give a simplified explanation of how the ladder works? i saw the wikipedia page but that's too detailed
i mean picking opponents, how much your rating increases/decreases depending on theirs, maybe why the seasonal ladder has such inflated ratings compared to the regular one etc.

RTFM.
There is no such thing as too detailed when you're asking for details.
http://wiki.warlight.net/index.php/Ladders

When you win it goes up, and when you lose it goes down.

Z-Dog - wrong. If you have much higher rank than your opponent, then even if you win the game, your rank goes down.

1 - Your rank is not guaranteed to go down in such a situation. It may be possible but certainly not guaranteed or even likely.

2 - The ladder game-creation algorithm should minimize the likelihood of this occurring. Generally you will only be paired with players within 200 points of your present rating and as such this scenario shouldn't happen.

Richard - I agree. what i had in mind was that in some cases it unfortunately does happen. Of course it's not guaranteed. As for pairing - with enough games at once, this may happen especially when you enter the ladder for the first time i guess, when your rating rapidly increases with every match (provided you win your few initial ladder games).

PS: in previous post by "rank" i meant "rating" of course..

Have I just been unfortunate in my pairings? I am on a run of 17 games (and counting) playing players ranked below me. 13 of these games the players were ranked more than 200 points below me. I have a 14-3 record on these games and my rank has gone down!

When you win it goes up, and when you lose it goes down.

Slow down with the nouns there, cowboy. Let's not confuse poor vet :(

You play ladder games and then the rating changes. Also it changes when people you played play games.

If you are top of the ladder and you aren't Gui then you cheated.

Yeah, if you do two games at a time, and are remotely decent (not bot great) you're going to get punished it seems.

ie. I joined the ladder a few days ago, I beat my first two opponents, rank 100ish and 80ish, it then gave me someone rank 50ish, no problem so far. Then, while still playing that game it gives me rank 8 - got curbstomped. It then gave me rank 13 - which is also getting me pummeled. I beat the rank 50 opponent before the rank 13 game finished though, so.....at this rate I'll have another top 20 ladder player tossed at me in a few hours who will pummel me as well.

Nauz, that is how it is supposed to be while you are unranked. If you show early promise the ladder overestimates your ability and jacks up your rating. You then face off against top talent and likely falter, thus knocking you back down.

Think of it this way... you start as an unknown quantity so the ladder gives you really low opponents to determine your lower bound. If you are successful, it then gives you really high opponents to determine your upper bound. Now that you are bounded it will steadily hone in on a more accurate ranking for you.

It is for this reason that you don't get a rank and rating until you complete the first 15 games. By that point the ladder should have a decent idea of where you actually belong.

I understand that's the basic idea, but I think it does it to differing extremes for different people. Particularly for people that play less games at a time.

for example:

http://warlight.net/LadderGames?ID=0&LadderTeamID=1846

He's had 1 top 20 ladder player match in 13 matches, and won 6 games straight, I've had 2 top 20 players in my first 6 games.

7 of my 8 latest games have been against top 15 players and i'm rank 30-ish, i really don't get it >.>

its now 20 games in a row against those below me. 15 of these more than 200 points below. Surely only top few of the ladder should have this kind of run??? I can't move up.

i only won 1/7 of those (+the one against the guy below me), i think it MIGHT be because the top players tend to play faster though (most of my games in progress are against lower ranked people)

sumary: your ratign is a calculation made out of the results of the games you win/lose according to the toher player's rating

i was looking for slightly more detail than that =P
how does it pick your opponents? etc.

It makes new games every two hours, matching any players available to play.

LOL, i get your point :P
i guess there isn't anything in between